Eric Siu outlines a hiring strategy: target respected companies, identify VPs' promoted right-hand people, and bring them in as advisors to learn the culture before transitioning them into promoted roles over time.
Here's the playbook that nobody talks about, but is actually what's used by Stripe, by Square, and some of the best companies in the world. Find the companies that you respect, find the people that you would love to recruit from those companies, and then build an org chart and find the people that report to those VPs. Look for the person that's been promoted a couple of times because that's probably their right-hand person, their top lieutenant, and they're never going to get promoted into that VP role until that person leaves or goes somewhere else. And so you go and you give them an opportunity to get promoted. And so, hey, you are currently a director. I'm going to give you the VP role. If you did want that VP, what you do is you hire them as an advisor. And it's incredible. It works really well because they come in as an advisor. They learn your culture. They learn your process. It's a bit of a dating. Is this a good fit? And then slowly they start getting indoctrinated into your business and you can add those hours over time.
