Andreessen Horowitz Pens Guides On How To Hire (And Fire) Key Executives

Renowned VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has just published a series of advice blogs about hiring and firing.

Published on its a16z blog, the set includes guides on hiring a CFO, a VP of Engineering, a CMO and a Head of Sales.

Each one gives tips on what to look for, when to hire for these positions, and what each one can bring to a growing business.

General Partner Lars Dalgaard, who sold SuccessFactors for $3bn in 2012, has also penned an interesting article about firing senior executives, titled It’s Never Too Early to Fire.

As he says: “To be provocative: No one ever fired someone too soon. This is a seasoned refrain I hear a lot amongst experienced founders and CEOs, and I have never heard anyone disagree with it. Think of it as success-NPV, or the “net present value of success” — not for financial plan considerations but for outcomes on talent: the longer you leave firing, the lower the NPV will be.

“Not firing someone means not moving ahead with the right person that much earlier, you’ve now started the clock of underperformance, and the longer you wait, the longer that clock of lost opportunity is ticking. The longer you wait to fire them, the more compounded success is lost.”

Check them out here.