January 31, 2006 12:29 PM

Hiring strategies from Guy Kawasaki
Posted by Jason Butlerat 12:29 PM

Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki gives some useful advice on recruiting in the high tech world, including my personal favorite advice about only hiring "A" players.

Hire better than yourself. In the Macintosh Division, we had a saying, “A player hire A players; B players hire C players”--meaning that great people hire great people. On the other hand, mediocre people hire candidates who are not as good as they are, so they can feel superior to them. (If you start down this slippery slope, you'll soon end up with Z players; this is called The Bozo Explosion. It is followed by The Layoff.) I have come to believe that we were wrong--A players hire A+ players, not merely A players.  It takes self-confidence and self-awarness, but it's the only way to build a great team.