Ask HN: How do you hire people who get equity

[god_bless_texas]

I seem to have horrible judgment in partners. I've now had 2 partners that I brought in and gave equity to. I thought they hung the moon and then stuff went south. One thankfully quit in a blaze of glory and forfeited any equity. The other one was like a freight train until the vesting cliff kicked in and then he started asking for cash out of the business and stopped calling on customers (he was BD).

So HN how do you do this better than me?

[muzani]

As Paul Graham said, find people who are animals. The kind who aren't simply talented. They do it because they need to. It's in their base instinct, to build, to sell, to do whatever they need to.

Also since this has happened to you twice, you might also want to look at yourself and see whether the problem lies with you. A lot of charismatic people actually have others flocking to them instead of trying to pull away once the vesting cliff kicks in. You might want to upgrade your leadership skills or at least your mission.