Your Team Isn't the Problem. Your Standards Are.

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Here's the brutal truth most founders won't admit:

You're not short on people. You're short on performers.

You have a team full of people who show up, do the basics, and collect paychecks. But when it's time to think critically, move fast, or solve complex problems?

They disappear.

Meanwhile, you're drowning in work that should be off your plate. Redoing their tasks. Making decisions they should make. Solving problems they should solve.

And instead of fixing the root cause, you keep hiring more mediocre people to manage the mediocre people you already have.

That's not scaling. That's just expensive babysitting.

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A-Players Don't Stay Where B- and C-Players Are Rewarded

Want to know why your best people leave?

Because they're tired of carrying dead weight.

A-Players want to work with other A-Players. They want to be challenged, not held back by teammates who need everything explained twice.

When your top performer quits, it's not because they found more money elsewhere.

It's because they got tired of being the only one who gives a sh*t.

I learned this the hard way in 2018.

I had an incredible developer who solved problems before I knew they existed. But I also kept a mediocre hire who did exactly what he was told and nothing more.

For six months, I watched my A-player get increasingly frustrated cleaning up the other guy's mistakes. His energy shifted. He started making comments in standups.

I knew what was happening. But I didn't want to be the 'mean boss.'

So I did nothing.

My A-player gave two weeks notice on a Tuesday. Said he was joining a startup where 'everyone actually cared about the work.'

That mistake cost me $120K in salary, rehiring costs, and three months of delayed launches.

Don't make my mistake.

Here's what drives A-Players away:

Lack of speed: They thrive on momentum. If every decision takes three meetings and two approvals, they're gone.

Micromanagement: They know how to think. If you're telling them exactly how to do every task, you're treating them like a C-Player.

No clear vision: They need to see where the company is headed. If you can't articulate the mission, they'll find someone who can.

Bureaucratic BS: They want to execute, not navigate office politics and red tape.

Action: Run the A-Player Audit

Look at your team. For each person, ask:

• Do they solve problems or create them?
• Do they need detailed instructions or figure things out?
• Do they raise the bar or lower it?

If someone consistently needs you to think for them, they're not an A-Player.

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Stop Hiring Bodies. Start Hiring Brains.

Most founders hire like this:

"We need someone to handle marketing."

So they post a job, interview candidates, and hire whoever seems decent.

That's backwards.

A-Players don't apply to generic job posts. They get recruited by companies that know exactly what they're looking for.

Here's the shift:

Instead of "We need a marketing person," ask:

• What specific marketing problems need solving?
• What results do we need in 90 days?
• What type of person thrives at solving these exact problems?

Then build your search around that profile.

Hint: A-players most likely will be poached. They are already working for a potentially successful company, and they need to be tempted. They don’t lack opportunities, and most times already have a job.

It's pretty unlikely that an A-player is going to be jobless.

Action: Write the A-Player Profile

For your next hire, define:

• The 3 most critical problems they'll solve
• What "exceptional" looks like in this role
• The mindset and background that predicts success

Then test for those specific things. Not generic "culture fit."

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A-Players Interview You as Much as You Interview Them

Here's how you know you're talking to an A-Player:

They ask better questions than you do.

C-Players ask about benefits, vacation time, and "work-life balance."

A-Players ask about:

• What's the biggest challenge facing the company?
• How do you measure success in this role?
• What does the growth trajectory look like?
• Why did the last person in this role leave?

If someone doesn't challenge you during the interview, they won't challenge the status quo when they're hired.

You need to sell the company.

Action: Let Them Interview You

Spend 10% of the interview answering their questions. Smart people have smart questions. If they don't ask any, that's your answer.

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The Real Test: Give Them Something Hard

Want to separate A-Players from pretenders?

Give them a real problem to solve.

Not a case study. Not a hypothetical. An actual challenge your company is facing right now.

• Marketing candidate? Here's our conversion problem. How would you approach it?
• Operations candidate? Here's our bottleneck. What's your 30-day plan?
• Sales candidate? Here's our toughest prospect. How do you close them?

A-Players get excited by hard problems. C-Players make excuses.

Action: Build The Reality Test

Create a real-world challenge for each role you hire for. Make it tough enough that only someone with genuine skill can solve it.

Final Reality Check

You can't build an A-Team with C-Player standards.

If you're not willing to demand excellence, pay for talent, and fire people who drag the team down?

You'll stay stuck with a team that needs constant management instead of one that drives results.

The choice is yours: Keep hiring warm bodies and stay overwhelmed.

Or start building a team that actually makes your life easier.

Stop figuring this out alone. Join founders who are serious about building elite teams.

My Founder Accelerator Group isn't another mastermind full of guessing and peer advice. It's expert-led coaching (by ME) for founders scaling from $250K to $3M who want tactical frameworks that actually work.

What you get:

• Quarterly strategy workshops to cut through hiring confusion
• Bi-weekly tactical calls for real problems (like building A-Player systems)
• Daily Slack access with me and 9 other committed founders
• Frameworks that work - not theory that sounds good

Limited to 10 founders per cohort. No fluff. No cheerleading. Just execution.

Apply for the Founder Accelerator Group →

Stop managing mediocrity. Start leading excellence.

- Ignacio

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