{"id":23253,"date":"2013-10-01T11:01:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T18:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/?p=23253"},"modified":"2017-10-17T09:54:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T16:54:05","slug":"your-next-hire-vitamin-or-pain-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/your-next-hire-vitamin-or-pain-killer\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Next Hire: Vitamin or Painkiller?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco startup world asks a question to every new business idea,\u00a0Are you a vitamin or a painkiller? <\/em>The common interpretation: does the new business idea address a target market’s inherent problems or potential wants? I’d like to examine the line between need and want<\/em>\u00a0and see how this comparison applies to our next hires.
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Last night I heard multiple representatives from the\u00a0Founder’s Institute<\/a>, the world’s largest early stage accelerator, speak on the details of starting a company. In choosing what to do, Russ Klusas<\/a>‘\u00a0presentation struck a chord.\u00a0Will your work be a vitamin or a painkiller?\u00a0<\/em>He cited Uber as a powerful painkiller i.e. when you just need<\/em>\u00a0that ride home, the markup fee does not matter and the consumer happily pays.\u00a0If that cab isn’t around right now and Uber<\/a> didn’t exist, that consumer would lose time but probably find their way home eventually. Right now, do you want or need<\/em> to be where you are going?<\/p>\n

Painkillers<\/h1>\n

A painkiller is more formally known as “analgesic,” deriving from the Greek “without pain.” Is your business in pain?\u00a0If time is constrained, wants can become needs. Hence in the tech startup world, where the company death rate is estimated at 90%<\/a>, many “painkillers” are needed to carry a company through birth, incubation, growing traction, and stabilizing revenue.<\/p>\n

Guy Hirsch<\/a>, Founder & CEO of Saygent, described this hiring phenomena (addressing multiple company pain points) as the search for a “Hiring Force Multiplier” at a recent Smartup<\/a>:<\/p>\n