Essay · Short read

How to Hire

Sam Altman Free Intermediate

This is the tightest statement of why hiring is a founder's core job, not a delegated one, and it argues you should spend a third to a half of your time on it once you have product-market fit. It makes the case that selling your mission is what wins great people before you have obvious traction, which is exactly the leverage you need in a talent war. Read it to reset how seriously you treat recruiting as the founder.

  • Treat recruiting as a top personal priority, not something you squeeze in around product
  • A mission people believe in is your strongest pull when you cannot outbid larger companies
  • Have candidates audition on real work rather than relying on interviews alone
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The question it answers

  1. How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent?

Read with it

  1. 200+ candid conversations with Indian founders and investors on how they actually found their idea, spotted a trend, and... Apple Podcasts Podcast · podcast series (45-90 min episodes) The Neon Show (formerly 100x Entrepreneur) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  2. A high-signal, battle-tested framework for evaluating engineering talent from a leader who's done it hundreds of times.... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read My Lessons from Interviewing 400+ Engineers Over Three Startups Marco Rogers
  3. Battle-tested YC advice on landing your critical first engineering hire, from founders who've done it at scale. It reframes... YC Startup Library Article · Essay How to hire your first engineer (YC Startup Library) Y Combinator (Greg Brockman, Harj Taggar)
  4. The definitive, brutally honest account of 'The Struggle', the emotional and operational reality of running a company when... HarperBusiness Book · long The Hard Thing About Hard Things Ben Horowitz
  5. Altman's condensed operating manual for founders, including sharp guidance on focus, spending your time on what only you can... playbook.samaltman.com Article · long Startup Playbook Sam Altman
  6. Run by the managing partners of Prime Venture Partners (Sanjay Swamy, Amit Somani, Shripati Acharya and others), this is a... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Prime Venture Partners Podcast Prime Venture Partners
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