Lessons from Tailwind Labs: Exploring Contract Hiring for Small Teams
On a recent episode of the “Hackers Incorporated” podcast, Justin Jackson and Adam Wathan discussed a recent hiring project that Adam conducted at Tailwind Labs. While contract hiring wasn’t explicitly discussed, the conversation highlighted many points affirming its usefulness, even for a small team like Tailwind Labs.
Adam’s hiring process took about a year, and in the end, he hired people already in his network. Tailwind Labs was looking to hire two people. Adam mentioned he wanted to cast a wide net and offer a higher-than-usual salary because he believed there were many talented and qualified individuals he wasn’t aware of. “You are almost always going to compromise your talent pool if you only interview within your network,” he said (9:52).
Adam also didn’t want someone’s social media presence to factor into their visibility in the search. He stated, “By limiting myself to hiring from a pool of people I already know, I’m kind of limited … I don’t want people’s Twitter celebrity-ness to … play into being a positive factor because … it’s not necessarily correlated strongly with being good at a specific role or being a good fit” (10:17).
After posting the two positions, Adam received 1600 applications. He realized it was impossible to give each application the attention it deserved. “If you spend five minutes on every application, that’s 133 hours of straight reading applications. And you can’t just sit there and do it eight hours a day” (12:12). The hiring process became a full-time job, which small teams can’t afford.
Adam noted, “I know that I have not hired a lot of people in my life and I don’t consider myself an expert at it. That was a really hard part of this process, and we invested a lot into trying to figure out how to do a better job at it” (25:20). The process took up his time for two months, affecting his normal duties and causing the company to fall behind on numerous projects.
Justin acknowledged that companies like Tailwind Labs, with a significant presence and great reputations, would naturally attract a lot of interest. “You have the resources and are doing interesting work that has such a massive surface area that your pool of people that would work with you is bigger than most” (1:09:40).
Despite this, the distressing revelation was that after all that time and money spent, Adam ended up hiring within his network. Contract hiring could have been a solution to the time constraints of their process, allowing them to tap into a diverse talent pool.
Justin justified Adam’s decision by saying, “The risk with hiring someone you don’t already know is greater. You’re taking a bigger risk on making a fairly big decision. And if you have an aversion to hiring or firing, there’s always a chance you have to let somebody go” (1:10:57).
Adam and Justin discussed the difficulties of making the right hire. “A fairly common number I’ve been hearing is if you have a 70% hit rate on someone you hire working out, that’s pretty good. Which means that a lot of companies are firing 3 out of 10 people they hire within the first few months that they’re at the company” (1:17:17).
A good contracting company could present the best candidates, understanding your company’s mission and culture to ensure a good fit. Without external help, it could take months to find a good employee and up to a year to find a great one. If the process doesn’t work out, you end up back at square one.
Adam’s hiring project was a learning experience, highlighting the challenges and potential solutions. Contract hiring might have provided a more efficient process, allowing Tailwind Labs to focus on their mission-critical projects. For small teams, considering contract hiring from the start could help access a broader talent pool and achieve hiring goals more effectively.
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