How to Attract and Sustain a Talent Density in the 90th Percentile

We save money in other areas so that we can put all of our money into paying people the max that we can, so that we can attract the very best people in their fields. As I think back over the last three and a half years and how much we've accomplished in such a short period of time, I credit so much of it to the caliber of our team and to the talent density here at Steadily, because we're able to move mountains with far fewer people due to the fact that everybody in their role is exceptional — they are that 90th percentile.

Don't get me wrong, it's really hard. It's hard to maintain that talent density, especially as we've started to scale and we need people. But we absolutely refuse to just put bodies in seats because we need them. We will continue to strain and bleed even in a role because we're insisting we have to have that person who's 90th percentile, and if we haven't found them yet, we're going to keep that role open until we do.

So it can be painful sometimes, but it pays off in the long term, because if you drop that bar, then very quickly your talent density starts to go downhill.