EP03 - Mindset First: What to Look for in Early Hires When Hard Skills Can Be Taught
When someone asks me what matters most in early hires, I usually disappoint them with how simple the answer is.
Mindset.
Not the motivational poster version. Not the vague, feel-good kind. I mean the practical mindset that shows up on a Monday morning when the plan changed overnight, the customer is unhappy, and the founder is running on four hours of sleep.
Early stage is not about having the perfect team. It is about having the right kind of people in the room. People who can move without waiting for permission. People who can build while the ground is still wet.
Hard skills can be taught. Mindset cannot.
I learned this the hard way. First in hospitality, then in recruitment, then inside a big corporate machine, and now in venture building. Different worlds, same truth: when the human system breaks, everything breaks.
Why early hires are different
In a later stage company, you can hire specialists and plug them into a machine. In early stage, there is no machine.
You are building it.
That changes everything. A role description is a guess. A roadmap is a draft. Even the culture is still forming. Early hires do not just do the work. They shape the way work gets done.
This is why early hires are not only a talent decision. They are a strategic decision.
They decide:
How fast you move
How you deal with pressure
How you treat each other when something goes wrong
Whether you build real momentum or just noise
The wrong early hires create drag. They create meetings. They create confusion. They create blame.
The right early hires create clarity. They create rhythm. They create solutions.
The builder mindset
I use the word builder a lot. Not because it sounds nice, but because it is accurate.
A builder is someone who can operate without a finished system and still make progress. They do not complain about the lack of structure. They help create the structure.
Builders are not chaotic. They are actually the opposite. They bring order where there is none. They do it in a simple way. They do it because they care about doing good work.
This matters for founders. It matters for operators. It matters for investors, too.
If you invest early, you are not investing in revenue. You are investing in a team’s ability to build a system that can produce revenue later. You are investing in the human infrastructure.
That is why I pay attention to who founders hire first. It tells you how they think. It tells you how they lead. It tells you what kind of company they are building.
What mindset looks like in real life
Mindset is easy to talk about. It is harder to spot. So I break it down into behaviors I can see.
Here are the mindset traits I look for in early hires, and how they show up.
1. Ownership without ego
Ownership is not taking credit. Ownership is taking responsibility.
It is the person who says:
This is unclear, so I made a first version. Tell me what to adjust.
Not:
Nobody told me what to do.
Early teams cannot afford passive behavior. If someone waits for instructions, the whole team slows down. If someone hides behind their job title, you get gaps everywhere.
Ownership also needs humility. The best early hires take responsibility and still ask for input. They do not need to be the smartest person in the room. They need to be useful.
A simple test:
Ask them about a time something failed. Do they talk about what they learned, or do they talk about who else caused it.
2. Comfort with ambiguity
Startups are unclear by default. If someone needs certainty to function, early stage will drain them.
I do not mean they should be careless. I mean, they should be able to move with incomplete information and update as they learn.
In practice, this looks like:
They can make decisions without perfect data.
They communicate assumptions clearly.
They adjust fast when new information shows up.
If someone panics when the plan changes, they are not ready for early stage. That does not make them bad. It just means they belong in a different environment.
3. Learning speed
Early stage is a learning loop. Build, test, learn, improve. Over and over.
Some people learn fast because they are smart. Others learn fast because they are honest with themselves. I prefer the second one.
A fast learner does not protect their ego. They change their mind when reality demands it.
Look for:
Curiosity
Self reflection
The ability to ask good questions
The ability to turn feedback into action
If you hire people who learn fast, you can teach almost everything else.
4. Energy that helps the team
Energy is not hype. Energy is what happens to the room when someone joins.
Some people bring clarity. Some bring calm. Some bring momentum. Some bring drama.
Early teams cannot afford drama.
I learned in hospitality that energy is contagious. A kitchen works when people respect each other and keep the rhythm. A service collapses when someone loses their head and spreads stress.
Startups are the same. If one early hire brings unhealthy energy, the team will carry it.
I look for people who:
Stay calm under pressure
Communicate directly
Keep standards high without making it personal
Make others better
5. Values alignment and basic decency
This sounds obvious, but it is where many teams compromise.
Founders sometimes hire the wrong person because they are desperate. Or because the person has an impressive background. Or because the person says the right things.
Then later, they realize the person does not share the same rules of the game.
In my world, transparency and trust are not nice extras. They are the foundation. Without them, you get hidden agendas, politics, and slow execution.
A builder can disagree with you and still be respectful. They can say no and still be fair. They can push hard without breaking people.
If someone cannot do that, they are not a fit for the kind of companies I want to build.
How to hire for mindset in a practical way
Mindset is not a gut feeling only. You can create a simple process that makes it visible.
Here is what works for me.
Step 1: Start with real context, not a polished pitch
Tell candidates the truth. Early stage is messy. Priorities shift. Roles are wide. The work is real.
If they get excited by that, good sign.
If they look uncomfortable, also a good sign, because you learned early.
Step 2: Ask for examples that show behavior
Avoid abstract questions like: Are you proactive?
Ask:
Tell me about a time you had no process and still delivered.
Tell me about a time you had to learn something fast to keep up.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a founder or a leader.
Then listen for specifics. Builders remember details because they were in the work.
Step 3: Use a small trial
Early-stage hiring is high risk. A short paid trial reduces that risk.
Give them a real problem. Something your team actually needs. Not a fake case.
You learn more in five days of working together than in five interviews.
Step 4: Reference checks that focus on pressure
Do not only ask if they were good.
Ask how they behaved under pressure.
Ask how they handled feedback.
Ask if they took responsibility when something went wrong.
This is where mindset shows up.
Step 5: Protect the culture early
The first hires shape what becomes normal.
If you hire someone who cuts corners, corners will be cut.
If you hire someone who communicates poorly, poor communication becomes accepted.
If you hire someone who disrespects others, disrespect becomes part of the system.
You cannot fix this later with value posters. Culture is behavior repeated.
A note for investors and partners
If you are an investor, an LP, a capital partner, or an operator joining a venture, here is a simple lens.
When you look at an early-stage team, ask:
Who are the builders?
Who brings clarity?
Who can operate without structure?
Who keeps the team human when pressure rises?
You can have the best idea in the world, but without the right early hires, the venture becomes a PowerPoint deck with a burn rate.
The best founders I know are not the ones with the most impressive slides. They are the ones who build teams that can execute with integrity.
Trust compounds. So does dysfunction.
The point
Early hiring is not about finding perfect people.
It is about finding people who can build in imperfect conditions.
Skills matter. Of course they do. But skills are only useful when the mindset can handle the reality of early stage.
If you are hiring early, look for builders.
If you are investing early, look for the founders who hire builders.
If you are joining early, be honest with yourself about what environment you want.
I will keep saying it because it stays true:
Hard skills can be taught. Mindset cannot.
If you want to talk about early team building, venture systems, or what we are building at UniPrisma, reach out. I prefer direct conversations over noise.
Timecode:
00:00 Introduction: The Importance of Mindset in Early Hires
00:06 The Builder's Mentality: Thriving Without Structure
00:17 Adaptability: Navigating Daily Changes
00:20 Conclusion: Mindset as the Key to Survival
Links:
Uniprisma: https://uniprisma.com/
Meijer & Co.: https://meijerandco.com/
Personal Website: https://www.thijmenmeijer.com/
Transcript:
What should I look for in early hires when, hard skills can be taught? first of all, mindset. Um, when it's an early hire, you need builders, people that are keen to build, basically, that can easily work without processes that can, uh, work without any kind of, structure . Things are happening every day differently. mindset is key, uh, for the survival of any kind of, corporation or, startup.