Entrepreneur in Residence

Being a successful founder = eating humble pie everyday

Saw someone commenting on a founder with 5-6 yoe hiring for 8+ yoe employee. As founders you have to be able to hire and work with people smarter and more experienced than you, in domains that aren't even your expertise necessarily. It's a huge gamble for founders and involves many hiring mistakes before getting it right and locking down long term employees interested in working at least 3-5 years with some hope of ESOP exit. Most won't stick around for more than a year or two, and even founders know that very well, hence they offer realistic terms that work for them but might not work for potential employees. The thing about good employees is that they will call you out on anything that needs improvement in the business/product point blank. They have high standards for themselves and founders both. And they bring an outsider's perspective that the core team starts losing over time unless they are involved in customer support actively. And ofc, gotta be respectful towards them if you want them to stay and not leave too soon. But also gotta keep them in check in case they cross lines. Very difficult to balance imo. I can only imagine how AI coworker agents will change the dynamics and team sizes in the next 5-10 years.

The reality of 3 month notice period for hiring

So I am expanding my team and rolled out an offer to a candidate with around 1.5 year of experience. The guy seemed decent and i gave him around 40% hike on his current salary. He told me he could negotiate his notice period down from 3 months to 60 days. I said fine. After he accepted the offer and resigned, he told me the team was not letting him go in 60 days and he would have to serve the complete 90 day notice. I understood his situation and I said fine. Waited for him for 3 months and 15 days before joining he started dodging calls. Told me he had some issues with his phone. I said fine. After 2 weeks, i texted him point blank asking if he is still interested in the job. Now he is saying he is not sure and is confused about joining. So exactly after 3 months, the confusion suddenly happens. I could have had multiple offers rolled out and revoked his offer on last day of joining too, but I do not like to operate that. But seeing such greediness, I would personally not hire any candidate with even 2 months of notice going forward. You wait for candidates to join for 3 months only to be left waiting on the day of joining. Such offer shopping behaviour from candidates is why many good candidates with 3 month notice period who are serious about the offer get ghosted from recruiters. To that candidate, if he is reading this, the analytics industry is very closely knit and you burned many bridges. And to all startup founders, please stay away from 3 month notice period candidates until you have adequate backups in place for such situations. Thanks!

Do watch: Boeing testimony

This company played with our lives by focusing on cost optimization. WTH