A founder compares hiring strategies to military structures: build an army of specialists with management layers, or hire paratroopers who work autonomously with minimal oversight. The choice depends on your company's phase and whether you need coordination or raw talent from anywhere in the world.
Company need an army or paratroopers? Paratroopers are kind of cool because they have to do a lot solo, right? They're basically the commandos. They have to go in, be able to make, be able to execute actions often behind enemy lines, and be able to do a lot of different jobs. Whereas an army is made up of specialists, and actually management of that army is really what allows it to be successful. Modern management techniques are about being able to handle a larger army, be able to affect bigger warfighting. But when you're thinking about your company, what is it that you really need? At least at this phase of your company? Do you really need a lot of management and organizational structure? Do you need Chief of X and Senior Y? Or do you need commandos, people who can really make big changes and be able to act with a greater degree of autonomy? And with that, do you need people who are all in the office so they can more easily manage, or do you need people who are more dispersed so you can pick off the best in the world? When you figure out which of those things you really need, I think that is gonna be when you understand what your hiring policy needs to be.
