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

You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.

You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.

As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.

You'll get more support on a hard, important, project than a derivative one.

One of the pieces of advice that we give at YC is: try to work together on a project rather than just doing an interview.

You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.