What to take away
- 1.Five-question checklist: values, cadence, comp band, perf philosophy, HR generalist.
- 2.If any are missing, hold at 40 for another quarter.
- 3.Crossing without HR is possible — it's also the source of most regrets.
Do you have a written set of values that the team can recite? Not a wall poster — a thing your senior people use to make decisions.
Do you have an operating cadence — weekly, monthly, quarterly rhythms that everyone knows? Without one, every meeting becomes a re-negotiation of what we are even doing.
Do you have a comp band, even a rough one, with at least three levels? Without it, every offer is a one-off negotiation that breeds resentment.
“If you cannot answer yes to these five questions, hold at 40 for another quarter.”
Do you have a performance philosophy in writing? Two paragraphs is enough. What does great look like, how do we measure it, when do we have the hard conversations.
Do you have an HR generalist, or an offer out to one? Crossing 50 without HR is possible. It is also the source of most of the regrettable decisions founders describe in interviews five years later.
Try this Monday
- Run the five-question checklist with your co-founder this week.
- Pick the weakest answer and turn it into a 30-day fix.
- If 'HR generalist' is the no, start the role brief now.
The systems angle
Aire is the layer that turns the answers to those five questions into the system the next 30 hires actually operate inside.
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HR Asia on the 50-person readiness checklist. The line that hit: if you cannot answer yes to all five questions, hold at 40 for another quarter. https://hrasia.co/founder/team-of-50-readiness
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