S1 #8 Stripe Hiring Secrets
Key Principles That Helped Stripe Build A Robust Early Engineering Team
If you know me outside of work, you probably know that I am absolutely infatuated with Stripe's recruitment policies. Heck, the name and the mission of my company is practically derived from what John Collison said to Sam Altman, many years ago:
"No batch of ten people will have as big of an influence on the company as those first ten people.”
And this statement became the basis for my mantra, "Nothing is more important to the success of a startup than the first 10 engineers you hire."
So, I figured, I'd give you a Boris-eye perspective on why I think Stripe's recruitment processes for early engineering talent should probably be considered the gold-standard for early stage startups.
Here are a few key takeaways that stood out to me.
1. The Importance of Experience
One of the things I admired most about Stripe was their decision to always hire the best person when starting a new division or a new offshoot of any kind. Of course, this stemmed from the core mantra of "the first 10 people" that I mentioned earlier. Stripe applied this principle to all new departments and made sure that they were well-stocked with experience with these new hired
And, this was not necessarily done with a specific role in mind either! Stripe's hiring was guided by the people being interviewed rather than the roles they were being interviewed for. Part of it was (probably) driven by FOMO - the fear of missing out - but part of it was definitely driven by the fact that you need good people to build a good product. And you hire good people if and when they become available rather than waiting to go after them, until they become a 'need'.
"Hire people, not roles" is how Stripe puts it.
2. Balancing Experienced Leadership with Youthful Innovation.
Strip understood early on the importance of balancing experienced hires with early-career talent. They realized pretty quickly that, while seasoned professionals can help scale quickly while avoiding common pitfalls, the intrepid nature of fresh talent would bring passion and innovative perspectives.
So, they deployed a two-pronged hiring strategy, which can be best summed up in two simple steps:
Step 1: Start with a core team of experienced engineers...
Step 2: Gradually invest in junior talent!
Having the core-team ensures a clear vision, which also acts as a mentorship-by-proxy for the junior talent!
But, arguably the most important lesson I took away from Stripe's early hiring methodology was...
3. "The Sunday Test".
The Sunday Test (variously called the Beer Test or the Airplane Test) is a simple question you ask when evaluating a candidate: "If I had to come in on a Sunday and this person I am interviewing was the ONLY person in the office, would I want to come in?"
The Sunday Test is a test of personality and sociability. Because no employee at any office in the entire world will ever work in a vacuum. They must and will interact with their colleagues, often frequently. So, if an employee doesn't pass the Sunday Test, chances are the employee won't fit into your company culture - no matter what you define your company culture to be.
There are several actionable lessons in the podcast episode for founders looking to build early engineering teams, by the way.
Recruitment Is Like Marketing - Test various "channels" and double, triple-down on the ones that perform the best.
Craft Compelling Outreach Emails - High-quality recruitment emails can make a significant difference.
Mine Your Networks - Just listing the top 50 people you know, helps you as a founder to recognize patterns in the qualities you value.
Hire For Potential - Focus on candidates who exhibit strong problem-solving abilities and an eagerness to learn.
We all know that building an early engineering team is a challenging endeavor. But these lessons from Stripe's journey offer invaluable lessons for startups looking to establish a strong foundation. I'm hoping I can get Greg Brockman or the Collison brothers on the podcast one of these days and hear some of this stuff (and more) directly from them! If you can make that happen - or know someone who can make that happen - put us in touch with them, will ya?
You know where to find us: www.1st10.com - drop us a line! We look forward to hearing from you!
About Us:
1st10 was founded on the simple philosophy that there is nothing more important to the success of your startup than the first ten engineers you hire. Because the first ten will impact the next ten and any wrong misstep can be the difference between success and failure. 1st10 works with visionary founders and exceptional engineers to build world class engineering teams.
1st10 was founded by Boris Epstein, original founder of Binc, the firm best known for pioneering embedded recruiting in Silicon Valley. Binc built early teams for Pinterest, Ripple, Stripe, Square, Airbnb, Reddit, Tesla and many more. Binc was acquired by Robinhood in 2021.