Vivek Ravisankar

Scale

You want to scale your company from A to B. Do you hire someone who’s at Point C (C > B) who has already crossed A & B (or) someone who is between A & B but very smart?

This isn’t an easy question and likely does not have a one-size-fits-all answer; however from my experience in running hackerrank, it’s usually better to prefer the latter skill set than the former.

While the risk of choosing the latter person is the doubt if she will scale in the future, the risk of choosing the former person in a growth stage company is not getting her hands dirty to even get to point-b and/or bring in the wrong outlook.