0:00 Forty percent of senior executives fail or leave their jobs within eighteen months.0:05 And we became that statistic.0:07 We became that statistic HARD.0:09 I still have a physical reaction when I think about it.0:13 I know.0:13 I think we both do.0:14 Let’s talk about Alex.0:16 Our...0:16 let's call him our "learning experience" of a CTO.0:20 Why did we hire him?0:21 Looking back, it seems insane.0:23 It was desperation.0:24 Pure and simple.0:25 We needed to scale the tech team, the product roadmap was a mess, and he walked in with this perfect resume from two big-name companies.0:34 He had all the answers.0:36 He had all the answers.0:37 That was the first red flag, wasn't it?0:40 We were so relieved someone seemed to know what to do that we didn't stop to ask if they were the right answers for us.0:48 That's it exactly.0:49 During the interview, he kept blaming his last team for a failed project.0:54 He said they "lacked vision." We should have heard "I can't lead." Instead we heard "He's a visionary!" Wait, really?1:02 I remember thinking his references were a little too perfect.1:06 They felt rehearsed.1:07 But we were so focused on the cost of that empty seat—what is it, like five hundred dollars a day for a senior role?—that we just...1:16 pushed it through.1:17 We let the financial pressure override our gut instinct.1:21 And that's the trap.1:22 Here's what that means if you're a founder listening to this: the cost of an empty seat is nothing compared to the cost of the wrong person in that seat.1:32 Nothing.1:33 Because he came in, and the first month was just...1:36 meetings.1:37 So many meetings.1:38 And then the damage started.1:40 My best engineer, Sarah, came to me, and she was close to tears.1:44 Alex had told her to scrap three months of her work on a core feature.1:49 No discussion.1:50 Just an order.1:51 I remember that.1:52 The team's morale just cratered.1:54 Productivity went to zero because everyone was terrified to do anything without his sign-off, but he was never available.2:02 Because he was in meetings!2:04 We burned through his salary, sure.2:06 But the real cost was the six months of product momentum we lost.2:10 We missed an entire market cycle.2:12 That's a cost you can't put on a spreadsheet.2:15 That's the stuff that kills companies.2:18 The money hurts.2:19 The lost time is worse.2:21 But telling the team...2:22 telling the team that we got it wrong, that we had to let him go, and that we were responsible for the chaos...2:30 that was the hardest day I've had building this company.2:33 It was brutal.2:34 The lesson for me was that old mantra, "hire slow, fire fast"?2:38 It's wrong for a startup.2:40 It's hire fast, fire FASTER.2:42 The second you know it's a mistake, you have to act.2:45 And you have to change how you hire.2:48 We don't just do interviews now.2:50 We do paid trial projects.2:52 A one-week, defined scope.2:53 See how they actually think, how they communicate.2:57 It's not about seeing if they can code.2:59 It's about seeing if they have curiosity.3:02 Alex never asked questions.3:04 He just presented solutions.3:06 Most decisions you make as a founder are reversible.3:09 You can change your pricing, pivot your product.3:12 But getting the people wrong...3:14 you can't just undo that.3:16 You have to live with the scar tissue.
