Should Startups Hire Based On Passion Or Experience?

Are you more likely to hire someone based on their passion or on their experience? Startup founders, business leaders, and business professionals shared their thoughts online. Here are some of their opinions and thoughts.

1.      It depends. If I am hiring a software developer, obviously I would hire experience over passion. But among the many software developers, I would hire a person with a passion to build and create. But generally, I would always look out for the passion trait. Passion cannot be overemphasized. Business leaders have made great companies because of their passion to see them succeed.  

 -Thomas Oppong

1.      Experience is never considered. And while I will use passion as a tiebreaker, a person’s ability to do the work and interact effectively with the team always takes priority.

- Doug Luce, Two successful (profitable) startups

2.      I don’t think it depends on the role or position. You can gain and teach experience, but you cannot gain or teach passion. Nor can you buy passion. Either somebody is passionate about something or not.

-Kai Gradert, Designer, Creator & Thinker

3.      Regardless of any role and stage of the company, hire a person who is passionate about learning new things.

– Abhishek Shivkumar, Works inside a Large company, but in a Startup environment

4.      If you have time to mentor, then definitely “passion”. If you need someone to stabilize the ship, then “experience”.

-Ashish Panjabi, Entrepreneur, Tech Enthusiast

5.      I would put a candidate’s work ethic above passion and experience. I can mold a hard-working person into any role. If a person takes their work seriously, they learn quickly, and often develop their passion in the process. 

Sol Irvine – Founder of The Daily Play and the Yuson & Irvine law firm.

6.      It would really depend on the position and the role they need to fill. If I were hiring a CFO, experience matters, passion being secondary. Otherwise, passion is essential to me.

- David Ferguson– On startup #2

7.      Eh, passion can be faked, experience cannot.

- Carl Anthony Jr, Analyst

8.      Passion has limits, and without the steady hand of experience, passion will diminish over time in many cases, leaving the enterprise to languish. 

Michael R.H.Stewart-Social Media Strategy, Execution, and Management – President, Jericho Technology, Inc. – 20 years of online experience

By Eleni Dimpetri

Paris School Of entrepreneurship