asilia

Mediocre employees = showing up on time, being well-meaning, but making very slow progress and many mistakes due to a lack of, to be honest, intelligence. Not really understanding why those mistakes are a problem even after receiving an explanation and coaching. Do you think that's a death sentence?

Thanks for your response. What have been some of the success-undermining exclusionary habits you've observed?

Thank you both for your input.

@gtirloni can you share more about your experiences talking to founders? Did they just disagree with you that there was a problem at all?

Thanks. I want to learn but feel like I can only learn significant stuff from one founder, and not particularly from anyone else on the team.

It's not a language barrier, English is their first (and only) language. This is part of why it baffles and frustrates me so much that this is even an issue.

The cofounders knew this person and so it was an easy, friction-free hire when they really needed someone.

Thanks for the feedback and point about the difference between my and HN/PG's interests, it makes sense.

Which roles would this be OK in? --> Good question. I guess I was trying to be nice.

To answer your main question, average people can accomplish a lot --> Would you say that mediocre early employees are not necessarily a death sentence for an early-stage startup? Have you seen examples (serious question)?

Thank you. One founder has urgency for himself, but not for the rest of us—he is laid-back with employees and doesn't really seem to discipline anyone. The other seems very hands off.

I'm just so frustrated. It's annoying to see what could be a good product get waylaid like this.

And from a selfish perspective, I'm wondering if I should move on now despite only working there for a few months (looks bad on resume) or push through for a while. What would you do?

Thank you for this response. What did you do with those "mediocre" types—did you let them go ASAP? If not, do you wish you had let them go earlier?

If you were in my situation, would you generally assume the company is probably a goner and look elsewhere (even if the product is/could be good)?

I'm 30 and have previously worked in one big company and one startup.

You need to figure out how to make it work --> I know I need to figure out how to make it work for myself and to do the best work I can, but I only have so much control over what other people do and how they perform. My question is more whether a startup can succeed with a few incompetent early employees. If it's unlikely, then I want to start looking elsewhere. What do you think?

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment.

Have you seen an example where a company has succeeded with mediocre early team members?

I feel torn about this because I don't want to quit so early (it's only been a few months) for many reasons—financial, looks weird on CV, genuinely like the founders—but also don't want to shoot myself in the foot staying in a possibly sinking ship.