Chartbeat CEO and sometimes polar explorer Tony Haile is featured in Fast Company today for four lessons he’s learned over four years at the helm of Chartbeat.
“What I Learned By leading a Startup – and Taking on Google” is a candid reflection of navigating common and not-so-common issues related to leading a rapidly-growing startup.
Tony discusses why it’s important to prioritize company culture, encourage individual autonomy, and look beyond a long resume. It’s solid advice for anyone with an entrepreneurial bone in their body. We’ve included one of his lessons below – get the entire piece here.
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From “What I Learned by Leading a Startup – and Taking on Google” by Tony Haile:
2. Experience matters. But so do intelligence, drive, and guts.
There’s nothing quite like hiring people with experience–those who’ve been there before, have made all the mistakes and know the path to follow. However, experience can have its limits and issues. Too often people will default to what worked at a previous company with a different culture, market, and set of challenges, leaving them frustrated when history doesn’t repeat itself.The best kind of experience comes from those who are students of what they have done, who understand why the choices were made in their last company and the conditions required for success. It’s easy to mistake one set of experiences for the other, especially when interviewing, which is why I’ve learned to value curiosity, intelligence, and drive as much as a long resume. Some of my proudest hires at Chartbeat have been people with little direct experience in the roles they’ve taken on and yet have shown a speed in learning and improvement that still amazes me.
So yes, value experience but don’t let a hefty CV blind you to the opportunity to hire someone who is short on resume but long on everything else that makes a team member great.