Don't Make These Hiring Mistakes

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the many different mistakes founders make when they approach hiring for their startup and how to grow your team the correct way.
Apply to Y Combinator: www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Work at a startup: www.ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Introduction
00:41 - Challenges in startup hiring
02:15 - Lies about hiring and how it doesn't solve all problems
10:14 - Devil advocate - Big companies will have a lot of employees
12:49 - Specialist can save a company a lot of money
14:28 - Takeaway
16:26 - Instinct to over-hire
17:18 - Founders main causes of burnout
18:50 - Summary

[@dennisagbabuwe5942]

I wait for this every week... Thanks for the knowledge you are dishing out here. I love Y Combinator.

[@justindion4394]

As a fencing coach I see many students try to "save energy" for the next direct elimination bout and then lose because they did not work hard enough. It can be relieving to say that we are through this current issue and we can focus on the next one. However if the problem is not fully addressed it could be catastrophic.

[@toofy7253]

Love it. It took me several years of being a supervisor to understand this. Sooo important

[@Rynofinds]

This is a pretty helpful video and I appreciate it but as someone mentioned earlier in the comments, building an "actual" startup is a different game and relies on so many different factors such as communication, chemistry, being an open-minded founder, etc. I've listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts but once I started my own, it was all different. So keep educating yourself but also make one to explore the challenges.

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:41 - Challenges in startup hiring 02:15 - Lies about hiring and how it doesn't solve all problems 02:27 - More people = More work done 03:12 - A marker of progress 04:08 - Startup founders are good at hiring 05:18 - Founder's unique skill set 06:53 - Need an execs team 08:09 - Hire someone to solve the problem in the future 10:14 - Devil advocate - Big companies will have a lot of employees 11:06 - Airbnb 12:02 - Stripe 12:49 - Twitch - Specialist can save a company a lot of money 13:54 - Hiring is the CEO's most important skill 14:28 - Takeaway 16:26 - Instinct to over-hire 17:18 - Founders main causes of burnout 18:50 - Summary

[@AlexanderLouizosLouizos]

This advice is so aligned to reality and most of us founders aren’t. So just listen openly

[@rikuswiehahn8923]

It's easy to feel insane when ignoring convention and first trying to make something work. Thanks for making these videos ❤️

[@manwahchan7711]

Thanks YC it is very true as a CEO I am doing everything to get the company going on hardware and software. I get the chance to listen to customer's need and complaint. No need HR as I put all on gusto no need for accounting as I have quickbook and parttime. I am watching my spending and revenue carefully. Thanks so much. I am joining your school soon. Looking forward

[@billaddison82]

So much value in these videos, thanks guys!

[@kiranrai546]

Came across this just when I needed, brilliant 🙌

[@gwho]

3:50 uh it makes perfect sense. if you hire more people, you can get stuff done faster, and reach that point of profitability. sometimes there are situations where reaching X is an inflection point where the revenue faucet starts gushing. Take for example, getting the ad feature on FB for the first time.

[@jashmota5054]

Just changed my goals for this week. Going back to building product instead of endlessly interviewing to get cofounders build team. Thanks YC!

[@firstspar]

how is the startup going now a year later?

[@FsimulatorX]

@@firstspar what are you looking to build/building?

[@abdullahal-zandani824]

Very insightful, thank you for sharing!

[@virat5484]

Thanks for sharing 👍 really appreciate 🙏 👍

[@sierra-ai]

Brad said 2 years ago: "I've never had a company say I am failing because I have so much money in the bank." Then about a year later Silicon Valley Bank did fail because they have too much money on deposits (resulting in mis-management of mid and long term investments).

[@StevePatrizi]

What app/software do you use to record your video discussions? Thanks, as always, for the insights!

[@darrylr]

Such good advice.

[@bradmesser4807]

I love some of the teams I join, but found out quickly we weren't a good fit. Sometimes it is just getting them to realize that so we can skip through the song and dance and just move on. Not the easiest, but not everyone can detach and go through the process quickly

[@autumblak]

Thank you.

[@opeyemiaia]

"...That's your job, that's your job, that's your job as well..." OMG! So imparting with a kind of comic relief

[@apidas]

as an engineer myself. I'm baffled the amount of people that get hired without considering discipline, responsibility and general attitude. especially when hiring juniors. when those traits are overlooked you'll get a lazy, lying, vanishing work employee that'd never grow. esp if you can't teach discipline yourself!!

[@ReflectionOcean]

By YouSum Live 00:00:39 Startup hiring challenges discussed. 00:01:00 Advice on hiring during pre-product market fit. 00:02:12 Lies founders tell themselves about hiring. 00:03:37 Hiring specialists when not the primary need. 00:05:54 Importance of founder's unique skill set. 00:17:22 Over-hiring leads to higher burn rate. 00:17:48 Founders reminisce energizing early days. 00:18:00 Overhiring leads to burnout, toxic culture risks. 00:18:39 Avoid toxic hires to prevent hating work. 00:18:51 Post-product market fit: hire freely. Pre-product market fit: cautious. 00:19:08 Don't hire if unsure about product market fit. By YouSum Live

[@patnadis]

This is really an impressive one.

[@kyleschutter]

YC is getting much better at naming with clickbait titles! Got me to click 🤣

[@RayDenis]

This was a missed opportunity to educate the audience about what hires ARE appropriate for pre-PMF companies. I think the point about hiring too much too fast was made in the first 30 seconds.

[@krishnendupal6803]

Just love YC ❤❤❤

[@iternation1749]

Awesome!

[@amit1702]

Thanks guys. Deleting Hirect App right away. 😀

[@stinger4712]

Great vids

[@oriolverdenyvilalta85]

Brilliant

[@WuddupDok]

Fantastic

[@jamesstringerphoto]

It's also good to realise that when you hire a higher level person in a small company, is that typically they see their path as making decisions and hiring others to do the leg work. So you hire someone, and they're non functional until they've hired another 5 people, each with their own title and job swim lane. The other part you also don't realise is that most of the time for these people to be successful they need engineering to build something. It becomes a huge distraction - a new marketing page, a new sales tool integration, a new CS integration. You thought they were going to be successful on their own, but actually they end up needing staff and engineering support that slows your core team down. They also want to be involved in decision making about product direction, because at their level they believe that is their role.

[@rockingbadshah1848]

What are coding languages and things related to coad should known in advance before thinking of tech startups????

[@georgew1857]

How many calories should you eat to lose weight? The answer depends on the situation. Same with your question, no one can answer your question without more specific details.

[@arpitsingh4937]

just wanted to know, is tesla a product market fit?

[@hugomontenegro4374]

These thumbnails crack me up

[@StreamAgency]

Sometimes fires go out on their own. Some people would call that lazy, others would call it wise.

[@clan8068]

What is a legitimate reason for having a fancy title again?

[@andriypashynnyk4278]

* if you post-product-market fit - hire like crazy =) * if you pre-product-market fit - slow down! * in the early days you (founder) are the one to do all this job - slow down! * have high standards with whom you are ready to work - slow down! * you don't know yet how bad you are at managing people - slow down!

[@rubenhakopian]

If you don’t know if your’re post PMF or not, most probably you are not :D

[@StreamAgency]

"If I could just do it with fewer people..." How about we do it right, from the beginning, with one founder.

[@josharcher7263]

Next video: Firing Mistakes

[@neom0nk]

Looks like they sat and read a script, this could have been a blog post?

[@ernestradner156]

📌I don't know who, but someone actually needs to hear this, you've got to stop saving all your money. Venture into investing some, if you really want financial stability.

[@hervenacitas8265]

Lately I’ve been thinking of buying cryptocurrency for retirement, I’ve set asides $350k to invest but along the line,I usually get cold feet, maybe because I have no idea what I’m doing, please I could really use some guidelines.

[@mendozaguorun2374]

In situations like this,I always recommend to people on getting guidance at least from someone that understands price action and all that while you strive on improving yourself by watching videos and learning fundamental analysis.

[@debbiecowdrey1358]

Investment guidance sounds like a great idea,thought about it before but never knew how to go about it.

[@joachimmilberg2313]

@@hervenacitas8265 I started investing in cryptocurrency a little while ago and I’ve come to realize nothing beats first hand experience..Investing with Juan Antonio Landa has been the best experience ever.

[@claireenriquez6126]

Wow.Juan Antonio Landa?

[@WhiskeryTitan05]

I don’t like how Michael laughs at every founder “mistake” or misconception - I understand he is very knowledgeable but these are people’s lives and dreams and they’re not that ill-found of conclusions. Seems disingenuous and a little like “I’m smarter than you” when yes, obviously he is more experienced than everyone watching but that’s why people are listening to this in the first place.

[@rohansood15]

Exactly this. Especially Dalton and Michael almost come across as snobbish, arrogant, and downright nasty with some of these. If this is what happens in the partner lounge then I am not sure I wanna be in YC.

[@danielyap6554]

I think you guys are reading it the wrong way. They openly admit that all of them made similar mistakes and it's amusing to them because of the nostalgia. It's like when you're chilling with your good friend reminiscing about a crazy adventure where you guys did something stupid but it's a great memory. I don't think they are putting down founders as being foolish, in fact they are telling founders that they are not alone when they make these mistakes, and that it's completely natural, although it should be addressed or avoided.

[@romanerrandonea7791]

Hello, I am the CEO of Elexion, an information brokerage platform. We are engaging with people in Silicon Valley to learn about emerging issues in communicating this information to Latin American entrepreneurs! If you are a citizen We would like to know the problems that are occurring. Write us....

[@gwho]

don't let let the woke trojan horse into your company!