Playbook / Lessons / Team and numbers
StartupsHire executives before things break
Gil argues that when a company reaches strong product-market fit, much of the breakage that follows can be avoided by hiring key executives early. He estimates that a search can take four to six months before the hire is productive, and says executives create bandwidth by recruiting for their function, planning ahead and managing people. He adds that many founders wait for scale before hiring them, which he sees as inverted.
“Executives exist to help you scale and run the company, not the other way around.”— Elad Gil, Hiring Executives & Bad Advice, Feb 2021
Do this
This week, list the functions you run yourself that will soon outgrow you and talk to candidates for the first one.