To maintain an exceptionally high talent bar while scaling, Coinbase's top two executives personally review a detailed packet for every prospective employee. They retain the right to veto any hire, demonstrating an extreme commitment to talent quality over speed.
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To avoid the trap of hiring 'good enough' people, make the interview panel explicitly state which current employee the candidate surpasses. This forces a concrete comparison and ensures every new hire actively raises the company's overall talent level, preventing a slow, imperceptible decline in quality.
Before hiring for a critical function, founders should do the job themselves, even if they aren't experts. The goal isn't mastery, but to deeply understand the role's challenges. This experience is crucial for setting a high hiring bar and being able to accurately assess if a candidate will truly up-level the team.
Treat hiring as a compounding flywheel. A new employee should not only be a great contributor but also make the company more attractive to future A-players, whether through their network, reputation, or interview presence. This focus on recruiting potential ensures talent density increases over time.
Capital allocation isn't just about multi-million dollar acquisitions. Hiring a single employee is also a major investment; a $100k salary represents a discounted million-dollar commitment over time. Applying the same rigor to hiring decisions as you would to CapEx ensures you're investing your human capital wisely.
Duolingo lives by the mantra, "it's better to have a hole than an a-hole." The company spent 1.5 years searching for a CFO and rejected a candidate who was perfect on paper after discovering he was rude to a driver and a junior employee. This demonstrates a deep, costly commitment to protecting company culture.
To scale from 100 to 1,000+ employees, you must stop interviewing everyone. Success depends entirely on the cultural foundation built with the first 100 people. By personally hiring and imbuing them with the company's core values, you create a group of leaders who can replicate that culture as the organization expands.
To scale hiring efficiently, eliminate ambiguity. Each interviewer must make a definitive 'yes' or 'no' decision. If an interviewer is 'not sure' after their session, they are the problem, not the candidate. This prevents endless interview loops and forces clear, decisive judgment.
Instead of recruiting for a job spec, Cursor identifies exceptional individuals and "swarms" them with team attention. If there's mutual interest, a role is created to fit their talents. This talent-first approach, common in pro sports, prioritizes acquiring top-tier people over filling predefined needs.
