# Why Your Startup Keeps Hiring the Wrong People

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/traction-podcast-4487336/why-your-startup-keeps-hiring-the-wrong-people
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/traction-podcast-4487336/why-your-startup-keeps-hiring-the-wrong-people.md
Podcast: [Traction Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/traction-podcast-4487336)
Published: 2025-12-11T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tractionfm/episodes/Why-Your-Startup-Keeps-Hiring-the-Wrong-People-e3c6s4d
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/10adec898/podcast/play/112471629/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-11%2F414178762-44100-2-ffed1907cfd06.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/traction-podcast-4487336/episodes/why-your-startup-keeps-hiring-the-wrong-people
Duration seconds: 3025

## Resource

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

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## Transcript

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