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For every companyGreat talent is the key to achieving goals and successfully building scale, but hiring the best people certainly doesn’t happen cheaply or quickly. Startups, however, have a doubly hard time: in addition to finding great talent, they have to convince them to accept lower pay — and sometimes more work — than they would get if they worked for a larger tech company.
But today’s job market puts founders in a much better position. Nick Cromydas, co-founder and CEO of Hunt Club, spoke to a panel focused on taking advantage of a softer labor market at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023; Samara Hernandez, founder and partner at Chingona Ventures; and Noah Gale, the co-founder of Tribe AI, all agreed that founders have it better today than they did just a few years ago.
According to Cromydas, the whiplash we have seen in the labor market in recent years has created an environment that startups can and should take advantage of.
“There has been a frenzy and a mania over the last two or three years to get the best talent, which has pushed the pay way up. If you were an earlier stage company trying to hire really great talent, you were competing with growth stage companies looking to go public. So it was very difficult to hire meaningful people because everyone was chasing the gold rush in the growth phase,” he said. “It’s a really good normalization for tech startups.”
Hernandez added that the currently less competitive hiring market also means expectations around salary and compensation packages are being adjusted. Startups shouldn’t feel like they have to offer packages they can’t really afford to attract the best talent.
The softer work environment also means companies can hire slowly and thoughtfully, which wasn’t the case a few years ago. Cromydas suggested that startups tap into their networks and ask for referrals to fill positions with people who wanted to align with the company’s mission. He added that the layoffs have also likely scared off a large portion of “tourists” who want to work at startups because they thought they would get rich quick.