Loyal, smart, kind, gritty: the four traits we screen for

When we tell founders that we only send candidates we would hire ourselves, the fair question is what that actually means. It comes down to four traits. They are not a scorecard and we do not run them as a rubric, but every person we have been proud to place has had all four.

Loyal

Early stage companies go through stretches that are genuinely hard. The product does not work yet, the round takes longer than planned, a large customer churns. Loyal does not mean staying forever. It means the kind of person who tells you they are struggling before they tell a recruiter, and who does not quietly disengage the moment things get uncomfortable.

Smart

Not credentialed. Smart in the sense of learning quickly in public, changing their mind when the evidence changes, and explaining something complicated in plain language. In an interview this shows up when you ask about a decision that went badly. Smart people can tell you exactly what they would do differently and why.

Kind

Underrated and load bearing. At twelve people there is nowhere to hide from someone who is difficult, and one unkind hire can quietly cost you two good ones. Kindness also predicts how a person treats candidates, customers and support tickets when nobody is watching.

Gritty

Grit is the willingness to do unglamorous work. The best early employees will write the docs, run the demo, fix the billing bug and take the call at an inconvenient hour because the company needs it. This is the trait we probe hardest on reference calls, because it is the one people most often oversell about themselves.

Skills get someone into the process. These four traits decide whether we put our name on the introduction. A candidate missing one of them might still be a great hire somewhere. Just not at a twelve person company where every seat matters.