What a $5b company founder told me about hiring

I enjoy communicating with people in my field and sharing my experiences.

Today I'd like to discuss two interesting conversations I had with a founder of a $5 billion tech company and CEO of Replit, which has reached a nearly $1 billion valuation with only 100 employees.

We were discussing early hires and hiring in general.

I wish I had learned these lessons earlier.

Answers from the founder of a $5 billion tech company:

1. What hires made a big difference?

Key hires:

• We had a strong product/market fit early, so most of the early hires focused on operational needs.

• Customer support and engineering were the key early hires that allowed us to continue meeting demand.

2. What hires appeared to be "too early"?

We hired a data science person pretty early. Around 10. That was earlier than most companies but paid off pretty well. We definitely have a strong data-driven culture.

In the follow-up email, he added:

If I could do it again, I'd try and get a hybrid DS/DE. One of the hardest things early on is setting up a proper events architecture. If you do that well early on it makes analysis so much easier in the future.

3. What hires should have been done earlier?

Super-admin. We hired a CFO at 30 who was more of a generalist super exec. She handled accounting, people ops, and admin. I should have gotten more help with this earlier.

4. For managing roles, do you coach high-performing employees or bring experienced external managers?

We coached high-performing folks into these roles. In hindsight, I wish we'd have brought in an experienced manager or two who could then do the teaching for others.

We definitely undervalued this early on. That said, there's a lot of nuance in getting this right. Early-stage managers are a much different breed than a generic engineering manager from FAANG.

Answers from the CEO of Replit:

1. What hires had a higher impact than expected?

Perhaps an EA had more impact than expected. Not only did they give me more headspace but also were able to recommend ways the company could work more smoothly. That being said my EA was special in that he had a lot of experience.

2. What hires appeared to be “too early”?

Similar to the prior point, Chief of Staff turned out to be too early even at the B stage. All I needed was competent EA

3. What hires should have been done earlier?

Strong executive talent. It actually doesn’t matter which you do first -- CFO, coo, or something else -- but having a good thought partner at the exec table is underrated.

4. For management roles, do you coach high-performing employees or bring external experienced managers?

We try to build muscle internally.

5. Was it hard to hire execs from outside?

It wasn’t hard to hire execs but it’s sorta bit of a stroke of luck for us because we have a lot of inbound interest. A targeted search is a lot harder and I’ve never done it