The first candidate we almost hired had a PhD from a top university, three Nature papers, and gave the most impressive technical interview answer any of us had heard. We passed on them. The reason was simple: they wanted to publish. We needed someone who wanted to build. These are not the same person.
The Depth-to-Width Ratio
In the early stages of a startup like Shakalya, you need people with high depth-to-width ratios. You need someone who has spent 10,000 hours on a single problem but is willing to spend the next 10,000 hours building the solution to that problem inside a product.
Many great researchers are academic nomads — they move from one fascinating problem to another every few months. At Shakalya, we need academic settlers. People who want to see their research manifest in the real world over years, not months.