MeritFirst

America's frontier is in unlocking our hidden talent 🇺🇸

Looking to hire a new grad to do product operations and user success. If you have taste and are grindy dm me

link to mf hiring series in comments

So many companies preach that they “hire based on merit” but most are half-baked efforts at best - still filtering for school names, logos, years of experience, etc., while maybe tossing a case study into the process. The wrong gatekeepers, of which there are many, are incentivized to hire the polished yet mediocre profile over the potential 10x candidate who doesn’t fit the typical mold. This is the silent killer of companies. The lazy and risk-averse still hiding behind credentials while claiming “merit” deserve to get eaten alive - they’re doing a disservice to their customer, their team, and the country, stifling potential of those eager to participate in the American way. “Hiring is hard and people are lazy” - @skupor from his recent blog ‘Merit Matters’ who is doing incredible work for the federal gov’t in pursuit of merit. There is massive alpha for those willing to avoid the shortcuts and do the hard, sometimes uncomfortable, work of testing and building based on real capability, and for those individuals willing to participate in the competition - merit is the path to self-actualization. “Elon will always do the hard things” - @nikitabier on working with @elonmusk and the massive success he’s earned from not taking shortcuts. I'll say it again, America’s edge was always raw talent and hard work over cookie cutter perfection. We are building for those who embrace that.

Today we're launching a new MeritFirst Hiring Series to get top talent in front of leaders at top organizations. Hiring has gotten worse for candidates and companies at the same time. AI generated resumes are making an already bad top of funnel problem worse. Candidates with real skills are being overlooked. We’re letting candidates prove what they can do and have their work speak for itself. Here's how it works 🧵

@gabednconfused Great role. If you're getting flooded with applicants for this one, happy to spin up am assessment to help you filter. meritfirst.us

🚨New job alert 🚨 MATERIAL is hiring an exceptional Chief of Staff to help drive the company through its next stage of growth across fundraising, strategic partnerships, government business development, and founder-led execution. Reach out!

@ax_pey exactly why meritfirst exists - lets get you set up with some assessments at meritfirst.us

again if you apply to anything based on just a resume it's NOT ENOUGH this is 2026, you can show what you can build super easily no portfolio shows at best laziness, at worst you are just following orders and are not capable of building anything

@lindayaX @TomBrady @eMedHealth Hot take: resumes tell you nothing (thanks AI). Real work samples tell you everything. Save hours reading through dms and resumes and get an assessment live in minutes on meritfirst.us

We raised $200M. We have @TomBrady. Now we’re building the sales team to take this everywhere. Come join us @eMedHealth as we ride this exciting time! DM me.

@2irl4u before you post the job..reading through intros and resumes will take hours. Real work samples will tell you everything. get an assessment live for these upcoming role(s) in minutes at meritfirst.us

Now hiring (excluding: North Korea) More soon

@arlanr what if candidates proved they could do the job before you wasted hours interviewing them? get an assessment live in minutes on meritfirst.us

i got a huge office in the heart of san francisco literally yesterday and i’m filling the fridge with unlimited steaks and snacks. our team is extremely lean (just 2) and we’re working on both research and consumer-facing problems in the context space. this is going to be the best summer of your life, so if you’re an engineer, researcher, or devrel, hit me up. very generous equity + salary so you can focus on building. if you’re from another state, flights are covered.

@JustJake why not make every candidate prove they can do the job with a real work sample instead. AI scores them, you get a ranked list, and you only talk to people who actually earned it. get started at meritfirst.us

Hiring to help us build data centers We're building them at an absurd speed. Our compute footprint will likely 10x this year alone. Designing racks, hardware, bill of materials, and getting it from "dollars to running compute" is insanely fun 25k referral, cash or stock

@connorpaton Why sift through 500 resumes when you can just make every candidate do the job first? Real work samples, AI scoring, ranked shortlist. Start on meritfirst.us

hiring for an SDR/GTM role at tembo if you’re in SF and a good fit let’s grab a coffee link below

@AkshayNarisetti @Heypocket rather than reading 1000 resumes and intros you could assess candidates and have ranked work product results to ensure you hire the best. lets get you live on meritfirst.us

We’re hiring a Chief of Design at @Heypocket $250k + meaningful equity. If we hire someone you tag, you get $10k.

We had 196 software engineers answer the same code review question. Results: Merit: 5 (2.6%) Advance: 7 (3.6%) Review: 46 (23.5%) Pass: 138 (70.4%) We see the power law.

@zganieany @RaeAlisa_ idgaf about resume show me what you have built 🤷‍♂️

I wonder if they hire based on merit at the socialist job fair?

Talent is a power law, and we can see it. If you think you’re good, submit an answer to our AI planning assessment. We’ll let you know if you’re 10x better than the next person or just middle of the pack. GDoc with question: dub.sh/IrUpwCc

@TimMLatimer this sounds like an awesome opp - we can help ensure you meet with the top tier talent by putting together an assessment for this specifc role. top candidates proving they can do the job and hours saved in ai resume review and screening

New job posting, Chief of Staff, reporting directly to me. Please help me share far and wide. This will be a fantastic role at a pivotal time in Fervo’s journey. fervoenergy.com/career/chief-o…

@michaelhyunkim Instead of reading through 1,000 resumes, you can get 10 signals in your inbox: candidates who have already proven they can do the job via a work sample assessment based on the actual role your hiring for. Takes 10 minutes to set up.

does anyone have any recommendations for recruiting agencies to hire talent for tuff startups? getting a lot of linkedin dm’s but most seem like noise :(

If this sounds like you, I'm hiring.