AI Is Redefining Hiring: Hire Engineers Already Obsessed
A candidate used AI to ace the coding test. The team couldn't tell the difference. This is the new hiring reality for SaaS founders 👇 On this week's SaasRise Mastermind, we broke down the biggest challenges SaaS CEOs are facing right now. One theme kept coming up: AI is changing everything — and the founders who act fastest win. Full recap here: https://lnkd.in/ePY_37VJ Here's what we covered: 1️⃣ Hiring AI-empowered engineers is broken Traditional hiring processes are failing. Candidates use AI during coding tests. Resumes look the same. You're filtering through 1,500–2,000+ applicants. What actually works: → Stop training reluctant devs. Hire people already obsessed with AI. → Use unconventional channels (TopTal, G2IO, Lemon.IO , AI-optimized blog posts) → Create internal leaderboards to incentivize AI adoption → Budget $175K–$210K for senior AI-proficient engineers ↳ The skill isn't using AI tools. It's knowing when the AI output is wrong. 2️⃣ AI automation — action beats perfection Some founders are still hesitating because the tools feel rough. Meanwhile, others are automating 80% of their repetitive workflows through Slack and Teams. The move: → Start with hosted solutions (no command-line needed) → Automate simple, high-impact tasks first → Create shared channels where the team learns from each other's AI usage → Iterate based on results, not perfection ↳ The gap between "experimenting with AI" and "running on AI" is just starting. 3️⃣ Pipeline coverage is a distraction early on PE firms ask for pipeline data. Most founders don't have it. The better answer: show them the system, not the spreadsheet. → Build a qualified lead gen engine first (even 1 opportunity/month) → Describe the systematic steps you're taking → Focus on repeatable process before growth equity ↳ Investors buy predictability. Build the machine before you sell the forecast. 4️⃣ Stop sending ad traffic to forms One founder had great email click-through rates but terrible landing page conversions. The fix was simple: → For email: skip the form. Send traffic directly to valuable content on your site. → For ads: dedicated landing pages with benefit-driven copy and clear pain-point messaging → Host everything on your domain to enable retargeting → Start retargeting at just $10/day per platform (Meta + Google) ↳ Remove friction. Track behavior. Let engagement drive the follow-up. The throughline from this week's mastermind: Bias toward action. Remove friction from your systems. And if you're not leveraging AI across hiring, ops, and GTM — you're already behind. --- Today, I run these private communities that might help you: → SaasRise: for founders scaling from $1M to $100M → GrowthRise: for B2B Sales and Marketing leaders (link in comments)
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