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Ways to Stand Out When You Apply for a Startup


There is one clear path to increase your odds of being hired by a startup: try much harder than anyone else who applied.

This sounds obvious. Yet practically nobody does it. That’s because trying harder than any other applicant is, by default, not easy. It’s going to take some work. But the payoff is that you get to take more control over the future of your career and life, and we think that’s worth it.

Consider the base case: most people just apply to jobs by sending their resume and cover letter.

If you really want the job, we suggest you try 10x harder than those people. That’s not an exaggerated number — we mean 10x. Trying only 2x harder, for example, might mean you just send a short email to the founder when you apply, letting them know that you applied and that you’re interested. That’s okay. But you can do a lot better. To get you started, we wrote a list of things you can use as inspiration. These are things that have worked to land people interviews (or to get them hired) at startups.

If you copy this list 1:1, you are not trying 10x harder. Our goal here is to give you tactics and inspiration, which you can run with and modify based on your individual situation.

  • Talk to their customers, collect learnings, and summarize those learnings for them.
  • Make a list of ideas that would help the company generate more revenue.
  • Make a list, or resume, of your failures.
  • Write them a sample plan of what you could (or would) do in your first 30 or 60 days working there.
  • Sign up as a customer and build your own friction log for them.
  • Record a Loom of why you would want to work there.
  • Write a short essay, or memo, analyzing their competitors.
  • Make a creative slide deck about why you’re the right pick.
  • Get them customers.
  • Write thoughtful emails to them (if you have an interview, send a great thank you afterwards).
  • Give them feedback on their interview process.
  • Ask interesting questions that actually push the interviewer.
  • Be yourself. Don’t put on a bullshit corporate tone. Be real with them.
  • If you do land an interview, speak slower than feels natural.
  • In an interview, explain what would make you quit (or keep working there) in 6 months.
  • Offer to work for them as a contractor for a few months before going full-time.
  • Do some work for them for free.
  • In addition to applying, send an email to the founder (more on that here).
  • Reply as quickly as possible when they email you.
  • Be flexible. If they ask for an interview at a time that’s uncomfortable for you, take it anyway.
  • Ask them why people have quit in the past.

All of these tactics may work. They are not guaranteed to get you hired, but they increase the odds that you will stand out.

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