For years, speed was everything in startup hiring. Move fast, hire fast, build fast — that was the M.O. The quicker you could fill seats, the quicker you could get your product out, win customers, and establish market leadership, even if that meant hiring imperfectly or learning through turnover.
But that playbook is changing. With AI amplifying productivity and automating entire workflows, startups today are hiring fewer people. Which means every single hire matters more than ever before. One exceptional executive or product lead can supercharge a company’s momentum. One bad hire can stall it. Each new leader now has an outsized impact on what gets built, how decisions are made, and how the culture evolves.
In this new era, a startup CEO still wears many hats — engineer, product visionary, head of sales, chief fundraiser. But no role is more important than hiring. Today’s great founders are, first and foremost, great CRROs, or chief recruitment and retention officers.
I’ve spent more than a decade helping startups recruit world-class talent and executives, and I recently joined GV as a talent partner. Over the years, I’ve seen that great hiring follows a few non-obvious principles. The CEOs who understand them don’t just build strong teams — they create the ultimate unfair advantage.
1. Reverse engineer your talent strategy
The best CEOs don’t wait until a role is open to start recruiting. They’re constantly building networks of great people — future candidates, knowledgeable advisors, or, more broadly, just people whose work inspires them.
At GV, we advise CEOs to think ahead and work backward: What roles will you need in two years that don’t exist today? For example, if you know you’ll eventually evolve from a single-product company to a multi-product one, and that your current head of product might not scale to CPO, start having conversations now with people who could potentially lead that next phase.
This reverse-engineering talent strategy starts with a clear view of what “great” looks like in a given role. For a CMO, is the emphasis on product marketing, brand building, comms, or growth? No one is world-class at all of them. Scoping this upfront and nurturing relationships early can shave weeks or months off the hiring process later.
Building authentic connections before you’re actually hiring also allows your startup to punch above its weight. Boards and investors can be invaluable connectors here. For example, in 2024, Guillermo Rauch, CEO of AI coding startup Vercel, was introduced by a board member to Jeanne DeWitt, then chief business officer at Stripe. DeWitt began as an advisor, then earlier this year joined Vercel full time as COO, a move Rauch credits as transformational.
2. Hire for attributes, not resumes
Most startups can’t recruit the superstar executives who’ve already helped tech giants scale or who’ve taken two companies public. But they can hire the person who will go on to do those things.
That person will likely be a bit earlier in their career, but have some key underlying attributes. Every role has at least three or four. Some — like curiosity, adaptability, open-mindedness — are universally important for startup success. Others are specific to a role or to your company. A consumer startup might need a marketing leader who’s creative and experimental. A deep-tech company might need one who can translate complex technology into a clear and compelling story.
Experience still counts, of course. But it’s not everything. Past logos don’t guarantee future success and not everyone who’s worked at a rocket ship helped build the rocket. The harder and more important work is evaluating the intangibles. When assessing candidates, don’t rely on instinct alone. Look for clear examples of how they embody the attributes that matter most to your team.
3. Prioritize emotional intelligence
No matter the role or the company, emotional intelligence (EQ) is a significant predictor of success. It’s both a measure of how self-aware a person is and how they respond to the steady stream of stressful situations that are part of startup life. EQ is the difference between someone who creates alignment and someone who creates friction.
Emotionally intelligent leaders can admit when they’re wrong, resolve disagreements respectfully, and build trust across functions. They give credit, take feedback, and bring others along. They’re not just focused on earning accolades from company leaders and the board, but on winning the hearts and minds of direct reports.
Why does this matter? Because EQ fuels the kind of culture that can move fast without breaking. Teams led by emotionally intelligent people work harder, collaborate better, and stay longer because they believe in the mission and each other.
When interviewing, it’s helpful to ask for specific examples, such as:
- “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager. How did you handle it? What was the outcome”
- “What’s a piece of feedback that changed how you lead?”
You’re not looking for cultural fit — that leads to sameness. I like to think of it as a cultural addition: People who enhance what you already have and make the company stronger. For example, if your early team is full of visionary builders, your next hire might be someone who brings process, structure, and discipline to help scale what’s already working. If your team is deeply analytical but light on storytelling, you might hire someone who brings empathy and narrative instincts. When you hire people who respect and value differences, your company won’t succeed in spite of its diversity, but because of it.
4. Start building relationships from Day One
At high-growth startups, interviews are often a blur. A meeting pops up on your calendar, you race to skim the résumé, and default to: “Walk me through your background.”
That’s a missed opportunity. Backgrounds matter, but what you really need to understand is who a candidate is — what motivates them, how they spend their time, where they’re from, what they care about. These conversations reveal how they’ll connect with your team and what kind of impact they’ll have. Teams of brilliant people who don’t connect don’t tend to last long.
Knowing your people on a human level also makes tough conversations easier and more productive. Empathy builds trust and is the most effective way to resolve conflicts and move forward.
The best CEOs know that these kinds of bonds aren’t built overnight. They see every interaction is a signal: “This is how we work. This is how we treat each other.” They start communicating culture on day zero, during the hiring process.
Great hiring isn’t a reactive process. It’s a mindset focused on building relationships long before you need them, thinking beyond resumes, and strengthening your culture with every hire. Do it right, because in the end, your biggest advantage won’t be your technology, your timing, or even your capital. It will be your team.