Why Texture Bets on Experience: Our Contrarian Approach to Startup Hiring

So you've just raised capital for your startup. Your first move? Hire a bunch of recent college grads to stretch that capital as far as possible, right?

Wrong.

At Texture, where we're building the next generation platform for the energy space, we've deliberately chosen a different path: fewer people, but better. Yes, this means burning through capital faster. But here's the counterintuitive truth: paying more for experienced talent actually accelerates your path to success. While your pile of cash might not last as long, you'll get to your next milestone—and your next round of funding or first dollar of revenue—faster and more efficiently. More importantly, this approach significantly increases your chances of a successful exit, whether that's through an IPO or high-value acquisition. Why? Because acquirers and public markets value companies with strong fundamentals built by experienced teams who've made the right strategic decisions from day one.

#Experience Matters, Especially Early On

In the early stages of a startup, every decision carries outsized weight. Whether it's the architecture of your systems or the norms that shape your company culture, these choices echo for years. Across my five previous startups, I've seen firsthand how costly it can be to clean up after decisions made without sufficient foresight. Early missteps can snowball into massive headaches when you start scaling.

That's why we prioritize hiring experienced operators. These are the folks who have been through the battles, carry the scars, and know how to avoid the landmines. They understand the long-term implications of decisions and are less likely to cut corners that will come back to bite us later—but they also know where we can cut corners. They're adept at taking on technical debt in ways that maximize leverage and create room for rapid growth without jeopardizing the future.

At Texture, we're proud to have multiple team members who've been CTOs themselves, bringing a wealth of knowledge and hard-earned lessons to every decision we make. In fact, one of our core hiring principles is that ideally, every new hire should be more capable than me in their area of expertise. This creates an environment where everyone is constantly learning from each other, pushing boundaries, and raising the bar.

#High Expectations and Clear Direction

When you build a team of experienced operators, you set the bar incredibly high. At Texture, we expect every team member to thrive, not just survive. But with these high expectations comes a responsibility from leadership: providing crystal-clear direction and purpose.

We've adopted the military concept of Commander's Intent in our operations. Rather than micromanaging tasks, we focus on clearly communicating the desired outcome and its purpose. This approach maintains the high level of autonomy our experienced team members expect while ensuring everyone moves in the same direction.

For every initiative, we strive to create absolute clarity around three key elements:

What we're building
Who we're building it for
Why every person in the company will benefit from its success

This clarity of purpose, combined with our team's experience, creates an environment where people can move fast and make decisions confidently, knowing they're aligned with our broader objectives.

#The Power of Autonomy and Cross-Functional Expertise

One of the greatest advantages of hiring experienced operators is their ability to work autonomously. At an early-stage startup, every day counts, and bottlenecks can slow progress to a crawl. Experienced team members don't need constant oversight—they know how to assess trade-offs, make decisions, and move forward. This autonomy not only accelerates velocity but also fosters innovation by empowering individuals to bring their best ideas to the table.

With a lean team, versatility becomes a superpower. We look for individuals with cross-functional expertise—people who can wear multiple hats and contribute across domains. This often means that very senior people sometimes find themselves doing "low-level" work. But at this stage of a startup, that's not just acceptable—it's expected. Today, with tools like large language models (LLMs), much of that lower-level work can be automated or accelerated, enabling senior team members to handle tasks efficiently without sacrificing their broader strategic impact.

If you're willing to put together your own desk in the office, why shouldn't the same principle apply to technical work? The point is to do what needs to be done, regardless of title or seniority.

#The Compounding Effect of Great Decisions

Startups are built on millions of micro-decisions. Early on, those decisions establish not only your technical architecture but also the cultural bedrock of your team. The right decisions accelerate your velocity; the wrong ones grind progress to a halt. Similarly, the right culture attracts and retains talent; the wrong one creates churn and disillusionment.

When every team member brings deep experience to the table, it creates a unique cultural dynamic. Discussions are richer, decisions are more nuanced, and everyone operates with a level of professional maturity that's rare in early-stage startups. This creates a virtuous cycle where high-caliber talent attracts more high-caliber talent.

#The Challenges of Our Approach

While I firmly believe in our strategy of hiring experienced operators, I'd be remiss not to acknowledge its challenges. This approach isn't easy, and it comes with its own set of trade-offs.

First, hiring experienced operators is inherently difficult for an early-stage startup. These are people who could easily take comfortable, stable positions at big tech companies. Convincing them to join a startup requires not just a compelling vision, but also their willingness to take a leap of faith. And while we strive to pay top of market for our size and stage, the reality is that we simply cannot match big tech salaries in our early phases. Though we aim to reach those levels eventually, at seed and Series A stages, we have to be honest: joining us likely means taking a pay cut.

The nature of early-stage work presents its own challenges. Not everyone thrives in an environment where roles are fluid and, at times, chaotic. Some brilliant operators excel in environments with defined structures and established processes—but may struggle when asked to create those processes from scratch. There's nothing wrong with preferring more structure, but it means our environment isn't the right fit for everyone.

This makes interviewing particularly tricky. How do you assess whether someone will excel in an undefined environment? How do you evaluate their ability to create structure rather than follow it? Testing for these qualities in a few hours of interviews is one of our biggest challenges, especially given that with our "fewer people, but better" approach, each hire has an outsized impact on the company.

#Supporting Experienced Operators

Hiring experienced talent comes with a responsibility: providing them with the support they need to thrive. Many of the seasoned professionals we seek are later in their careers. They often have families and can't afford to gamble on inadequate health coverage or a lack of retirement benefits.

That's why we reject the conventional startup wisdom that team members should take small salaries and large equity packages to show they have "skin in the game." After five startups—and no meaningful exits—I can tell you firsthand that equity is often valueless. While equity can be a powerful motivator, it can't put food on the table or clothes on your kids' backs.

At Texture, we provide comprehensive support:

Full health benefits for employees, spouses, and families
20 days minimum encouraged vacation (not maximum!)
Parental leave (rare for an early-stage startup)
Competitive salaries alongside meaningful equity

#Building for the Long Term

Our approach may not follow the conventional wisdom, but we believe it's the right one for building a lasting company in the energy space. The results speak for themselves: we've achieved an unprecedented velocity of development that has the industry taking notice. Competitors and partners alike struggle to keep up with our pace of innovation and execution. This isn't an accident—it's the direct result of our experienced team making smart decisions from day one. By prioritizing experienced operators, fostering autonomy, and supporting our team with meaningful benefits, we're building a startup designed to move fast without breaking things.

This strategy requires more upfront investment, but it pays dividends in velocity, quality, and long-term success. We're not just building features or products—we're building an industry-defining company that will reshape how the energy sector operates.

Fewer people, but better. It's not just a mantra; it's how we're building Texture into the company we know it can be.

Want to join us? We're always looking for experienced operators who share our vision. Check out our careers page to learn more.