If it's a maybe on hiring, it's a no
The people you bring in determine the company you become. Only hire people you feel 'hell yes' about. A 'maybe' hire is a cultural and momentum tax that compounds over time.
What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Business
Jun 2019
The people you bring in determine the company you become. Only hire people you feel 'hell yes' about. A 'maybe' hire is a cultural and momentum tax that compounds over time.
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Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Jun 2022The first PM should be an engineer, designer, or analyst already at the company. They understand the founder and team dynamics, are trusted by both, and can assimilate culturally. External PMs with different processes often get rejected by the organization.
Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Jun 2022Don't hire the head of function from competitor companies—instead, identify the best-in-class companies at that function in your space and hire their lieutenants and up-and-coming leaders. Build an org chart, spend time on LinkedIn, and systematically source from proven talent pipelines.
Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Jun 2022One hour on systematic outreach (LinkedIn, process development) during low-mental-energy time, and one hour meeting 1-2 people daily. Over 30 days, this yields 60 conversations and a dramatically better talent pipeline than sporadic hiring efforts.
Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Jun 2022While good engineers are important, the leverage of a good PM is disproportionately higher. One bad product manager can create cascading errors across an entire engineering team, making PM hiring and development one of the highest-leverage decisions a founder makes.
This Week #1: Must reads on growth, what PMs should focus on when joining a new team, and the value of an MBA
Sep 2019Even though you've interviewed someone and done extensive reference checks, you're still a little skeptical, not sure you want to trust them with the keys to the house. This metaphor captures why new team members must earn trust through actions before they can drive change.
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