These Are 5 Skills Startup Founders Look for When Hiring

• Despite the recent wave of tech layoffs, Web3 companies are still hiring new employees.
• Insider spoke to six Web3 startup founders about what they look for when hiring new employees.
• They said they look for people who are adaptable, have innovative ideas, and a startup mentality. 

Though the tech sector is seeing massive layoffs, Web3 companies are still showing promise for job seekers. 

Shortly after the cryptocurrency firm, Coinbase, froze hiring and laid off 18% of its staff, its competitor, Binance, announced it would be hiring for 2,000 new positions. And while earlier this year there were less than 10,000 job listings on the Web3 career site Web3. Careers, there are more 23,000 jobs listed today. 

As the buzz of decentralized internet takes over Silicon Valley, talented candidates from all professional fields – including engineering, product, and marketing – are making their way to the lucrative world. 

“To push boundaries of what’s technologically possible in Web3 requires more than technical skill,” Dillon Rosenblatt, CEO and co-founder of sports and entertainment NFT platform Autograph, told Insider.

According to Rosenblatt, Web3 founders aren’t just looking for coders but also individuals with an ambition to revolutionize how we use the internet. 

Insider spoke to six Web3 startup founders about the skills they look for when examining resumes or interviewing potential candidates. These are the top five traits Web3 founders said they wanted when hiring employees for this growing and competitive field. 

Bring a startup mentality 

“We look for employees who love to build and act like owners,” Brad Kad, the co-founder of Unstoppable Domains, a company that offers decentralized websites and blockchain-based domain names, told Insider. 

Joe Lau, the co-founder of Web3 development platform Alchemy, told Insider he looks for candidates who have worked on their own before. Whether it’s former startup founders or people who have worked at early-stage companies, Lau wants employees who are self-directed and can know what they need to do. 

“You really have to take a ton of ownership [in Web3] and it’s on you to really deliver,” Lau explains. “Whereas if you work at a larger company, you can let the team or let the company carry you along.”  

Be an active member of the Web3 community

The first thing Mahesh Vellanki, co-founder of blockchain-based creator platform Rally and managing partner of crypto venture studio SuperLayer, looks for in candidates is past experience with similar Web3 projects — though Vellanki told Insider he recognizes such a prerequisite can often be a Catch-22 for an industry still in its infancy. 

But if candidates have no prior experience in Web3, he told Insider they can still pass his benchmark if they are curious and have a “personal passion as a consumer of crypto.” Vellanki looks for candidates who are active in many different crypto-communities. 

“Projects often hire directly from their communities,” Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of decentralized oracle network Chainlink, told Insider. “[It’s’] something we’ve seen over and over again with the Chainlink community.” Staying active in crypto and Web3 forums could give job seekers a leg-up when applying to jobs at those firms, he explained.  

Know how to adapt quickly

Web3 is still a wild west — even when compared to traditional Silicon Valley disruptors. Nearly every startup founder from Devin Finzer of OpenSea to Brad Kad of Unstoppable Domains told Insider they’re looking for employees that are highly adaptable. 

When asked how candidates could show their ability to adapt, Vellanki said he looks for candidates who can learn by “deeply examining other projects in the market.”

Lau echoed Vellanki’s sentiment. “There’s little precedent for how projects operate,” he said. Because of the evolving nature of the industry, Lau said he looks for candidates who can adapt after zooming out and quickly learning what’s important. 

Embrace your rebellious spirit

Web3 is all about “empowering self-sovereign individuals and creating a new trust foundation for the planet,” Joe Lubin, CEO and founder of Ethereum software company ConsenSys, told Insider. Lubin looks for candidates who are passionate about building better systems or finding innovative ways of interacting online, new business models, and even entirely new industries. 

Similarly, OpenSea CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer, wants candidates who challenge norms. “We’re looking for people who ask ‘Why?'” he said. 

Rosenblatt added that candidates should challenge traditional norms and “shift how we think about the status quo.”  

Have a long term vision 

As Web3 sees unprecedented innovation, Nazarov told Insider that he ultimately looks for candidates who believe in the future of the industry and are committed to growing the space as it evolves.

Lubin summed up that no matter the role candidates apply for, it’s essential that individuals have their sights on contributing toward the broader goals of Web3. 

“We’re essentially looking for mission driven talent who are passionate about a decentralized future,” he said.