> At the CEO level, I'd argue that you must look for people who understand the value of understanding their target audience ("customer") and taking the low cost / low friction action required.
> Or, put simply, spend a couple of hours and $200 on cloths to look the part.
Assembling a $200 wardrobe tailored to appeal to the innate biases of someone hiring based on the clothes you wear is not low cost, low friction, or even representative of many audiences for the kinds of software people write. Also, that you tie looking appropriate to spending a bunch of money on clothes is laughable and goes against startup culture in the first place (when you have little or no money, you mend and thrift your clothes).
> What, exactly, do you think would happen to a 24 year old hotshot banker who goes to an interview at, say, Goldman Sachs wearing Bermuda shorts and a t-shirt?
If your company is aspiring to the Goldman Sachs culture, I will never apply to or do business with it or you.
> If your company is aspiring to the Goldman Sachs culture, I will never apply to or do business with it or you.
There are a lot of things to fault Goldman Sachs for, but they are a tremendously effective and efficient organization. Most startups should be so lucky to be so well-run.
I'm not even that old, but cry me a river. My whole life I was told dress a certain way or you won't get hired. The world put up with it when it was old guys telling young guys they had to wear a suit. Now there's an older guy who says he can't get hired unless he dresses in jeans and sneakers. It's kind of funny but at least he's getting hired. Age discrimination against the young is still perfectly legal in the USA.
> Or, put simply, spend a couple of hours and $200 on cloths to look the part.
Assembling a $200 wardrobe tailored to appeal to the innate biases of someone hiring based on the clothes you wear is not low cost, low friction, or even representative of many audiences for the kinds of software people write. Also, that you tie looking appropriate to spending a bunch of money on clothes is laughable and goes against startup culture in the first place (when you have little or no money, you mend and thrift your clothes).
> What, exactly, do you think would happen to a 24 year old hotshot banker who goes to an interview at, say, Goldman Sachs wearing Bermuda shorts and a t-shirt?
If your company is aspiring to the Goldman Sachs culture, I will never apply to or do business with it or you.