David Cummings on Startups

Bringing ‘B’ Players in to Scale Fast

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David Cummings

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Recently a VC, when asked how to scale fast after a large funding round, said the solution was to bring in ‘B’ players and have a process and structure to make them successful. Of course, you want all ‘A’ players, but when raising institutional money you have a mandate to grow as fast as possible — and that often means hiring faster than you can find ‘A’ players.

There’s a saying that ‘A’ players recruit ‘A’ players and ‘B’ players recruit ‘C’ players, not knowing any better. The thought of lowering your standards in order to hire people fast enough to meet investor expectations sounds bad to me, but I understand the pressure. Some startups, with a focus on corporate culture. know that they are sacrificing growth, while maintaining long-term organizational health, by sticking to their hiring standards throughout high-growth periods. One of the biggest challenges is not getting frustrated with hiring for key positions such that you accept someone that has domain expertise but isn’t a good corporate culture fit — don’t do it.

What else? What are your thoughts on bringing ‘B’ players in to scale fast?

Comments

5 responses to “Bringing ‘B’ Players in to Scale Fast”

  1. adam wexler Avatar
    adam wexler

    hiring a full-time HR specialist would go a long way … if they truly spent 40+hrs/wk recruiting/interviewing (especially proactively), you shouldn’t have to resort to screening the B & C players.

    when do you think is the right time to hire HR part-time and full-time?

    Reply
  2. Luis Gonzalez Avatar
    Luis Gonzalez

    I have found that a B player can sometimes become an A player with proper mentoring. As long as they are a good corporate culture fit and you have an A manager; you can identify a B players strength and train them to play in the A league.

    Reply
  3. Joe Gallagher Avatar
    Joe Gallagher

    I think there is a distinction between “letter ranked” (A-Z) candidates and “fit ranked” candidates. There are plenty of amazing people out in the workforce that are just not good fits for a company’s culture. Right on to say that both C candidates and poor fit candidates can hurt an organization, but each type requires a different filter. Competency tests in the skills required for the job (or the environment if growing and roles are more fluid) and company vote/veto processes that control for culture fit.

    Reply
  4. Erik N. Avatar
    Erik N.

    I agree that hiring “B” or “C” players for key positions can be a big problem in any organization, whether an established company or, especially, within a start-up. With that said, I think there’s a bigger issue to address and that is “growth for growth’s sake.”

    Just like there are good and bad candidates for key positions and company culture, there are also good and bad customers, with the bad kind often “distracting” a start-up or early phase company. I have seen firsthand what this type of customer can do to an organization when it comes to product and service.

    When there is a mandate to grow a company, be very diligent to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not every prospective customer can be an “A” and bring value to the organization.

    Reply
  5. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    How do you define what A players look like? Both from a skills and culture-fit perspective? There is a big difference between a Jr Engineer A-player and a Dir. of Engineering A-player.

    Reply

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