Always Be Recruiting: The First Five Hire the Next Fifty
Treat recruiting as a permanent background process and over-invest in the first five hires, because they become the closers for everyone after.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 88%
English's answer to what actually separates great recruiters from average ones is that great ones never stop. He keeps what he calls a spidey sense running at every event, including ones with nothing to do with work, on the theory that the person who becomes your next CMO is standing at a crypto coffee social you attended for other reasons. Once he identifies someone amazing he becomes deliberately aggressive: he will drive to a Starbucks near them, and he trains his own team on how to behave in the first meeting with a candidate. Two specific tactics carry the system. First, he asks every amazing person he meets whether they know anyone even more amazing than they are, which turns each recruit into a search head. Second, he treats the first five hires as the leverage point, because those five hire the next fifty who hire the next five hundred, and once they are strong they close candidates for you better than the founder can.
Origin
English traces the intensity to seventh grade at Boston Latin School, when a friend told him not to bother with a girl who was dating the football captain and she immediately became the only thing in color in his world.
Core principles
- 01Recruiting is a background process that never turns off
- 02Every amazing person knows someone more amazing, so ask
- 03The first five hires are the highest-leverage decisions in the company
- 04Great teams close candidates better than founders do
- 05Do whatever it takes to get the meeting, including going to them
How to run it
- 1
Keep the spidey sense on in every room
Attend events with no hiring intent and stay alert for exceptional people anyway. English's framing is that you will not be expecting to meet your next CMO, so you have to be scanning by default rather than only when a req is open.
- 2
On contact, do whatever it takes to get the meeting
The moment you identify someone amazing, drop the passive posture. English will travel to a Starbucks near the candidate rather than ask them to come to him, because the goal is only ever to get them in front of the team.
Pro tip Being visibly willing to inconvenience yourself is itself the signal that this is not a mass outreach.
- 3
Ask who is even more amazing than they are
Every conversation with a strong candidate ends with the referral question. This converts a single recruiting contact into a chain of introductions, and strong people tend to know other strong people.
Watch out Ask it genuinely, not as a consolation prize after a rejection, or the chain breaks immediately.
- 4
Over-invest in the first five hires specifically
Accept much slower progress on the first five seats than feels comfortable. English's arithmetic is that the first five hire the next fifty who hire the next five hundred, so a compromise at position three compounds through hundreds of people.
- 5
Train the team on how the first meeting goes
Prepare the people the candidate will meet, deliberately, on how to behave. English says he trains his team on their first meeting with a candidate rather than assuming they will improvise well.
- 6
Hand the close to the team
Once the first five are genuinely strong, the founder's job shrinks to getting candidates in the room. English's claim is that after the candidate meets those five they close themselves, thinking they need to work with this team.
In the wild
English applied always-be-recruiting through ten years at Kayak, building a tech leadership team deep enough that UI, product, and architecture each had an owner who did not need him.
→ He was able to leave after the 2012 IPO and the Priceline sale without damaging the company, and describes the bench as what gave him the freedom to start something new.
In seventh grade a friend told English not to think about a girl because she was dating the captain of the football team. He describes her going into color while the rest of the world went black and white, and he ended up dating her.
→ English cites this as the origin of the laser-focus he now applies to candidates, saying that when he sees someone amazing he will do whatever it takes to get them excited and in front of his team.
Common mistakes
Only recruiting when a seat is open
Reactive hiring means starting cold under deadline pressure with no relationships banked. English's whole point is that the meeting that produces your best hire happens at an event you attended for an unrelated reason, which only works if you are always scanning.
Settling on any of the first five hires
The first five are multipliers, not individual contributors. A mediocre early hire hires more mediocre people, so the compromise propagates through the next fifty and five hundred rather than staying contained.
Sending candidates into unprepped team meetings
If the team has not been trained on the first meeting, the highest-leverage step in the funnel is left to chance. The team is supposed to be the closer, and an unprepared closer loses candidates the founder already won.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and hiring managers building a company from zero who cannot outspend larger competitors on comp
Not ideal for
People filling a single backfill role on a defined req, or anyone uncomfortable pursuing candidates who have not applied
From the transcript
“The main thing is just recruit all the time. Always always be recruiting and always be trying to connect with people.”
“I've always said that the first five people hire the next 50 who hire the next 500.”
“when I recruit and I see someone amazing, I'll always ask them like, do you know anyone even more amazing than you?”
“I'm like very very aggressive to do whatever it takes to get you. I'll come meet you at a Starbucks near you. I'll do whatever…”
From the episode
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Paul English