employees, hiring, networking, contractsI’m not just talking about hiring an employee, I’m talking about recruiting people for any type of professional relationship with your company. And I’m not just talking about a “formal” interview – because when you’re starting a company, every interaction you have with someone who could possibly end up having a relationship to your company, even if it’s just a chat and a coffee is an interview.
The list of people this could include is almost unlimited, but commonly it’s lawyers, accountants, angels, VCs, even suppliers.
Being able to identify these red flags would help to better read people’s potential in the often time constrained context of face to face meetings, where it’s crucial to evaluate someone’s approach to your company so you can decide if it’s something that works.
It’s been said many times that people are a company’s most important asset, and I think this is even more true for startups when the culture and direction are being shaped and each individual employee, by definition of being that much larger part of a smaller team, can have a bigger individual contribution to that.
So, what red flags to look for when interviewing people for any type of relationship with your company?
Well now that is a very hard thing. Some people seem to be innately good determine peoples character with minimal interaction but most people require significant interaction. What you are networking for has some significant differences; for example are you recruiting a sales person: then being able to talk a lot but not actually knowing that much might not be a downside. For general networking the possible red-flags have to be quite generic. The ones I would suggest almost all boil down to honesty.
Only universal red flag to me are people that intentionally provide false information; oddly, some people based on my experience fail to see this as a red flag.
Beyond that, the list to me gets a bit long, and more importantly subjective.
As such, I would say the rule of thumb is that you listen to what your gut tells you to do.
Besides lies, the biggest red flag imho is whether they focus on you or them. A bad gut feeling frequently is an excellent proxy for that, and getting one should immediately give you pause.
The people you don’t want to be working with are those who put their interests up-front and mostly worry about themselves. Here’s a rather undesirable freelance web developer:
“Hi, I develop web apps using Ruby on Rails, and I excel at Agile and test-driven development.
“I’d like to give your specs a short round of discussion, as I’m not entirely sure I understand these couple of points.
“I’ll then be able to send you a proposal.”
… Whether the project makes any sense at all to begin with, or whether the technology and development techniques matter, are left entirely to the client as an exercise. This freelance’s portfolio will, more often than not, be a graveyard of failed projects with negative ROIs.
The people who you do want to be working with are those who behave like they’re the custodians of your budget; they have your best interest in mind at all times. Here’s a rather desirable freelance:
“Hi, I help clients cut costs and increase revenue by automating their web-based activities.
“I’d like to give your specs a short round of discussions, because a few items in your feature list stroke me as peculiar. Would you mind clarifying what your precise goals are, and what yardstick you’ll have in mind when you decide whether this project was successful in a year from now?
“Knowing this, we’ll be able to prioritize your feature list together, and identify which items within it reap the most bang for the buck. I might also have a few more potential suggestions to that list in order to maximize your chance of success.
“Knowing these goals, success indicators, and prioritized list of features, I’ll then be able to quote two or three proposals which make good financial sense for you.”
Notice how the client’s best interests are absolutely all over the place here. The freelance understands the client is in it for a positive ROI, and they’re both in it to maximize it.
It works both ways, by the way: when you interact with a VC, make sure the VC’s interests (and your clients’) are left right and center.
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