Hiring World-Class Product Talent

"The engineering team has grown too large to prioritize and self-coordinate projects; a PM adds efficiency (e.g. multiple Layer 1 protocols and EVM solutions)."

"Now, what is different between hiring a Director of PM vs. an IC PM? I’d say the top three differences are that they will be (1) managing PMs, (2) taking on large scope, and (3) working closely with senior leaders."

"You don’t have many opportunities to break through the noise, and considering the meh’ness of most job postings, putting extra effort into creating a remarkable (i.e. worth remarking about) job posting is a high ROI investment."

"Unsurprisingly, hiring friends and former colleagues was by far the biggest channel. This also in part explains why multi-time founders, and anyone with a large network (e.g. Y Combinator), have an advantage:"

"Initially all of us three founders ran the recruiting process, and while it worked for a little while, it wasn’t something we were necessarily particularly good at or passionate about. We cared about hiring the best people, not about the first person who came knocking at our door. Also, we didn’t really have the tools or the time to reach outside our own networks, so we needed help to expand outside the inbound applicant pool."

"When you take a look at resumes of PMs, a lot of them prioritize helping other people and finding alignment. I believe this becomes less important with the advent of AI. So you don’t necessarily need skills around managing processes or leading people as much."

"Many early-stage teams underestimate how many candidates they need to speak to to make one hire. In our data we also saw that only 13% of inbound applicants even make it to the first screen."

"If you need to sell someone really really (like, really really) hard to join you, they are probably not the right fit. The best teammates are the ones begging their managers to work on your project."

"My advice is that it’s time to hire your first product manager when all three of the following are met: You’ve achieved product/market fit and need to scale; Your engineering team is greater than seven people; You are mentally ready to let someone else control the roadmap at some level."

"The typical company waited two to three years to hire their first product manager. They typically had 10 to 15 engineers and 15 to 25 total employees."

"Surprisingly, more than half of companies hired their first PM before finding product-market fit, which is counter to the advice you hear. Particularly in B2B."

"If you don’t want to hire a PM yet, the question becomes whether you have the right combination of people to fill these roles. Specifically, are the people good at these jobs, and do they want to do these jobs? If so, great! If not, you’re better off hiring a full-time PM."

"Based on this small sampling, the first PM is generally hired as the 15th - 100th employee, and 2 - 4 years after founding. Note, this doesn’t mean this is the optimal time to hire your first PM — just that that is when these companies chose to do so."

"If you’re a founder trying to attract top talent, this data reveals that focusing solely on equity might not be enough. A stronger salary offer paired with meaningful equity can strike the right balance."

"Job level also strongly influences equity preference, with senior executives and founders showing a higher preference for equity compared with people managers and ICs. In fact, for each increase in seniority level (from IC to people manager to executive), the likelihood of prioritizing equity over salary increases by a factor of 2.0."

"I’ve consistently seen a divide between startups that are hiring world-class people month after month and those that struggle for many months to fill a single role. Don’t get me wrong, hiring great people is always hard no matter how skilled you are. It’s arguably the hardest part of building a startup. But some founders have a distinct ability to build a gravity around their startup that repeatedly pulls in top-notch talent."

"“Articulating a crystal clear and ambitious vision makes it easy for candidates to visualize what they are building towards for the next five years.”"

"“We see the actual offer stage as a big place you can stand out. We do a Zoom to surprise the candidate with everyone from their interview panel to share why they’re excited about the candidate potentially joining.”"

"“The best talent wants to work with the best talent. Find great people from the beginning. Never lower your recruiting bar to hire someone because they can fill a short-term need. It will be very tempting to bring someone on if they are in front of you and ready to go, but it will have longer-term negative consequences if they are not the right person.”"