Charlie Songhurst

And I almost think that's how you have to think in the first year.

How do I find amazing standalone people that are also synergetic?

And so my net labor output of the firm is super high.

And the biggest mistake I see is when they're panicked to hire someone because they need sort of a job done.

And so they just go for the earliest person.

And then, sorry to monologue here, the pernicious mistake is the change in hiring rate based on the amount of capital available to the startup.

So what you notice if you graft it is hiring is not consistent on a quarter by quarter basis.

It bulges after each capital raise.

Pre-seed, seed, A, B. And then it's attenuated almost to nothing in the six months before the next capital raise.

So the sort of entrepreneur is like the proverbial sailor coming into port who spends all their money and then doesn't have any months afterwards.

But it's in hiring.

And if you think about that, that's absolutely insane.

Because what's the chance that you can find, say, you're hiring 10 people?

What's the chance you can find eight in the first 90 days that it's right to find eight in the first 90 days and then only right to find two in the next 540 days?

Your chance of coming across the exceptional people is so much lower than if you space that out evenly.

And because you know the existing people and see them working together, if you hire two in that first quarter, each next one you hire, you will understand their synergies with the existing team so much more.

I'll give a sort of very cynical answer and then a more aspirational answer.

The cynical one is just be in a labor market sort of low competition.

You really don't want to be sitting there in San Francisco trying to close your candidate when John Collison's trying to close the candidate as the alternative because John's going to win.

Knowing John, I agree.