I’ve come to believe that the first batch of people you want on your team are going to be T-shaped, meaning they are broad in a bunch of different areas and deep in a particular one.

Watch out for people who are so deep in one area that they seem to be overspecialized – it can be a signal for a lack of interest for pitching in on areas that might be vital for your team, or they may have nothing to do if your startup inevitably changes directions.

It’s very important to hire people who are execution-focused early on.

hire people who have recently had titles as team leads or directors, but nothing more senior.

The other type that you find that’s not execution-oriented is the philosopher type.

they may be more interested in reading blogs and indulging themselves intellectually than really working hard on a team to get a lot of work done.

it’s hard to figure out who a perfect candidate is – it isn’t until you see 10 candidates that you start to hone into what you really want and like.

The ideal interview, imho, is just to interview, then work together for 2 months and do a checkpoint to see if it’s working OK.

startups are really hard, and often take more time than you think they will – as a result, it’s important to understand peoples’ motivations to make sure it’s a good match from the beginning.

How do they see work fitting in their life? Does the style match? (Mornings vs late, hours, etc.)

Mutual goals and motivations – money versus serving a goal versus learning versus others
What stage of startups do they like? Seed, mid, later on? Why?
Long-term goals – create a great lifestyle company, or try to go big?

if you have really smart mercenaries in the team, it may work well for when things are going well, but there’ll be significant issues if there are any hiccups

the ideal scenario is to find people who have a passion for the particular product you’re bringing to market, and then training them to be metrics-oriented, versus taking people who love numbers/data/algos and trying to train them to love a particular product area