It’s an exciting time when you’re looking at hiring your first startup employees. It’s a huge growth milestone to celebrate. But not everyone is cut out for working in a startup.

The stakes are high, because you can’t afford the lost productivity if you hire someone who isn’t effective. You also can’t afford the turnover expenses of rehiring for positions.

The key: hire the right person the first time. But how do you know if someone will be a good fit for a startup, with the unique challenges that go along with it?

There are a few key traits you can look for, to help you start building a team you can rely on.

1. Flexibility

Things change fast and frequently in startups. Flexibility includes willingness to take on multiple roles, ability to pick up slack for others, and ability to adapt when things change unexpectedly.

Hiring for Flexibility

• Check their resume to look for diversity of roles filled, especially for people who did a lot of different kinds of tasks within one organization
• Ask unexpected interview questions, to see how they react when thrown off guard
• Have interviewees tell you about a time when they reacted to something unexpected, like a coworker’s illness or a changed deadline

2. Positivity

Startup employees have to be fairly emotionally resilient. Tension, uncertainty, and even fear are part of the job, and it’s necessary for the whole team to ride out hard times with a good attitude.

Hiring for Positivity

• Cover letters can give you a sense of someone’s overall attitude
• Look for a bright, sunny smile—this can bring positivity to the whole office
• Ask them to share a time when they turned around a bad situation. Did they handle things by staying positive and motivating the team, or did they draw themselves inward?

3. Eagerness to Learn

In a startup, learning never stops. Your employees need to be quick learners and enthusiastic knowledge-seekers, or they’ll fall behind.

Hiring for Eagerness to Learn

• Look for indicators on their resume: diverse coursework, varied interests, taking on new roles in companies, and so on
• Ask them about the hardest skill they ever mastered
• See how many questions they ask you during the interview. Learners are full of questions

4. Assertiveness

You have to be able ask for what you need in a startup. Someone who can be sensitive to others’ feelings while still being direct and vocal about their needs will be an asset to you.

Hiring for Assertiveness

• Look for assertive language in their cover letter
• In the interview, be direct with them and see if they step up to your level
• Evaluate their confidence and willingness to ask you questions and challenge your ideas

5. Tenacity

You hear a lot of “no” when you’re building a startup. Employees who know how to take a “no” constructively, pick their battles, and keep trying where it matters will quickly prove to be invaluable.

Hiring for Tenacity

• Evaluate how they follow up with you—someone tenacious will probably both email and call to thank you and ask for updates
• Ask them to share a story about how they respond to a “no”
• Tenacious people must be tempered with an ability to learn and adapt to try new strategies, so ask about a project where they failed several times before succeeding, and note their problem-solving process

6. Independence

You don’t have time to micromanage the team, so it’s necessary to hire self-starters who can solve problems, get what they need, and own projects without your direction.

Hiring for Independence

• Look on their resume for times when they “led,” “directed,” or “owned” a project
• Ask for times when they built something independently
• Have them tell you about their ideal management style

7-9: Visit the original post to learn how to hire for reliability, find employees focused on results, and who have high ambition.

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10. Passion

Sometimes, passion is all that’s holding a startup together. That’s why it’s so important for every team member to be filled with passion as well as the founders. It doesn’t necessarily have to be passion for the industry; it can be passion for their role, passion for the people you serve, or a general passion for being a great worker. But don’t hire an employee who won’t bring passion to the workplace.

Hiring for Passion

• Check their resumes for volunteer work, interests, and hobbies that show passion for something related to your business
• Look for that gleam in the eye that tells you they’re engaged
• Ask them what attracts them to your company, and look for them to have done research, have ideas for next steps, and to most of all demonstrate their passion

Are you likely to find all these traits in one employee? No. But hire people who will fill your organization with these traits. That way, no matter what the task, there’s always someone on hand with the tenacity, reliability, or flexibility to get it done.

What traits do you look for when hiring for your startup? Let us know in the comments!