After going $0 -> $500k ARR during Y Combinator, I scaled Origami from 2 to 10 people in 60 days. Here’s everything I learned about hiring (and firing) so you don't make the same mistakes as me:
From January to March we received over 2000 applications, collectively interviewed 250 candidates, and conducted ~20 work trials in SF (ranging 2 to 5 days).
Looking back, there's a lot I’d do differently. What I wish I knew:
1) The number one rule: When you mess up hiring, you f*ck up people's lives.
We had a few situations where we hired the wrong people. People moved, left their jobs, etc. When you realize it’s not gonna work with someone that’s 100% dedicated, you’ll probably regret starting a company. What this means is you should invest as much time as possible in running an A+ hiring process so you don’t end up in this situation.
I’ve had other founders tell me they plan to hire fast then ‘fire fast’. I don’t know how this philosophy became mainstream, but this is worse than having no plan. Planning to ‘fire fast’ means you plan on running a sloppy hiring process and wasting everyone’s time.
2) Radical transparency (maybe controversial).
Pretty often, you can tell just a few minutes into an interview that you’re not going to hire that person. This is pretty unconventional, but we would often reject candidates halfway through the interview if we knew for sure they weren’t a fit.
Some appreciated it, others did not. We got cooked on Twitter/X a few times for this, but I don’t regret it. I think it saved everyone time, and those that were curious got real feedback.
Feelings are going to get hurt either way, may as well be honest.
3) How to run a 10/10 work trial.
Every work trial, you should write out EXACTLY what the applicant is being evaluated on. Before even flying them out, show them this entire writeup and make sure you are 100% aligned. Your hiring process shouldn't be a guessing game, but instead both parties trying to see if there's a fit.
4) The best people we hired.
Sometimes during an interview, you can just see the fire in their eyes and it's apparent in the first minute. The desire to build, learn, and do whatever it takes to win. These people are exceptionally rare, and don't stop looking until you find them.
I will take 10/10 work ethic and ambition over knowledge, experience, or prestige any day. Fun fact: everyone at our company went to public university besides me and my cofounder.
5) Process > everything.
If you do not have a process going into hiring, you will fold. Every time we made a mistake or something worked well, we recorded that into our process that kept improving.
I actually created a breakdown of our entire process step by step from screening to creating the offer, based on everything we learned. If you want me to send it you, comment 'GUIDE' below.
and if you want the Research Agents that found us the customers to go $0 -> $500k talk to our team: https://lnkd.in/eE2u-SJP
