Startup hiring takes place against a disproportionately clement backdrop. The business has just raised money or grown to create a new role. Things are looking great. Disproportionately, not solely clement. There will of course be replacement hires. But if you took a daily average of how clement things look for the startup over the course of its life and compared that to the average for the days the startup is hiring. The latter would be significantly higher.
This is critical to acknowledge. As an early stage startup, you can’t predict when or what will be the exact driver of it. But one thing you can guarantee is that at some point in the coming weeks, months, years, something(s) will happen that mean things look very bleak. Something fundamental is missing and requires rebuilding in the product, you lose a key customer, a new competitor, the loss of a key team member. Those are just some of the many many potential drivers.
That’s why the When It Looks Like We’re F*cked test is so important as part of startup hiring. To acknowledge the clement backdrop and the risk that it could contribute to a fairweather hire. To mentally fast forward to imagine that bleak situation. And see whether you can imagine that person having the requisite grit/mettle/steel to unflichingly rise to the challenge as you’ll need them to. Clearly this is a hypothetical exercise. You might be wrong in your assessment. But your odds are only going to be improved by going through this step.