Idea · carried by 1 source
Raw Intellect Over Experience
Revolut's contrarian hiring philosophy: prioritize raw intellect, hunger to build, and intrinsic drive over years of experience or impressive résumés. Experienced professionals from established companies often take longer to ramp up, rest on their laurels, and lack the urgency to change the status quo.
Where it comes from
Dmitry Zlokazov on Lenny's Podcast (highlights/zlokazov-revolut-pms): “Everyone is striving for talented, skillful, smart people. Revolut values way more raw intellect and this unquenched hunger to build things rather than experience.” [~20:58-21:13]
How it works
- Hire for raw intellect and drive — not years of experience or impressive titles
- The adoption curve for product roles is longer than other functions because POs need deep domain expertise
- Experienced professionals often:
- Take longer to ramp up
- Struggle to adapt to a new culture
- Rest on their laurels with inflated expectations and high compensation
- Lack the “strong urge to change status quo” which requires “toil, tears, and sweat”
- The best profile: a tech co-founder or startup builder who has worked with small teams across many areas
- Internal transfers (engineers, ops managers) are also highly successful because they come with guaranteed culture match and domain knowledge
The ROI of hiring hungry, smart people early in their career and giving them extreme ownership far exceeds the ROI of hiring experienced people who may not have the fire to build from zero.