The 5% rule
8 Aug 2025 · 1 min
0:56
Interview 20 candidates to find one great hire. Only about 5% of people you talk to will be the right fit, so widen your funnel and expect most conversations to end in rejection.
Interview 20 candidates to find one great hire. Only about 5% of people you talk to will be the right fit, so widen your funnel and expect most conversations to end in rejection.
Most business owners interview three, four, maybe five people for a role and then they pick the best out of that bunch. No, this is too dangerous. This is your company you're talking about. This is the thing that you built that you sacrifice your life for. Don't just leave it by chance. You need to verify you have the right person. You have to increase the likelihoods that you have the right hire. That's why I use the 5% rule. This is a rule I made up. Only 5% of people I speak to in interviews will be the right fit. So if I want to get one great hire, I need to actually talk to at least 20 people. If I want to hire one person. One out of 20 is 5%. That means 19 people that I speak to will get a no. They're going to get rejected. And that's okay because you want the best of the best. And hiring is a funnel. The wider you are at top, the better your chances. The more people you interview, the more chances you're going to get like the best of the best for that job.
