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Insights on hiring.
Short, practical pieces on the hiring decisions startups get stuck on. First hires, job descriptions, notice periods, and what to do when no candidate seems right.
Start here · Defining the hire
“Good, but not quite right”: what repeated near-misses are telling you
When every candidate falls short in a different way, the brief is usually what's missing.
18 October 2026 · 5 min read
- 02Early-team decisionsYour first engineer will write the rules everyone after them followsYour first engineer sets how things are built, decided and hired for. Hire for judgement, not a stack match.5 min
- 03India's hiring realitiesThe two-month gap: planning a hire around notice periodsNotice periods don't just delay a hire. They change which candidates are realistic, and what you should be willing to compromise on.5 min
- 04Defining the hireWhat to write in a job description when you can't fully describe the jobPublish the problem and the first six months, not a list of adjectives. You'll attract people who are good at undefined work.4 min
- 05Assessing for contextInterviewing engineers when you're not technicalYou can't judge the code. You can judge judgement, ownership and evidence, and you can borrow the rest.5 min
- 06Early-team decisionsHiring someone to take over an agency-built productYou don't need a builder. You need an inheritor, and that's a different kind of engineer.4 min
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