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Category:

Talent

    Talent

    Mark Suster: Punching Above Your Weight

    by takingpitches July 26, 2011
    written by takingpitches

    A theme I have returned to from time to time is how our hiring systems screen out talent.  This has implications in one’s own hiring and potentially in one’s investments.  There also is an opportunity here for someone to reinvent the traditional resume as I have blogged before. 

    Mark Suster, whose blog I have just started reading, has a nice piece on hiring for startups.  One of his tips is to find people who punch above their weight class.  I cannot agree with this more and I cut and paste a “must read” excerpt below:

    “It means that many management teams I know feel the need to hire people who have “done it before” and frankly many VCs encourage this. It’s a mistake. When you hire somebody too early who has already “done it” you often find somebody that is less motivated in tough times, less willing to be scrappy (as many startups need to be), more “needy” and less mentally flexible / willing to change their way of thinking.

    Importantly, you also find people who are too quick to undermine the authority of the founders. They “know more.” You don’t want sycophants – don’t get me wrong – you want people who challenge your thinking and a meritocracy of ideas. But you don’t want team members who openly question your judgment, your authority. At least not publicly.

    So what do it mean to “punch above one’s weight class?” It’s a boxing analogy. It means a welter weight who wants to fight in the heavy-weight category. It means a “young Turk” who has something to prove. It means somebody who held the director of sales in their last company but in this company wants to be VP. Their last company said, “you don’t have enough years of experience.”

    You said, “Eff experience. I want to know whether you can deliver. If you can, you’re golden. You’ll go a long way. If you can’t – you’re toast. Are you up for it?” It’s Tristan Walker of FourSquare. They hired him when he was an MBA. He had no right asking for a senior biz dev role at one of the hottest companies in the US. But he was ready to punch above his weight class. And he pushed for it.

    And heavy-weight he has become. He is out innovating people with 10 years’ his experience. He is hungry. He is an A player. His innovation and execution are proving his worth.

    July 26, 2011 0 comment
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  • Talent

    Jumping Out of Your Chair

    by takingpitches April 23, 2011
    by takingpitches April 23, 2011

    Interview with Chris Cunningham of Appssavvy from the Corner Office series with some great thoughts on looking forward rather than backwards when hiring…

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  • Talent

    “I was never qualified for any job I got in my life”

    by takingpitches April 11, 2011
    by takingpitches April 11, 2011

    I post constantly on how a central challenge is finding ways to not block talent from bouncing across challenging functional…

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  • Talent

    Letting the Captain Steer

    by takingpitches April 10, 2011
    by takingpitches April 10, 2011

    The best change this time around as described this week in the NYT: “The early generation of Web companies is littered…

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  • Talent

    Attitude: Secret Ingredient of Future Success (Romil Bahl)

    by takingpitches March 18, 2011
    by takingpitches March 18, 2011

    There is a Sunday column by Andy Bryant called the Corner Office in the New York Times that is amazing…

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  • Talent

    Betting On The Future Rather Than The Past (Obama O’s!)

    by takingpitches March 17, 2011
    by takingpitches March 17, 2011

    Great post from FredWilson about airbnb. I particularly vibed with the excerpt below which not only captures something about investing mistakes, but…

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  • Talent

    Antonio Gates and the Resume of the Future (or the next LinkedIn)

    by takingpitches March 12, 2011
    by takingpitches March 12, 2011

    Resumes are backward-looking documents, and are great for when people are looking to do something similar to what they have…

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