Hey, Justin here, and welcome to Just Go Grind, a newsletter sharing the lessons, tactics, and stories of world-class founders!

Today we’ve got another guest post from Bill Kerr the founder and CEO of Athyna and author of Open Source CEO.

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Guest post from Bill Kerr

Hiring Tips From Bezos, Musk, Altman & More

Hiring is the single most important aspect of building a great company.

The best founders—from Bezos to Musk—don’t just make hiring a task; they make it an obsession.

Why?

Because the people you hire define your culture set the standard, and ultimately build or break your startup.

Today, we’ll dive into the hiring practices and principles of some of the greatest founders of our time. We’re not talking fluff; we’re talking actionable insights and philosophies that have helped build Amazon, Tesla, OpenAI, and more.

Let’s get into it.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Hiring isn't just a process—it's the very foundation of your culture. Peter Drucker famously said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." What he meant was that no matter how solid your strategy, if your culture isn’t right, your startup won’t make it.

Think of the great founders—Bezos, Musk, Altman. They’ve all invested heavily in building a company culture that fits their vision, and it starts with the people they hire. Data from LinkedIn shows that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying, which means your culture needs to be something people are excited to join.

Hiring isn’t just about getting someone to do the job; it’s about finding the right fit.

At Amazon, Bezos once famously said that every hire should raise the bar for the next. It’s a system that perpetuates excellence.

How Bezos and Amazon hire

Jeff Bezos is known for his hiring principle, "Raise the bar." This means that every person you hire should be better, in some way, than the person who held that position before.

Bezos even had a set of three questions he used to evaluate candidates:

1. Will you admire this person? Bezos wanted people who would inspire their colleagues.

2. Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering? This speaks to the "raise the bar" philosophy.

3. In what area might this person be a superstar? Bezos believed in hiring people who brought something unique to the team.

The "bar-raiser" approach helped Amazon scale without compromising quality—a tough feat for any company, especially one growing at Amazon's speed.

Tips from Microsoft and Bill Gates

Bill Gates once said, "The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people." 

Gates’s approach focused heavily on technical skills and problem-solving ability. Microsoft’s interview questions were designed to test lateral thinking. It wasn’t about the answers as much as it was about how a person approached problems.

The Microsoft hiring process was notorious for its tough questions: "Why are manhole covers round?" These weren’t meant to test your math skills—they were designed to gauge creativity and the ability to approach problems from multiple angles.

But check out this video from 1989 where Bill Gates discusses the importance of hiring the right people and how to identify talent that can help push your company forward.

Sam Altman on hiring

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, once wrote an entire blog post on why hiring is the most important thing a founder does.

For Altman, hiring comes down to identifying people who are exceptionally driven and capable.

He looks for people who can think independently, who are excited by the mission, and who are inherently problem solvers.

One interesting tip from Altman is to hire people who are excited by your mission but don't expect everything to be figured out. He often says that startups are chaotic by nature, and hiring people who thrive in uncertainty is key.

Musk’s hiring principles

Elon Musk’s hiring philosophy is a combination of grit and deep technical understanding.

Musk is known for directly interviewing candidates and challenging them on problem-solving capabilities. He wants people who can “solve the hard problems.”

Musk once said that he asks candidates to describe a particularly difficult problem they’ve worked on and how they solved it—and if someone struggles to answer, he sees that as a red flag.

Musk’s favorite question is, "Tell me about a problem you've solved in real life." He says it helps distinguish the people who actually solved the problem from those who didn’t, since only someone who solved it will have every detail at their fingertips.

How Athyna hires

At Athyna, we prioritize building an incredibly strong employer brand to recruit the best talent.

The brand is step one in building a great culture. You need to know inside and out what you want to stand for—values, mission, vision, motto, impact.

If you can create a compelling brand and speak with a clear voice, eventually, great people will come knocking at your door to work with you.

We work hard to communicate effectively at Athyna. We create a vibrant online environment, treat our people well, and dedicate ourselves to maintaining a strong company culture.

Our previous Head of People & Culture once told me, "Culture isn't people talking at the water-cooler... culture is how you treat people," and I never forgot that.

This dedication means we receive a lot of referrals, generate inbound interest, and have the right doors open when we need to go headhunting. Whether we’re looking for a business development manager or a tech lead, often we find the perfect candidate right in our internal pool.

Our hiring process focuses on skills, mindset, and mission alignment. We believe in finding individuals who are not only skilled in their domain but are also enthusiastic about being part of a remote-first, impact-driven team. Whether it’s a software engineer in South America or a marketing expert in Africa, we look for people who can excel in a distributed environment.

We also make sure to share the details of new hires before they start in our comms channels. Making a move is tough—you’re leaving a comfortable environment for the unknown, so we try to minimize that by allowing the entire team to reach out and say hello to new hires before they join.

Usually, a good number of the team reach out (as you can see above), and every member of their incoming team does as well. The result is amazing.

Summary (and offer)

Hiring is an art and a science. If there’s one thing all these founders agree on, it’s this: People are everything.

Hire the best, and your company will thrive. Get it wrong, and the consequences could be huge. Whether it's Bezos’s "raise the bar" or Musk’s deep dive into problem-solving, hiring is the key that unlocks a company’s potential.

Ready to take your hiring to the next level?

At Athyna, we help you build your remote dream team. Check out how we can support your hiring efforts here.

In all seriousness though — the journey of building a successful company starts with the right people.

Take inspiration from these great founders, and don’t be afraid to set the bar high. The right hire can be transformative, bringing fresh ideas and energy that propel your company forward.

Remember, it’s not just about filling roles—it's about building a team that can take your vision to new heights.

📚 Recent Founder Deep Dives

In the past year and a half, I’ve written dozens of deep dives on world-class founders, sharing how they built their companies. These typically take 20-30 hours to research and write. The most recent ones are below:

🍌 The Banana King, Sam Zemurray

🌲 Issy Sharp of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

🚗 Chung Ju-yung: Founder of Hyundai

🥃 Fawn Weaver's $1.1 Billion Whiskey Empire

🧥 The Adventurous Ambition of Yvon Chouinard

Best,

Justin

Founder of Just Go Grind and Village Lane