Hiring for startups

The most important thing is to come across as a real company. This will benefit you beyond hiring, as well. It's all about the presentation. If you don't have a dedicated number, then spend the few bucks a month to get something that forwards. If you don't have an identity (business cards, logo, etc,), then get one. If you don't have offices, find a rent-for-an-hour facility place you can use. These will only cost a few hundred bucks... and if you can't spend that, then you're not ready to hire an employee.

The next most important thing is to be prepared to talk about your vision and personal experience. Expect to be interviewed and, if not, make sure to give your speil, Talk about clients, marketing plan, product plan, and so on. This will give your candidate confidence that you know what your doing.

A line that might help to asuage the whole "uncertainly" thing (whether they bring it up or not):

Years ago, I would have been pretty reluctant to leave stable Corporate America and work at a potentially unstable start-up company... but in these times, with massive layoffs, it's hard to say who's more stable anymore!

Kabir, As Alex mentioned be prepared to share your vision. Back it up with a solid business plan. Do you have a pipedream or a legitimate opportunity for a business? Tell the truth (Unfortunately, truth is defined differently, by different people) and put all cards on the table. You can attract the best talent who will be willing to take the chance with you if they beleive in you and your concept. To echo Jim Collins, "Get the right people on the bus." Sounds like that is what your trying to do. Good luck. Shawn

Realistically, the people who are going to want to work for you are people with a somewhat higher risk threshold. That's a good thing, because you need them to be comfortable with the fairly risky proposition your company represents. Be direct with them in terms of where you are as a company and what you're trying to achieve. While your presentation should, of course, be professional, definitely do not try to pass yourself or your business off as something it is not.

Of course, in order to provide some return for the risk your employees are taking, part of your compensation structure will involve equity participation in your business (usually through options). If you're not sure how or why you should do that, ask here or find an advisor who can help. Not only do startup employees want to share in the upside rewards with the founder in the event of success, but for your part, equity incentives help keep your employees' interests squarely in tune with those of your company.

Finally, as I've discussed elsewhere, make sure that personal integrity is the number one characteristic you are looking for in a candidate.

Good luck!

Scott

The reality is that for most startups, especially at the very early stages, hiring has to be done almost exclusively through referrals.

Referrals are generally the best way to hire no matter what, but as a company grows the referral pool tends to try up and other sources are needed. But in the beginning, referrals rule. They increase the level of trust and generally will come from a peer group that's going to relate to the work you're doing / be interested.

As an aside, when hiring (whether in a startup or not), I would recommend putting people through a very rigorous process that involves several interviews, over a few days time potentially, testing them (no matter what the position), and if possible, getting them in on a trial (even for a day) to see how they operate in the environment, with the team.