{"podcast":{"title":"Fund/Build/Scale","slug":"fund-build-scale-6723964","podcast_index_feed_id":6723964,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/fundbuildscale/feed.xml","website_url":"https://fundbuildscale.substack.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/17670315/new_FBS_1400_x_1400_tile_ggrhbt.jpg","author":"Walter Thompson","episode_count":120,"summary":"After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it. There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder. Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale: 1. To help founders make fewer mistakes. 2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey. 3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out. This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business. I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising w…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-07T10:21:25.778921+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964"},"episode":{"title":"How to Hire Your First Offshore Team Without Screwing It Up","slug":"how-to-hire-your-first-offshore-team-without-screwing-it-up","published_at":"2026-04-28T17:42:06+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964/how-to-hire-your-first-offshore-team-without-screwing-it-up","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964","url":"https://fundbuildscale.podbean.com/e/how-to-hire-your-first-offshore-team-without-screwing-it-up/","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/f8rajq5x8r7g7vye/How_to_Hire_Your_First_Offshore_Team_Without_Screwing_It_Upag5y2.mp3","summary":"Hiring is one of the hardest things for first-time founders to get right, especially if you’re building a distributed team that spans the globe. For this episode, I spoke to Isaac Saul Kassab, co-founder of Pearl Talent, a recruiting firm that helps startups hire offshore teams. We break down the underlying hiring frameworks founders can actually use, whether you’re hiring locally or globally. We get into how to write tighter job descriptions, evaluating candidates beyond their resumes, and why so many founders waste time interviewing the wrong people. Isaac also walks through how he thinks about onboarding as a filtering mechanism and why early hiring mistakes are often unavoidable (but manageable if you move quickly). If you’re building your first team — or trying to fix a hiring process that just isn’t working — this episode gives you a practical starting point. How to define a role around outcomes instead of responsibilities Why you should cut 30–40% from your job description before you post it The interview questions that surface real signal (and filter out noise) How to assess curiosity, coachability, and long-term fit Why onboarding should be designed to expose failure early The most common mistakes founders make when hiring offshore What kind of hiring failure rate to expect as a first-time founder RUNTIME 31:31 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:32) The Hiring Problem That Created Pearl Talent(9:56) How to Fix a Broken Hiring Process (Sourcing, Vetting, Onboarding)(14:08) How to Evaluate Candidates Beyond the Resume(17:25) Why Most Founders Hire the Wrong People(22:05) “If You Don’t Invest in the Person, You Get Failure”(25:29) Your First Offshore Hire: Start by Working Backwards(28:18) A Simple Hiring Playbook You Can Use Tomorrow LINKS Pearl Talent Isaac Saul Kassab Monty…","meta_description":"Hiring is one of the hardest things for first-time founders to get right, especially if you’re building a distributed team that spans the globe. For this…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1891,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/fund-build-scale-6723964/episodes/how-to-hire-your-first-offshore-team-without-screwing-it-up/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964/how-to-hire-your-first-offshore-team-without-screwing-it-up.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}