Hooked on FRIQ: Learning to Hire (Part 2 of 6) - Issue 48

FRIQ = Founder Recruiting Intelligence Quotient

"Don’t be a know-it-all; be a learn-it-all." – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

If you’re a first-time founder, especially coming from academia or a large company, you might be grappling with how to adjust your hiring approach to a startup environment. Sure, you’ve built teams before, but startups demand a different playbook—one where hiring is mission-driven rather than transactional, and every new hire has an outsized impact on your trajectory.

What’s going on?

What got you here won’t get you there. The tried-and-true interview rubrics and question banks from big tech or AI labs might work in those settings, but in the wild and woolly world of startups, you’ve got to invent hiring methods that fit your unique challenges. Cultivating a “learn-it-all” mindset is your ticket to hiring superstardom.

Why does it matter?

Founders who hire poorly have a zero percent chance of creating a company of consequence. There. We said it. But you can learn your way to greatness. Embracing a learning mindset in hiring doesn’t just force multiply your ability to build a great startup team—it also reveals unexpected opportunities. By refining your approach, you can discover hidden strengths in candidates who don’t fit the traditional mold, identify evolving roles based on your team’s unique talents, or spot underlying issues that lead candidates to decline offers.

What do others think?

"We have a motto at Stripe: 'Always be learning.' The same applies to building teams—continuous learning and refinement are key to success."
– Patrick Collison, Co-founder and CEO of Stripe

What do we think?

Founders who build great teams constantly refine four specific superpowers: a learning mindset, recruiting hustle, knowing what great looks like, and operationalizing their recruiting processes for scale.

But let’s be crystal clear. A Learning Mindset is foundational; the other superpowers are just concepts without it. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Signals: Founders with a learning mindset constantly refine their understanding of “what great looks like” through calibration conversations with talent. When something doesn’t work out, they’re humble enough to say, “We hired poorly. I need help. I want to get better at recruiting.”

• Limiters: Founders who struggle to hire or retain great people rely on gut instincts and rationalization. They shift the blame to candidates or employees for being “bad hires.”

What do YOU think?
Are you grappling with how to adjust your hiring approach to a startup environment? What do learning loops look like for your hiring teams?
Go HERE to share your thoughts and get others’ ideas.

TAKE ACTION

(1) Embrace humility

• Conduct a post-mortem with your team whenever a hire doesn’t work out. Reflect on where the process went wrong and what can be improved.

• Consider doing a post-mortem for exceptionally great hires, too, to embrace learning from what went right.

(2) Develop a “learning loop” framework

• Collect feedback from candidates and new hires at critical stages (e.g., after interviews, offer stages, onboarding). Freemium or startup-priced platforms like Culture Amp or Peakon can help. Google docs and or free/cheap versions of Typeform are an excellent option to get you started.

• Measure the hiring performance metrics that matter most - conversion, offer acceptance, time-to-fill, time-to-value, and retention. Googlesheets are an easy way to begin this practice.

• Be intentional about getting better at one thing every quarter.

(3) Apply learnings and standardize as you go

• Implement structured interviews with clear criteria for evaluating candidates. Structured doesn’t mean rigid; create a simple, lightweight interview process that can be standardized for every interview with room to customize for specific roles.

• Use interview templates and scorecards to ensure consistency. Freemium and startup versions of platforms like Ashby, Lever, or Greenhouse allow interviewing teams to collaborate efficiently. Googledocs is also a great starter solution.

• Teach your interviewers how to assess candidates. Consider using affordable online courses like Social Talent that use AI to help interviewers course-correct during practice.

Tools, Events & Insights

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith
Microsoft’s CEO on the Power of Being a Learn-It-All (Fortune Magazine)
From Strength to Strength, Arthur Brooks
Hooked on Hiring Algorithms - Codify hiring for scale.
Hooked on Recruiting Readiness - Ideas for introducing structure and learning loops.
Hooked on Meeting the Bar - If you don’t define the bar, how will you know when someone meets it?
Hooked on Failed Hiring Forensics - Investigate the why behind the miss.  
Hooked on Role Specs - You wouldn’t build a product without a spec.
Hooked on FRIQ’n Awesome - Founders who hire poorly are destined for mediocrity.

This post is the second of six in our Hooked on FRIQ series. Next time, we’ll discuss how to spec roles for new hires by articulating What Great Looks Like for your customer’s problem set, your startup’s stage, and the milestones you’ve got to nail to get to the next funding round.

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About Madrona

Madrona is a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs build companies of consequence. Hooked, by Madrona is a series about startup talent, careers, and founder stories, interpreted by a curious and skeptical VC + playbooks, tools, and templates to help company builders thrive.

Who creates Hooked?
The Talent Team @ Madrona Venture Group:
Shannon Anderson, Talent Director
Audra Aulabaugh, Company Builder and Talent Partner
Matt Witt, Company Builder and Talent Partner