How do you find the first hires for your startup, especially remotely?

Most application processes require some kind of test at one point or another, but when hiring remote it goes further than the professional delivering a good final product. Apart from the person being able to perform well on the job, you have to make sure that they do so remotely. For this reason, it might be a good idea to create a test in which candidates need to interact with the integrants of the team they would join. This way you will get to test both: their ability to do the job, and how well they interact with their potential team members.

If you have connections on the university side, the way we have progressed is to open an account on udemy and ask them to complete certain training. We analyzed how much they wanted to work with us by looking at the duration of the training. We have hired 4 people so far and we are very satisfied.

1. Decide which remote situation you want to hire for 2. Figure out which time zones to hire in 3. Put top candidates to the test 4. Ability to prioritize 5. Trustworthy

There are many different ways and platforms to look for. We started to invite candidates to timz.flowers, the Async Video Meeting tool, we are creating ourselves. There we are explaining the project in a flower and are asking some background questions. The candidate answers whenever finds time and we just watch the different results. You can immediately see who knows how to deal with new tools (digital savviness), who understand the project and the system and who is contributing with valuable statements and links. Quite powerful method. We found our best developers that way and they are really remote - dwelling in different time-zones from Newzealand to Argentina, across China, Poland, Persia and many more countries. All of this makes no difference, when you see them being creative in a flower.

It might be best to work for an established company in the field you are trying to make a startup in. So if you were interested in Neurotech you could work for Neuralink and after a couple of months or a year you could tell some of your friends in the company of your idea and why it is better than what is going on at the company you are working for. Then you might get a team of 2-4 and start on your own project.

Once you get your Product Market Fit and raise next round (or invest your own money) your life will become easier as you'll start changing you organization and introduce a Head of HR that will be a core point for your hiring, once your team grows beyond 50 people.

I failed everything remote man.. zero deals.. I am a hard core techie and 14 years been running my show.. am back doing local connects and ground sales. Screw the plague going on for me.

Hi, apart from using online communities and social media, I firmly believe that finding your first hires would be much more beneficial if you recruit by using an ATS (Applicant Tracking System). There are several right ways to hire your first fresh batch, but doing so with the use of technology will actually help you recruit without any conscious or unconscious bias. Here's an example of one of the best affordable ATS' for startups: !https://recruitcrm.io/ (Recruit CRM) Hope this helps!

I think your industry specifically – Neurotech makes it even more interesting

When a professional has worked remotely before or is looking for a job that allows them to work remotely, they know where specifically to look. Facebook groups are one of the places to be, but so are sites like remote.co and We Work Remotely, as well as the EU-Startups Job Board, to name just a few. By posting your openings in pages like the ones mentioned above you will be tackling the right target. That does not mean that you shouldn’t open a position on Linkedin or similar platforms, but if you do, make sure to highlight that you’re looking to fill a full or part-time remote job