Top Founders Interview Candidates Differently
Most startup interviews are useless.
They follow a generic script and somehow expect to find someone ready to sprint through hell, wear four hats, and care deeply about their user.
“Walk me through your resume,”
“What’s your biggest weakness?”
It’s no wonder so many early hires don’t work out. If you’re building a startup, you don’t need corporate polish.
You need signal. Fast.
Here’s how top founders actually interview startup candidates. And why your next hire depends on throwing out the playbook.
At Google, they’re assessing pattern recognition.
At Goldman, it’s about pressure and precision.
At a startup, your job isn’t to play recruiter. It’s to ask:
“Can this person survive the mess I’m about to throw them in?”
The best founders don’t look for perfect answers. They look for spikes:
Curiosity over credentials
Resourcefulness over resumes
Action over articulation
That means you don’t need a great interviewer.
You need a great litmus test.
What Actually Works
Three techniques top founders use that outperform traditional interviews:
1. Run the “Wednesday Test”
Ask yourself:
“If we’re firefighting something next Wednesday at 6pm, do I want this person next to me?”
The Wednesday Test is emotional. Intuitive. And essential.
Startups move fast. Interviews should too. If you need three rounds and a panel just to feel 70% sure, that’s already a no.
Would you be excited to work with them tomorrow? Excitement is a better filter than competence. Especially early.
2. Do a Real-World Sprint, Not a Take-Home
Ditch the theoretical case study.
Instead, say:
“We’re working on [X problem]. Let’s jam on it for 30 minutes together.”
Why this works:
You see how they think aloud
You watch them adapt to new info
You learn if they’re collaborative under pressure
This simulates the real job better than any portfolio ever could. It respects their time while showing how you work too.
3. Reverse the Interview: Let Them Lead
After 10 minutes, flip the script:
“What questions do you have for me?”
Then stop talking.
This reveals more than any hypothetical. Their questions show:
How deeply they understand startups
What they care about in a team
Whether they’ve done their homework
If they only ask about comp or titles? Not your person. If they ask about customer retention, roadmap decisions, or runway, keep talking.
Great early-stage candidates often act like cofounders in disguise. They want to understand the business, not just the job.
The Takeaway
You can use tools like ChatGPT to draft questions. You can use Twill to surface pre-vetted referrals from founder networks.
But there’s one thing you can’t outsource: judgment.
Great startup interviews are less about answers and more about vibes.
Less “Are they qualified?”
More “Do they care?”
That’s why founders who interview like recruiters often miss.
But founders who interview like founders win.