It’s never a bad time to SmartUp, or think about hiring. This month’s topic was “The War for Startup Talent.” In Silicon Valley there’s a new businesses popping up every second, and they’re all vying for Top Talent.
Our fearless leader, Jerome Ternynck led the panel in a series of startup questions that focused on finding the right talent to scale your startup. Who knows the challenges of creating a team better than startup founders themselves? The Smartup panel consisted of Saygent Founder & CEO Guy Hirsh, Reppify CEO Chirag Nangia, Stagedom Founder & CEO Shahar Nechmad, Fractal Sciences Founder & CEO Shaun Porcar, LocBox Founder & CEO Saumil Mehta , and Wowzer Co- Founder and VP of Business Development Imo Udom. Our goal and their’s was simple, uncover the secrets of how to recruit, retain, and grow your startup into an amazing team
The question session began with Ternynck explaining, “No matter how big or how small- a company’s most valuable asset is their people.” So the question begs… How do you get them?
1. What do you hire for? Skills or Fit?
@GuyHirsch says its best to hire people that are perfecting your business in the interview. #smartup #startuptalent
— Alicia Garibaldi (@albagaribaldi) August 15, 2013
Hire for the purpose: Why are you here? Answer must be to execute the mission. I.e. To create zero unemployment #smartup @smartrecruiters
— Sandy Jones-Kaminski (@sandyjk) August 15, 2013
“You’re looking for someone to create something out of nothing.” @GuyHirsch on #recruiting #smartup
— Jocelyn Aucoin (@misslujo) August 15, 2013
2. Why do people join startups?
What I remember from @imoudom: Startup people should have an ingrained drive for changing for the better. #SmartUp
— Roeland Delrue (@roelanddelrue) August 15, 2013
@SmartRecruiters Passion
— Jon Sharp (@jrsharp) August 15, 2013
@SmartRecruiters Chance to be part of something that could be huge! — Glen Loveland (@Glenderful) August 15, 2013
3. How do you find candidates?
“You need to think, ‘Recruiting is marketing.’ You are marketing your company,” says @GuyHirsch. Heard it before, agree again. #smartup — David Smooke (@DavidSmooke) August 15, 2013
How do you find your startup talent? “Get out and meet them.” #smartup — Josh Levine (@akajoshlevine) August 15, 2013
“Sometimes you gotta sniff around a coworking space or an accelerator,” @nechmads. That’s a super smart way to do it. #SmartUp — Lexie Forman Ortiz (@LexieFO) August 15, 2013
4. How many candidates do you see per hire?
“To hire 8 developers we did 200-300 phone screens and 2,000 cold emails,” says @saumil. #smartup #recruiting #salespipeline — David Smooke (@DavidSmooke) August 15, 2013
A few more really’s and you’re there! RT @akajoshlevine: “The candidate experience really, really, really matters.” #smartup
— Alli Polin (@AlliPolin) August 15, 2013
5. Tell us about a time when you lost a great candidate? Why / how did it happen?
“If it takes 10 days to get back to a candidate, it is too late,” says @jerometernynck. #recruiting #smartup-ing
— SmartRecruiters (@SmartRecruiters) August 15, 2013
One thing all the founders agreed is on, is that not everyone is right for your business, in order to scale and create a great company culture you need to hire the right team. Depending on where your business is you need to appropriately prioritize who you hire; some days you’ll need to hire purely for skill, and other days you’ll need someone to complete the culture.
Hiring is about seeing what the company needs to execute the next step. Identifying the right person is essential to the success of your business on every level.
Catch up on everything SmartUp’ers said. And join the meetup group so you don’t miss the next event!
