To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.

A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.

If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup.

Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.

A related advantage of mission oriented ideas, is that you yourself will be dedicated to them.

I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.

Here's a good rule of thumb: don't worry about a competitor at all, until they're actually beating you with a real shipped product.