Create your own mafia

Have you heard of the Paypal Mafia? It’s mind-blowing that Peter Thiel managed to bring together so many exceptional people in one place. Just look at some of the names: Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn founder), Elon Musk (…), Max Levchin, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons (founded Affirm, Slide, and Yelp), Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (YouTube co-founders), and David Sacks (Yammer co-founder and investor) are just some of them.

It blows my mind that this level of talent was once working side by side. What really amazes me is how they were all discovered, persuaded, and brought together. Because, as I’ll point out, hiring is tough work.

Take a guess—how long do you think it took to hire our first engineer? One year. Yes, a full year of persuading Julian to come aboard and join Wondercraft.

In all honesty, we spent part of that year working on a different idea, so we only gave Julian a lukewarm pitch initially. But even once we had real conviction and began a harder pitch, it still wasn’t easy.

And that is because it is damn hard to convince special people to join your fun little mission.

And I know that’s a fact, as it didn’t stop with Julian. Mohamed was our second full stack engineer. It took us 9 months to convince Mo to join us. Our third, Seif, also spoke with us for about nine months before finally coming on board.

When you’re starting out, there aren’t many advantages in your corner. You can’t compete on salary with big tech, and you rarely have a large user base to make the work feel immediately meaningful.

On the flip side, there are a couple of things that work in your favor. You can offer a genuine adventure, where every single day counts—a feeling that’s often lost in big tech. You also have meaningful equity to offer, which sells the potential for major growth.

Of course, that’s still a tough sell. For a prospective hire, your equity might feel like Monopoly money unless you can make a convincing case that it will someday become very real.

It’s might be useful to break down hiring into three main challenges: Sourcing, Interviewing, and Convincing.

Sourcing

Sourcing is arguably the most important aspect, especially in the early stages. If you do it well, you might breeze through the rest. Friends and former colleagues are often the most effective hires. Not just referrals from them, but the friends and ex-colleagues themselves. Identify the smartest people you know and go all-in to get them on board.

Be relentless, even if it feels awkward. After all, if your friends are truly top-tier, wouldn’t they be busy with other meaningful work? It takes a strong push to get them to change course.

Beyond your personal network, intense LinkedIn research and targeted cold outreach can bring you luck, especially if the stars align. Here’s how we got connected with Oskar, who ended up joining as a third co-founder and has had an outsized impact.

I recommend against using a recruiting agency early on. By doing the legwork yourself, you’ll learn more about the market and refine the role you’re hiring for. Don’t outsource that crucial learning opportunity.

More on sourcing here.

Interviewing

There’s plenty of advice out there on interviewing, so I’ll keep it brief.

In the chaos of an early startup, you’ll be tempted to skip preparation—but don’t.

If you don’t already know the person, really consider what you want to test and the most effective way to do it. A few tips:

1. Meet in person if at all possible. Even if they’re an ex-colleague, people can be different in a new environment.

2. Skip take-home projects. Instead, try a trial period (e.g., a month-long audition) where both sides can see if it’s a fit.

3. Avoid desperation hires. Your team is only as strong as its weakest link. If it’s not a “hell yes”, it’s a no.

Convincing

This is the hardest (and often the most painful) part. You might be surprised how many people drop out here. Even after multiple discussions, they can get cold feet right before they sign on.

Don’t give up—keep pushing. Channel your inner Steve Jobs and be persistent.

Above all, stay ambitious. Don’t assume your friend won’t join simply because they could start their own venture. Sure they could—but they haven’t. Invite them in.

Here’s a useful framework I like: Hire as though this is the last time that person will ever need to be hired. They’ll eventually leave to start something new, or they’ll have such a strong exit that a job hunt becomes irrelevant.

I’d be remiss not to share my favourite quote here, even though it comes from the hiree’s perspective.

Go offer some seats to your rocketship! And don’t take no for an answer.

Dimi

P.S if you enjoyed this newsletter, why not forward to a friend?

Workplace of the week

Think you have a better work set up? Reply with your submissions 📨.

Hot tip - listen to this playlist to enter the Wonder zone.