You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.

Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.

Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.

I myself used to believe ideas didn't matter that much, but I'm very sure that's wrong now.

For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.

The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already know.

Facebook has this famous poster that says move fast and break things. But at the same time they manage to be obsessed with quality.