Why Your Startup Keeps Hiring the Wrong People | Traction

The talent market has shifted in ways that make hiring harder for early-stage teams.

In this episode, Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo talk about why salaries jumped, why interviews often look better than the work that follows, and how these gaps slow companies down.

They share what they’ve learned from hiring mistakes, how expectations changed after the unicorn wave, and what founders should pay attention to when building teams that can actually deliver.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:56 The current state of the talent market

02:24 Gaps between interviews and actual performance

07:22 Compensation expectations vs. capabilities

21:23 Organizational impact of early mis-hires

34:24 Building a team that delivers consistently

45:03 Hiring for trajectory, not tenure

Lloyed Lobo:

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo

- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lloyedlobo