Hiring “Builders” [Archive.org URL]

At the core of the hiring criteria for our venture capital firm, and what we see at top tech companies, is of course things like (a) acumen and talent, (b) relevant experience, (c) culture fit and often (d) domain expertise. But if you’re a rapidly growing (or hope to be) tech company or VC firm, there’s a missing element in that list. A lot of candidates who check all of the above boxes come from larger, big brand platforms where they worked in or managed an impressive operation, but they never had to build it. The good thing is, these people know what success should look like. The risk is they don’t know how to get there.

The “builder” is someone who doesn’t want to just inherit greatness, they have a drive to be part of the core team that built the company’s greatness. A builder could be someone in the early years of a startup, or someone who takes a larger company in a bold new direction, or even someone who tries to turnaround a company. A builder isn’t deterred by the hard work, the unreturned phone calls, the up’s and down’s that come from the entrepreneurial path. They share a vision of what the future, leadership company could look like that will sustain them through the inevitable hardships along the way.

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