You're putting a rock band together.
Do you accept anyone who shows up with an instrument in hand and torn jeans, or do you actually audition prospective members? Do you ask if they've played a gig before, made a record, toured the world?
The tech sector, over the past four years, has hired too many people who showed up with only a guitar and a vague notion that they also needed an amp. People came to tech start-ups whose biggest claim to Internet literacy was that they had an AOL account and had once visited Yahoo.
Tech companies needed people desperately - the mantra, reinforced by investors, was ''get big fast.'' Amid the hiring frenzy, companies wound up with too many employees who were merely along for the ride, attracted by the excitement and the lure of easy money.
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Did you miss last week's @LARGE column? Check the Now, as start-ups fizzle, as public companies file for bankruptcy and lay off legions of employees, a massive human sorting process is taking place. Thousands of people - whether they're newly out of a job, or still employed at a company with hazy prospects - are determining whether they're really committed to the suddenly not-so-rosy world of high-tech.
''This environment is testing people,'' says Ralph Protsik of Boston Search Group, an executive recruiting firm. ''When people joined Internet start-ups, they intellectually understood the risks, but many hadn't been through a down cycle before, and the carrots dangled in front of them were just too big.''
Now that the Nasdaq has been deflated, now that the IPO parade has been halted, now that potential must be muscled into reality, ''it lets you see your real soul, your real self,'' Protsik says. ''Lots of people can't deal with the shifting responsibilities and changing goals of a start-up. But there are others who have been burned twice and still want to do it. They realize that they produce best in that environment, and they've passed the trial by fire.''
I've said it in this space before, but given the continuing string of stories in this paper and elsewhere chronicling the demise of the dot-coms and the travails of other tech companies, I feel it needs to be said again: The innovation economy in Massachusetts is alive and well, though it isn't immune from the economic forces that are presenting challenges to all businesses.
Don't believe anyone who tells you the Net is over and every start-up doomed. As Todd Dagres of Battery Ventures puts it, ''There are always new problems to solve, and smart people who know how to solve problems.''
Ask anyone who has worked in the tech sector for a decade or more - it's not all about world-changing ideas and breaking new ground. Most technologies and companies take longer than 18 months to mature, and sometimes it takes years to connect with the right customers.
The idea that every company with a halfway cool idea will receive $30 million of venture capital and speed to an IPO was appealing while it lasted - a year ago, no one would have disparaged it - but it did serious damage. ''Last year, we saw lots of me-too ideas from professional executives, not entrepreneurs,'' says Michael Schreck of General Catalyst, a Boston venture firm. ''These companies were run by people who couldn't survive a downturn.''
The tech industry is shedding that kind of people now, and that's a very healthy thing. ''People were ignoring the fact that there was risk, and companies encouraged that,'' says Gail Goodman, chief executive of Roving Software and a former executive at Open Market and Progress Software. ''Companies were desperate, and they were hiring at an irrational rate.''
Risk is back. Those who decide to stick with tech start-ups, whether they're in software, biotech, telecom or another arena, are the kind of people the industry needs. This is a business that's about wild leaps of inspiration, crazy ideas, repeated attempts and failures, selling new products to customers who aren't quite ready to buy them, and persistence, persistence, persistence.
The true-believer index at most tech companies is rising. That's how I measure the number of people who actually care about being a pioneer and will sleep under their desks to make it happen against the number of people who just need a paycheck and good benefits. For several years, it had plummeted as everyone wanted to work for a tech company and every tech company was willing to hire just about anyone. A high true-believer index is essential to a start-up's success, and while we may see fewer companies being launched this year, I expect them to be of higher quality.
It's also time to recalibrate our sense of pace. Building companies is a slow process, and in the non-bubbly (uncarbonated?) business environment we're back to, there are no shortcuts.
''The companies we're investing in today won't have an impact tomorrow,'' says Schreck of General Catalyst. ''But that's not the nature of venture investing'' - or tech entrepreneurship, for that matter. ''We're about investing before the impact, before the liquidity event is in sight. We're happy to invest in ideas that could change the world over the long-term, not the next six months.''
True believers don't let the short-term gyrations of the market bother them. ''In down times, you've got to make sure you survive, so you can be there the next time the market comes up,'' says Dagres of Battery Ventures.
There's no shame in not being a true believer - it's a peculiar and not always endearing characteristic. Some people do their best work when they're in a stable, structured environment with clear goals. Others couldn't imagine working somewhere where they weren't in a position to constantly cook up new ideas and bring them to market.
Kel Kelly is one of those people. Kelly once worked as a vice president at Bay Networks and was chief marketing officer at Toysmart.com when it shut down last year. After a brief stint with the start-up airline JetBlue, she's back at a tech company, as chief marketing officer at Logistics.com.
''Tech runs through my blood. It's not a passing phase with me,'' says Kelly, who began her career as a security guard at Prime Computer. ''I love the thrill of taking something that's a glimmer and turning it into a business. My friends all ask, `How can you tolerate the risk and the uncertainty?' I say, `That's what drives me.' I enjoy the ride whether it's smooth or bumpy. Not everyone does.''
What about you?
Scott Kirsner is a contributing editor at Wired and Fast Company magazines.