Silicon Valley is full of advice and it frequently comes from people who have little experience on the subject matter. A popular topic surrounds hiring and terminations with the king catch phrase being: “Hire Fast, Fire Fast.” To me, what that usually means is lack of diligence, thought, communication and courage.
When hiring people love going with their gut feel, often with disastrous results. There is an obvious subject of diversity of thought, appearance and background. When thinking “fast” you are probably hiring people like yourself because humans quickly react to people who they believe are in their tribe.
A startup that lacks the resources of a big company often becomes so desperate to get technical staff that when a decent candidate comes along, excitement ensues and the employer doesn't slow down to put them through a more rigorous hiring process.
I highly encourage technical founders and engineering executives to write out their precise hiring process. Of course, y…