42 Floors

42 Floors hired for culture fit and it broke the business side

42 Floors grew from 8 to 80 people in 12 months on $20M of funding, hiring mostly on the 'airport test' culture fit. The engineering org thrived, but entry-level sales and support were staffed with fun people who weren't right for the roles.

“We went from a team of 8 people to 80 people in like 12 months. We were like, you know, using all this money to go hire great people. Um, and then after about, I think, probably like 60, 70, 80 people, we noticed that, um, we, we started to have problems. You know, every startup has problems, but I think our problem was that, um, we really just were hiring mostly on culture fit. Uh, and so we had hired all of these like people that we just wanted to hang out with.”

Steal thisDon't hire entry-level sales and support purely on the airport test; use work-sample tests.

Interviewed founders sold first $2M ARR themselves before hiring salespeople

The three Interviewed co-founders personally closed the first $2 million in ARR through founder-led sales to big companies like Fidelity and IBM before bringing on any salespeople.

“The 3 of us sold the first $2 million in ARR at that company.”

Interviewed founders sold first $2M ARR themselves before hiring salespeople

The three Interviewed co-founders personally closed the first $2 million in ARR through founder-led sales to big companies like Fidelity and IBM before bringing on any salespeople.

“The 3 of us sold the first $2 million in ARR at that company.”