Every time I interview someone now, I ask myself one question. I wish I’d asked it from day one.
Every time I interview someone now, I ask myself one question. I wish I’d asked it from day one.
When we started @ReactWise, our first hires were technical. That made sense - we’re a deep tech company, we believe in founder-led sales, and we needed people who could build alongside us.
What we underestimated was culture fit.
A startup is not a big company. There’s no 9-5. There are no perfectly defined objectives.
Priorities shift overnight. An urgent client request lands on a Friday evening and suddenly that’s the most important thing in the world.
The person who thrives in that environment is fundamentally different from the person who thrives in a structured corporate role - and that difference rarely shows up on a CV.
So we learned to look beyond confidence, drive, and team fit. All of those matter. But they’re not enough.
The question I now ask myself about every single candidate is this:
Can I see this person leading a department in two years?
It sounds ambitious for an early hire. But a growing startup needs people who deeply understand the product, the market, and how everything fits together.
People who don’t just execute - but who can eventually own. Hiring someone brilliant who can’t grow into leadership just means you’ll need to hire around them later. And that’s expensive in time, money, and culture.
The best early hires aren’t just great at their job today. They’re the leaders of your company tomorrow.
We‘re incredibly proud of the team we’ve built at ReactWise - people who embody exactly that.
