6 Posts found for Author: Marco Zappacosta

Too often HR or legal policies solve for the exception — but then you force everyone to operate in a worse environment simply because someday there could be a bad actor who does a bad thing. I’d much rather solve for the 99%.

Content: Quotation | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Legal, Management

When you’re hiring a role, you make your list of what you want this person to be great at, and your list is 12 items long. What happens is you end up hiring for lack of weakness rather than exceptional strength in any one area — that leads to a mediocre outcome. Push yourself to define the role in terms of three specific key attributes … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Hiring, Human Resources

The cultural attributes and values of an organization are really a reflection of who joins early on — the shared values that bring the early team together. Building the culture starts with who you hire, and it’s nothing more than that. It’s a mistake to be too explicit about the culture and values upfront in the earliest days of a startup. You don’t know yet … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Culture, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

It’s useful to recognize the ways in which you’re not a special flower. In the early days, you think you and your company are special in every way, and then over time, you realize there’s a lot of stuff that everybody goes through.

Content: Quotation | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

How many times have you seen a [job description] that defines the position by listing a dozen different skills? Don’t describe the entire position in exquisite form, even though all those skills may be useful. That laundry list of requirements won’t exist in a human. Invariably you end up with someone who’s mediocre at all of them, but not exceptional at the ones at which … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Human Resources

For the first-time and early-stage founder out there, it can be daunting to recruit and hire executives — especially when you don’t have enough knowledge to test them for skill in their area of expertise. In this exclusive interview, Marco Zappacosta shares his four-step process for identifying and vetting his leadership team. From job descriptions to interview questions to references, Zappacosta shares his approach to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Marco Zappacosta | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources