Always hire the best people.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Redwoods”< /a>(ID: Sequoiacap), author Hong Shan.

The start-up team is full of uncertainties, an unstable office environment, unfamiliar new teams, and new employees who don’t know, which means finding like-minded people when recruiting is essential, how to find a good CTO It is also the development and direction of the company. What qualities do you need for a good CTO? What questions should you ask when you are hiring? How to judge whether a CTO candidate is qualified for work?

For recruiters, it’s up to you to find out what CTOs you have. They must have enough motivation to enjoy work and plan for the future of the company; they must be honest and able to take responsibility for themselves; they must be strong enough to lead the team through difficult times in difficult times; they must agree with the company’s vision In order to lead the company to success…

The following article will tell you how to recruit a CTO early in the startup, how to find the CTO that best fits your company, and the two key factors you must pay attention to in the process.

Two key factors to help you and like-minded CTO

When you recruit a CTO for a team, there are two key factors that cannot be ignored:

Do CTO candidates meet your recruitment criteria?

When you recruit a team’s future CTO, you need to make sure that this person meets your overall requirements for all executives:

▨Ensure that the candidate has sufficient motivation

People with considerable wealth will not be a good CTO to a large extent. Wealth is not enough to make a person lose the qualification to become a CTO, but when a person has been financially successful, he is likely to lose his advantage. When he chooses to live in a luxury villa instead of a company, when he enjoys his life more than to plan for the company, his motivation and motivation will become blurred.

▨Ensure that the candidate matches the company’s vision

First of all, you have a very clear vision of the company’s direction and business, and then you need to recruit like-minded people, which is the key to success. There are too many factors that can get the company out of the expected track. You must always grasp the direction and let everyone in the company move in the same direction.

Imagine how confused the company would be if the executives were unable to agree on what direction to take and what to do.

▨ Make sure the candidate is an honest person

Integrity is the most important element of business. Integrity means honesty and moral integrity.

You must hire a CTO that can be unconditionally trusted, so integrity is an essential element.

Becoming a CTO is a daunting task. They must take this job seriously enough to take responsibility.

Some candidates don’t know their responsibilities at the outset. You need to spend enough time working with them to look at them, at least three months, or even nine months or more.

You must ensure that the candidate is well-behaved, ethical, and absolutely not malicious to the company.

▨ Make sure the candidate is strong enough

When choosing a CTO, you may wish to ask yourself:

“In view of the difficult time the company may have in the future, can the candidate be able to lead the company through the storm with sufficient strength?”

If the candidate asks for a fundamental change in the direction of the company the first time he encounters resistance, it is a very dangerous signal.

For start-ups, the direction and vision need to be strong enough that you can listen to valuable feedback, but you can’t easily change direction. In the initial stage, building a brand, expanding a team, and developing a business all need a solid general direction. If you change direction frequently, the foundation of the company will be shaken, all operations will be affected, and you need to put your hand firmly. On the steering wheel.

The candidate needs to understand this.

▨ Make sure the candidate is excellent

Employ the best people forever. Always work with the best people.

It’s very difficult to start a company with a B-level talent and then transition to an A-level talent. You need to find A-level talent from the start.

Excellent talents can attract other talented people to work with them. Good people attract each other to form a team, which is the best way to recruit an initial team.

To ensure candidates are in line with corporate culture

The importance of corporate culture is often overlooked, but for the beginningCreating a company is essential. Corporate culture cannot be developed by itself. It is developed according to employees. The first employees and executives are the people who create and define corporate culture. Therefore, you must be careful to choose a startup team.

You have to choose people who are smart, passionate, and have a shared vision, not people who are talented but have a bad personality. This does not mean losing diversity, diversity is good, but startups need people who agree with the company’s basic direction and core values.

When you use the above six criteria to evaluate candidates, you can quickly and accurately find out who you want to work with. Of course, you may also find that they do not meet your requirements. It doesn’t matter. Continue to follow these criteria and the next person will be more appropriate.

Can the candidate be qualified for the job?

Assuming the candidate meets your recruitment criteria. How do you know that a candidate is a good CTO?

If you have doubts about this, then you can ask them the following questions:

How are you going to form a team?

In other words, how does the CTO plan to hire others?

You want to hear the answer:

He has a group of followers and understands their qualifications and abilities. This means that he can bring you a quality team and a visionary employee, which can save the company a long time to run and explore.

Why are you planning to manage the team?

You need to understand the management style of the candidate. Does this person like to take power or decentralize? Does the candidate have a unique management method? Does the candidate have experience in releasing new products? What are the criteria for candidates to release new products?

Would you like to do technical work or just manage the team?

In the early days of the company’s development, you need a CTO with a strong ability to get started. He must have the technical skills to handle the technical problems that may arise. After that, it is management ability. When there are more excellent employees, he needs management ability in addition to technical ability.