My ACTUAL priorities when hiring

Hey there,

If you’re reading this, you probably fall into one of two camps:

1. You want to understand how to impress a hirer like me.

2. You want to learn how to hire more effectively.

No matter which camp you’re in, I’m confident you’ll get something useful from this.

Before we dive in, let me clarify: this is how I think about hiring for my own startups and the startups I work with. In larger corporations, there’s usually more emphasis on not hiring the wrong person than there is on finding the absolute best. You might also disagree with some of my hiring philosophy—and that’s okay. This is simply my perspective after 12 years of work experience, reverse-engineered from analysing my top-performing hires.

Below are the priorities I’ve identified for finding a great new team member.

1. High Integrity / High Sense of Responsibility

We all know there are some bad actors out there—people who are purely money-obsessed, play zero-sum games, and have a shaky moral compass. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as interested in making money as the next person, but there are certain design choices, business decisions, and social decisions I won’t make if it means hurting others.

I try to screen for integrity by digging into past experiences. For instance, if someone had a messy breakup with their co-founders, I want to hear the whole story. Sometimes you can’t always get hard evidence, so you have to rely on your instincts. Here are a few examples of high-integrity behaviours I’ve come across:

• “I gave my boss six months’ notice because I wanted to make sure they found the right replacement.”

• “I cut my own salary so I could give my staff bigger severance packages when the business didn’t work out.”

• “My co-founder joined late, but I wouldn’t have sold the company without him. Even though we didn’t have a formal agreement, I split the proceeds 50/50.”

2. Strong Problem-Solving Skills

I value people who can rationally explain their logic, even if I disagree with them. Sometimes that means asking typical consulting-firm-style questions like, “How many windows are in New York City?” or “How much money do you think this gas station makes based on X, Y, and Z factors?” Even better, I like to tailor problem-solving questions to the role—whether that’s growth metrics, engineering priorities, or anything else specific to the job.

3. Ultra Learner

Some people just “get it” faster than others. They might do a 100-day learning challenge and make incredible progress in a matter of days. That gets my attention. Fast learners adapt quickly and succeed more often, so I’ll often reach out to people like this after spotting them online. Learning speed is a solid predictor of success.

4. High Robustness

“Robustness” is an engineering concept that means “impervious to change.” Most of our standard education systems are “tame,” with controlled variables and predictable rules—like chess or standardised exams. But the real world is often “wicked”—problems can be ill-defined, unconstrained, and random.

People who handle chaos well—who can deal with unpredictable shifts in technology, the market, or even their own skill sets—are highly robust. In my experience, they’re often generalists who can slip into nearly any role you give them.

Hiring with Athyna

Whenever a friend asks me for hiring advice—beyond what I’ve shared here—I always point them toward Athyna. (Full disclosure: I’m a shareholder and have been following their investor updates for years.)

What sets Athyna apart? They’re constantly running bold experiments and launching fresh projects internally. The caliber of their own team speaks volumes about their ability to source top-notch talent for clients. If you’re looking for hiring help in 2025, give them a shout—and feel free to mention I sent you!

5. High Resilience / Low Maintenance

Life gets tough: customers complain, sales dip, a website goes down. One of the hardest things as a manager or founder is constantly having to resuscitate the team’s morale. There’s only so much energy to go around.

I’m not saying we should ignore our team’s needs, but it’s important to understand whether someone will stick around during rough patches—or if they’ll need constant hand-holding. I owe a huge shout-out to my team at EntryLevel: when we hit some tough times, I was advised to hide problems from them. Instead, I chose radical transparency. They came together, tackled the issues, and gave me the confidence that nobody was jumping ship just because it got hard.

6. Killer Tactics / Skills / Ultimate Moves

I’m always interested in hearing about someone’s “ultimate moves”—stories of big wins or innovations they’ve pulled off in the past. People with a track record of 10x growth or brilliant workarounds tend to repeat what made them successful. It doesn’t guarantee future success, but it’s a strong indicator that they know how to execute.

Some examples I’ve heard:

• “I pulled this stunt that grew our user base by 10,000 in a week.”

• “I discovered a vulnerability affecting 1,000 users and fixed it with a clever workaround in record time.”

• “When I joined, retention was 10%. After introducing a new feature, it shot up to 75% in three months.”

Deep breath. Rant over! I hope this helps. If you want to challenge or discuss any of these points, reply to this email. I respond to everyone!

Special shout-out to Rowan, Sean, Venie, Andrew, Justin, Arun, and Janet for replying to my last few emails. Your support and challenges mean a lot—keep them coming!

Until next time,

Ajay