- When hiring for a startup, look for flexibility of ideas, as there is no set roadmap at the beginning.
- Trust is crucial in hiring, as it allows for independence and reduces the need for constant supervision.
- A multidisciplinary skill set is important in the early stages, as employees will need to handle various tasks.
- Avoid hiring deep experts in a specific field, as it may limit the company's ability to adapt and change.

Pebble Watch founder and Y Combinator partner Eric Migicovsky on shares advice on qualities to  look for when hiring for your startup

Eric is a Partner at YC. He was the founder and CEO of Pebble.

https://twitter.com/ericmigi

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

The first question I'm going to tackle is, what are the qualities that you should look for when you're hiring for your startup?

I have a bit of experience doing hiring from the company that I ran before, pebble, as well as helping a bunch of founders hire their first employees.

It really depends on the stage that you're at.

There's different things that I think founders and CEOs should look for in recruits.

When you're just starting out, the biggest skill set or topic area that you should look for is flexibility of ideas.

When you're starting a company there's no roadmap.

You're not following a set roadmap for what you're going to do.

You will inevitably change your idea, modify things, and eventually find a product or a service that hits product market fit.

But at the beginning, the quality that you'll look for from your employees and really co-founders at that stage is do they think creatively?

Are they willing to consider different ideas or different paths?

And will they attack the startup more like a problem solving mission rather than just clocking in and clocking out?

The second biggest quality that I think actually would help at pretty much all stages of your company is trust.

Trust is probably 1 of the most important things that I look for.

At the beginning, I had some pretty shitty experiences hiring people that I didn't trust.

In particular, it was contractors and really people who weren't in my kind of, people that I hadn't worked with before.

The best people that I hired were friends and fellow students from the university that I went to, people that I had worked on school projects with, that I worked at companies with, that I already had built up a personal connection and personal relationship with.

And What I realized looking back was I trusted these people I had worked on school projects with them I worked at companies with them.

I knew their working style And when we sat down and hashed out a problem, I trusted them to be able to come up with a solution independently.

It meant that I didn't have to constantly think, is that person gonna solve this in the way that I would have or are they gonna solve it at all?

I just had this level of trust that they were gonna figure it out.

And at pretty much every stage of working on your company, you need to have that level of trust.

Because if you don't, you're going to end up having to do the work yourself.

So the third quality that I look for, especially in the early stage, is a multidisciplinary skill set.

When you're working at a company, there are a multitude of different things that you as a founder or an early employee will need to do on practically a daily basis.

Design products, debug issues, talk to customers, work with other team members, work with partners, work with external partners.

And at the beginning and at the early stages, it's rare to see an employee who can act or work only in 1 aspect of the business.

So the best people that I've hired really were able to display skills across the board, usually in 1 technical domain, and then also in the softer side of the business as well.

On the technical side, I would not optimize for hiring necessarily deep experts in the field because at the beginning you may actually change and adjust and chart a new course for your product and having a heavily kind of focused skill set on your team might actually be a long-term penalty for kind of constraining your constraining your development to a particular area.

So in conclusion the top 3 qualities that I look for in an early stage hire is trust.

Are they flexible with respect to their creativity?

And do they have a multidisciplinary skill set?


Speaker 0: My name is Eric Mijakovsky. I'm a partner here at Y Combinator. The first question I'm going to tackle is, what are the qualities that you should look for when you're hiring for your startup? I have a bit of experience doing hiring from the company that I ran before, pebble, as well as helping a bunch of founders hire their first employees. It really depends on the stage that you're at.

There's different things that I think founders and CEOs should look for in recruits. So let's start at the early stage. When you're just starting out, the biggest skill set or topic area that you should look for is flexibility of ideas. When you're starting a company there's no roadmap. You're not following a set roadmap for what you're going to do.

You will inevitably change your idea, modify things, and eventually find a product or a service that hits product market fit. But at the beginning, the quality that you'll look for from your employees and really co-founders at that stage is do they think creatively? Do they think flexibly? Are they willing to consider different ideas or different paths? And will they attack the startup more like a problem solving mission rather than just clocking in and clocking out?

The second biggest quality that I think actually would help at pretty much all stages of your company is trust. Trust is probably 1 of the most important things that I look for. At the beginning, I had some pretty shitty experiences hiring people that I didn't trust. In particular, it was contractors and really people who weren't in my kind of, people that I hadn't worked with before. The best people that I hired were friends and fellow students from the university that I went to, people that I had worked on school projects with, that I worked at companies with, that I already had built up a personal connection and personal relationship with.

And What I realized looking back was I trusted these people I had worked on school projects with them I worked at companies with them. I knew their working style And when we sat down and hashed out a problem, I trusted them to be able to come up with a solution independently. It meant that I didn't have to constantly think, is that person gonna solve this in the way that I would have or are they gonna solve it at all? I just had this level of trust that they were gonna figure it out. And at pretty much every stage of working on your company, you need to have that level of trust.

Because if you don't, you're going to end up having to do the work yourself. So the third quality that I look for, especially in the early stage, is a multidisciplinary skill set. When you're working at a company, there are a multitude of different things that you as a founder or an early employee will need to do on practically a daily basis. Design products, debug issues, talk to customers, work with other team members, work with partners, work with external partners. And at the beginning and at the early stages, it's rare to see an employee who can act or work only in 1 aspect of the business.

So the best people that I've hired really were able to display skills across the board, usually in 1 technical domain, and then also in the softer side of the business as well. On the technical side, I would not optimize for hiring necessarily deep experts in the field because at the beginning you may actually change and adjust and chart a new course for your product and having a heavily kind of focused skill set on your team might actually be a long-term penalty for kind of constraining your constraining your development to a particular area. So in conclusion the top 3 qualities that I look for in an early stage hire is trust. Do I trust the person? Are they flexible with respect to their creativity?

And do they have a multidisciplinary skill set? You

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Hiring Tips from Pebble Watch Founder Eric Migicovsky