How to hire like a hacker

In my past several years of running Themeefy, I have gone through many hiring cycles. Over time I have learnt that there is a particular strategy or set of things, that work really well — especially if you are an early to secondary stage start-up, and want to attract good talent, without necessarily paying a lot.

Be clear on who you want — Do you want a CSS / HTML guy ? Do you want a server-side developer ? Or do you want someone who can do pretty much everything little bit? It’s important to clearly outline this in your mind, because people come with different skill sets and everyone has a different bent of mind. Server-side programmers, even if they can write CSS very well, should ideally not be used for that role — they might miss out Ux aspects that are crucial. Similarly, front-end developers might be capable of writing server-side code, but might miss scalability or other issues. Of course there are exceptions to this.
Also, if you know the exact skill set you want, or the exact role this person will play in your team, you will look at the right places to hire. For example, while hiring UI people, you should be browsing Dribble, but while hiring server-side, GitHub is a much better place.
Write a cool job advert. Be creative — Often, highlighting the non-monetary benefits of joining your start-up, can attract top talent. For example, in a recent hiring cycle, I started my job advert by saying “work for 5 hours a day and do cool stuff for the rest”. I didn’t lie. I just figured that days of high pressure work, nearing a release date, are often balanced out by relatively low pressure days when we are in design phase or doing beta testing etc. It all averages out to 5 or 6 hours of work a day, which can be a great perk for talented people. You also stand a chance of hiring folks who like to spend time in developing their own skills, ultimately benefitting your startup.
Give measurable tests — Hiring is a risky business with a high probability of a wrong decision. This is because it has so many aspects and in a start-up we are always pressed for time and resources. Often, multiple rounds of interviews or tests are not possible, candidates are remote or are too busy in their existing jobs. The best way to cut through this is to send a set of small projects — for example a single page UI to a client-side developer, or a small DB problem to a server-side person. A set of goal oriented tests often makes it easy to see whether the person has the ability to achieve a task without much guidance and in a small time frame — a crucial skill for a startup.
Build a pipeline — The fastest way to get people on board, is to have a pipeline of resumes / people that you interviewed in earlier cycles and have had a conversation with. People acquire more skills over time. . They might have been a “near-fit” back then and you found a better person. But six months or a year later, they might be the right person.
Be open — Don’t have strict notions of work. Be open to work from home, remote work, flexi hours. Be cognizant of the fact that you are hiring people, not coding machines. Talent can come in unexpected packages and as long as you feel a person might be able to do the job, it doesn’t matter how they do it.
Look for attitude — Because when the ship hits rough seas, it’s the attitude that matters more than the skill. No matter how good resumes look, or how amazing a GitHub profile is, it’s the gut feel you get when you see the test results of a person, or interact with the person on email or phone to which you should pay attention.
Be a “closer” — When you are taking time to hire, or decide not to hire someone, make sure you send out an email to the person — especially if you have had several rounds of interviews or discussions with them. It is the right thing to do, and it makes sure your pipeline is open for the future. And as an entrepreneur it’s important that you work towards building a healthy industry culture.
Rules are meant to be broken — There is no one-size-fits-all in start-ups. And definitely not in hiring. If you have rules like salary structures, leave policies, timings — junk them. They are barriers to hiring. Employees get confused and the focus becomes more on what am I getting, rather than on what is the culture I am getting into. Emphasize just one thing during hiring — that it’s a goal-oriented, trust-based and merit-based place. That’s all that matters and that’s how your start-up should be. Customise your offers based on your candidate and your current ground-reality.