The feeling of securing investment!

It's a mixture of celebration, relief, validation and excitement for the next stage.

You're primed for growth and need to appoint commercial people to generate revenue. This is the moment for caution!

Investors love to bring their own people in but it's full of risk

You've taken money from angels or a fund and they say this "so, we need some sales hires, I know a few people who might work. Let me set up some interviews."

Difficult to say "no" isn't it?

Investors frequently want people they know, like and trust involved, which makes logical sense to them and you. What happens when their candidates don't work out? You lose valuable time / budget and often need more investment to hire again.

I've seen founders not arriving at the next round with the right valuation and their equity takes a hit - all because of making bad hires from recommendations.

Most people try to de-risk their hiring with all the wrong information

I personally appointed a Sales Director after securing investment, but focused on all the wrong things. I looked at the CV's, LinkedIn profiles and even took references as early as I could. I genuinely believed that I had the right judgement to make a good appointment.

My shortlist looked full of talented people who had the skills to do the job. For some it looked as simple as 'falling off a log' compared to what they claimed they had done. I learned that just because a candidate can do the job doesn't mean that they will do it long term.

It wasn't until years later that I learned about hidden data in the hiring process. 

Skin in the game

Something that has worked very successfully is rewarding your key commercial hires with an equity stake for revenue goals achieved.

By making this a part of the hiring process, you achieve two things. First, you repel the candidates who are average, the people looking for a 9 - 5  and pay check. Nothing wrong with these people but they would be wrong for key commercial hires at this stage. Secondly you attract the entrepreneurial people who have a bigger view of the opportunity. Typically these people are high achievers and will get things done with the goal of securing some equity for the revenue they win.

Protect your investment

Securing investment is result of a long, hard road travelled, however the new journey has just begun.

Making the right commercial hires after investment can pull up the handbrake or turbo charge your revenue and company growth.

If you'd like a quick overview of how companies rely on us for their post investment hiring, you can read an Intro here