Currently, I’m running a tiny technology company based in San Diego, and we’re in desperate need of a particular skill set. We advertised on Craig’s List and got one spectacular resume. We had the candidate meet our technical team on the east coast, and they said that he has everything that we’re looking for.

I checked his references, and we had an initial conversation about compensation that is probably going to be less than he earned in his prior position. Let’s call this gentleman Mr. Tolstoy since he’s from Russia, like the technical founder of the company.

The references turned out to be medium, and I then had another conversation with him and I said: “Why don’t you do a couple of days of work with the technical team so that we can make sure that this is a good fit.” It’s easy since he’s 30 minutes away, he’s unemployed, and I agreed to pay him for the two days.

He has the skill sets, but…..
After the two days, the technical team said that he definitely has the skill sets. So we agreed to hire him as a consultant at a salary that was higher than we pay anyone in the company. I discussed this with the technical team and the chairman of the board. This was a joint decision because we really needed his skill sets. We wrote up a consulting agreement clearly delineating his compensation and a modest stock option grant, and he sent it back with two changes.

First, he broke down the compensation into an hourly wage to the penny, and he wanted the consulting agreement to terminate at the end of four months. This is clearly a very precise guy. So the questions I asked myself were: “Will this guy fit into the corporate culture of a start up where people don’t look at the clock? Should we hire him because we are so desperate for his skill sets?”

Arguing with the CEO
At the end of his email, he said to call him if I had any questions. I called and told him that I was a little troubled that he figured this out on an hourly basis, which led to an argument and I had to stop. Here’s a guy who has never worked for us, he’s never met me in person and he’s already arguing with the CEO. So I said I’d have to think about this, and I’d get back to him. Next, I talked with the rest of the team and concluded that this behavior doesn’t work for us and we’re moving on. So we’re still looking for a person with these skill sets and it does somewhat delay us.

Don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole
Building a team is the key to creating a successful start up—pick the people who will fit into the culture. The CEO’s most important job is hiring well and being the visionary and model for the culture that you want in your company.

There are great players, but what wins Super Bowls are great teams.