[ryan90]

Speaking from experienced (startup that's made 3 hires, going on our 4th), is you have to find "culture fits". People who share your appetite for work, who want to be a part of the vision, and that you can stand spending a lot of time with. We'll never win the perk war, but we are the only company just like us, and look very hard for the people who will get along with us.

[VexXtreme]

I think you'll find that most people will "get along" with you just fine if you're a decent person, pay well and don't ask them to sacrifice a too big portion of their life. If they're competent and willing to work hard, everything else is noise and bullshit.

[ryan90]

Yes working hard and competent is the bulk of it. But we've met people like that we simply wouldn't bond with. Culture fit is hugely important, and if you hire a cultural misfit, it's much more difficult to fire them.

[VexXtreme]

Since the concept of "culture" is so vague and no one using it seems to be able to describe what exact set of criteria it represents, it appears to be whatever a hiring manager wants it to be. If you don't like someone's skin color, religion, cultural background, the fact that they don't like drinking or going to team-building trips every weekend, or you just don't like the color of their shirt, it's easy to reject them on the grounds of not being a "culture fit". Who cares about their professional skillset when you're obviously looking for a paid buddy.

Curb your hubris and start treating people like human beings. I've worked for a number of "world changing" startups managed by 20-something year olds like you and the fact that it always devolved into a high school popularity contest made me sick to my stomach.

[woah]

I hope that their "appetite for work" matches your appetite for giving out equity. If not, you've just hired a bunch of people with bad judgement and no social life.

[ryan90]

We're pretty generous with equity.

Nobody works themselves to death, but we all push ourselves to get as much done as possible. If you want to be a founder, or early stage employee, you're going to have to work harder than the average 9-5er.

[woah]

Totally. Sounds respectable then. I just think that founders need to be very clear that the work vs reward relationship is going to be very different for them vs their employees, unless the employees have very significant equity approaching cofounder levels.