Hire folks with desire to learn

If you want to operate a lean team, hire for:

Flexibility, curiosity, and a willingness to learn.

By “willingness to learn” I mean — having a desire to take on new challenges, even if they’re not fully qualified.

That’s CRUCIAL. As soon as someone on your team says, “I don’t know how to do that,” you’ve got a gap that needs filling. But if you have team members willing to figure it out and learn on the job? They’ll likely get it done.

It might not be perfect, and it might take a bit longer, but they’ll gain that skill in the process. My core belief is that there aren’t many things in tech that are so unique you can’t find a solution.

Now, this approach might not work for deep tech. Like, if you told me, “Chris, go fix Google’s quantum computer,” I would probably wouldn’t recommend someone unfamiliar with quantum tech.

But for early-stage companies looking to keep their engineering team small and agile, generalists who are open to tackling new types of work are the perfect fit.