Tales from the Trenches | The One Hiring Question Successful Founders Use

By David Stein

People talk about hiring for "culture fit" or "credentials." But neither indicator in itself predicts success.

Many leaders completely miss asking about what actually matters: a track record of achieving unreasonable results.

The standard hiring playbook tells you to verify education, work history, tenure, and promotion velocity. But that's all table stakes. What's infinitely more valuable is determining whether a candidate had a differential impact on their previous company's trajectory.

Were they an average contributor riding great momentum, or did they lead and execute on mission critical initiatives?

Did they adapt to an established, successful environment, or did they rapidly iterate to define it?

Here's the interview question that cuts through the noise:

"If I asked your previous partners, managers, and teammates for examples where you achieved unreasonable results, what would they tell me?"

Look for accomplishments so memorable that when you ask around, the stories flow immediately with specific details and measurable impact. Every star I've hired or interviewed can point to stories of memorable impact.

Some examples:

- A new platform engineer who quickly diagnosed critical scalability issues, designed a new architecture, and rallied the team to implement and launch.

- A sales leader who personally closed the company's first six-figure deals (with shorter sales cycles than the founders had managed), then created a repeatable playbook, hired the right early reps, and delivered 4x YoY growth.

If the answers provided aren't emphatic, detailed, and specific, keep looking.