Derrick Muturi, CEO, Herdy

Just hire based on values. If the person you're hiring meets the basic values, everything else can be taught.

You can teach skills. You can teach people to do very different things, I'd say. But also hire someone who has a diverse set of skillsets. 

I remember, for example, when we hired our sales manager. She was, she could sell, but she wasn't a people person per se. The sales process was not something that she loved, so she hated that part of the job. But when she moved to customer relations, which she had done four years prior. She really loved that, and she really blossomed there.

I think hiring people who are dynamic, who can move into different roles, because when you're doing a startup, you need everyone to really do as much as they can.

Someone should be very dynamic, I think, early on. Someone who fits at least into three different roles, but also at the very core, they have the very basic values that you uphold as an organization.

Mina Shadid, Co-founder & CEO, Numida

At the beginning, the way we built the team was really focused on two things. Ultimately, skills and experiences and then values alignment. We wanted to make sure that when we were hiring early people, that they were actually values aligned.

I think one of the mistakes that startups make is they think they need to hire skills early and experience early. You might hire somebody who is super, super experienced, but then they're so far away on the values scale that at the end of the day, they're not effective or you don't enjoy working with them. They have a negative impact on the business overall, even though they, on paper, are the right candidate.

We had to do that, and we did that very, very consciously, making sure that we were balancing both of those things, especially in the early days. I think when we were less than 10 people, there was very little skill, and much more focused on passion and values alignment.

Closing thoughts

Avoid hiring solely based on experience - focus on core values and shared purpose. Skills can be developed, but alignment is key to long-term success. Take the next step - evaluate your hiring practices and start prioritizing values realignment in every decision.