When it comes to tech talent, it’s easy to see why people working at the likes of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are attractive to startups. They’ve worked on incredibly successful products and most have repeated experience bringing products to market. But when it comes down to attracting these corporate hires to a scrappy new company, you’ll have your work cut out for you. Get some tips on how to be successful from Rivi’s Managing Partner Ali Behnam.
(LinkedIn Pulse) – How to Attract Corporate Hires to Your Startup (Hint: Percentages Don’t Matter)
Make sure you have the full picture on where your desired hire is coming from. This includes understanding the components of their comp structure, as well as the scale, size and reach of the problem that they’re currently working on. A big challenge with pulling people out of Google and other large corporations is that they work on immense scale. When it comes to working on a platform, it doesn’t get any bigger than Google. Unless someone is comfortable moving to a much smaller project, it’s going to be tough getting them to transition to a startup.
Another big consideration is time of life. Are they married? Do they have young kids? Is this the best time for them to take a risk? Usually, this means going for someone very early in one’s career, or very late. There has to be an underlying motivation as well–if they’re simply not ready, you can’t make them. But you canbuild a relationship. Then, when they are ready, you’ve already got a foot in the door.
