Always be recruiting: Paul English on building world-class teams

Executive overview

Recruiting shouldn't be a one-time HR task—it's a constant, strategic responsibility for founders. Paul English, co-founder of Kayak, shows that the first 10 hires set the tone for everyone who follows. Success comes from personally scouting talent, moving fast without sacrificing precision, hiring to cover your weaknesses, and staying close to your users and customers who can help shape your product.

Core insight: Your recruiting discipline determines your company's scale and culture more than any other single decision.

The critical importance of your first 10 hires

• First 10 hires become your cultural co-founders—they shape the next 100 and 1,000
• Their skills and capacities determine what your company can do and who you can become
• Recruit these early co-founders before you even have a formal company; start scouting as soon as you have an idea
• You can recruit for future roles that don't yet exist, not just open positions today

Expand beyond your immediate circle early

• Starting with friends and family is natural but creates monoculture risk
• Make expanding and diversifying your professional network your number-one mission as soon as you're able
• Attend industry meetings, join communities, and deliberately seek out people outside your existing circles

Recruit people whose strengths complement your weaknesses

• Be ruthlessly honest about what you're terrible at—operations, finances, people management, whatever it is
• Hire for the traits you lack; let others double down on their strengths while you focus on yours
• Hire truth-tellers and people who will give you raw, honest feedback about your blind spots
• A great chief of staff or operations person can plug gaps and let you work on the fun stuff

The seven-day recruiting rule: move with speed and precision

• When you first hear someone's name, clock starts ticking—make an offer within seven days
• Speed and precision aren't opposites; Formula One pit crews are both fast and meticulous through process
• Start from genuine curiosity to build rapport, then focus questions precisely on what you need to know
• Ask specific, concrete questions about past projects and people, not theoretical ones—specificity prevents bullshit

Reference checks reveal more than interviews

• References show what a candidate is like day-to-day; interviews show their practiced, polished self
• Use "code references"—call mutual connections on LinkedIn who know the candidate
• Reframe weakness questions: instead of "What's their weakness?" ask "What should I focus on to be a good manager for them?"
• Recruit your best references; if someone is amazing enough to recommend, recruit them too

Put your phone number on your product

• Direct customer contact teaches you more than market research; recruit users as critics and product advisors
• Build feedback loops so users directly shape your product—star ratings, shares, subscriptions all become signals
• Make your product so simple that customers don't need elaborate support menus; if they do, it's a design failure
• Small interactions with customers (a call from a senior center, a confused user) reveal where your product lacks clarity

Keep recruiting even as you scale

• Delegate recruiting to your team, but never fully—it remains a mindset everyone carries
• Create feedback channels between audience/users and creators; let users help scout talent and refine offerings
• The more your business scales, the more tempting it is to hand off recruiting; resist that urge