Naval Ravikant on how a startup can build a great recruiting pipeline

In the clip below, Naval Ravikant explains:

"You have to build a great pipeline. Your best pipeline is going to come from your personal contacts. You literally have to sit everyone at your company down and tell them to name the 10 best people they've ever worked with or gone to school with. I don't care what they're doing now. I don't care if they're getting their PhD. I don't care if they're starting their own company. I don't care if they just joined Google a month ago."

He continues:

"You get those 10 best people and then you just pound the pavement. You have lunch, coffee, breakfast, dinner, whatever with each of them. Even if they're not available for recruiting, they're going to give you a few people. Demand three people from them. And keep in touch because when they become loose, you want them thinking of you."

He also mentions that other companies in your space could also be a great source of talent, in addition to founders of companies that have tried to build something similar to you but failed.

Full video: The Wall Street Journal “The 'Brutal Difficulty' of Hiring Talent | WSJ Startup of the Year” (Aug 2013)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Naval Ravikant insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Naval Ravikant"