Should companies hire experienced senior managers, or promote junior people who stay close to the work?

Auren Hoffman · Nov 3, 2023 · hedged

VPs at leaner companies need to be different in kind — more in the weeds and better at using vendors — so you end up betting more on potential than on experience

With fewer people to manage, the job is execution and leverage rather than managing an organization

Scope: applies to smaller/leaner companies

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Fabien Pinckaers · Feb 12, 2025

Managers and directors should only ever be internal promotions, never external hires, even when opening a subsidiary in a new country

People you've worked with for years are known quantities who will be good and spend efficiently, which removes the need for budgets

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Harry Stebbings · May 19, 2025

The prevailing advice from guests on the show is not to hire senior managers — their playbook isn't transferable and you should promote young people who want to be hands-on in the weeds.

Experienced managers bring non-transferable playbooks while junior hires stay closer to the work.

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Dan Siroker · May 15, 2024

It is better to spend more on an experienced hire and keep the team small than to hire cheaper new graduates and grow headcount

The best team is small, tightly aligned and highly focused; every person carries opportunity cost and adds n-squared communication links, and hiring junior people means training them at the cost of velocity — 'the best way to slow down a project is to add a person to it'

28:25 Spend more on experienced hires and keep the team small rather than hiring cheap juniors

Dave Clark · Jul 17, 2023

Internal promotion is preferable, but fast-growth companies must intersperse senior external hires because internal people have no exposure to the business the company is becoming

External senior talent comes in primarily to teach and model behaviour for the internally developing people, and the fastest way to learn is to have someone present who has already seen it

22:07 Internal promotion preferred but fast growth needs interspersed external senior hires to teach