How to Build a Company of A-Players
Written by Dave Bailey
Written by Dave Bailey, Jul 22, 2026
If you want to build a talent-dense company, you have to spend real time on hiring and part ways with the people who hold your best people back. This is a guide to raising your team’s talent density in three steps.
Scaling a talent-dense company requires a huge investment of time.
Brian Chesky spent 50% of his time hiring during AirBnB’s scale up phase.
Jon McNeill spent over 60% of his time interviewing executives and managers at Tesla.
Elon Musk interviewed the first 3,000 people at SpaceX.
Most founders would find it very difficult to allocate this amount of time to talent acquisition. They have too many other problems to solve.
However, it’s a vicious cycle.
The less talented your current team, the less time you have available to invest in finding better people.
Since every problem you have is the result of not having someone on your team who can solve it for you, it only gets worse.
So if you’re in this position, what should you do?
Step 1: Create an Internal Vision
Every founder has an inspiring vision for how their company will make an impact in the world.
But it turns out you need two visions:
- An external vision of what happens outside the company
- An internal vision of what happens inside the company
The internal vision is about what kinds of people you want to attract and how great work will get done.
A great vision paints the picture of a transformation into an altogether different and better world.
If you run a company without a clear vision of what you’re trying to create inside the company, you get stuck trying to make your company 10% better, rather than making it 10X better.
Many inspiring visions outline a common enemy. In an internal vision, the enemy is the set of people and behaviours which are not acceptable.
I’ve helped many CEOs clarify their internal vision, and none of them had a vision of B and C players.
Step 2: Eliminate Your B and C Players
The pattern you see is that CEOs hold on to B and C players for far too long.
Let’s define what A, B and C players are.
- A is for Awesome. These are people who ‘get it’, and get it done.
- B is for Basic. These are nice people who require a lot of iteration and support to get results.
- C is for Chaos. These are often high-performers who cause conflict and division.
Here are the common justifications for keeping B players:
- “They are working on a project that’s already late.”
- “They’re not great but they don’t hurt the business.”
And for C players, it goes like this:
- “They are my best salesperson/developer.”
- “We can’t risk losing their knowledge.”
These justifications fail to properly account for the impact of keeping B and C players on A players.
B players slow A players down.
And C players make A players hate their jobs.
In other words, B & C players turn A players into B & C players.
Particularly in leadership roles, the value of an A-player is asymmetric to what you pay for them. The difference between an A and B player can be 10X.
And therefore, it’s critical to make decisions from the point of view of the A-players, not the B & C players.
Most founders get this wrong and over-index on the value of B & C players. Relative to your A-players, they don’t matter.
A couple of years ago, one of my CEOs who was committed to this idea ran an experiment and let go of all his B & C players, around half of the company, with generous severance packages.
Needless to say, this was a huge risk.
When he looked at the data, he couldn’t believe it.
The absolute output of the company increased.
The A players not only did their own jobs more efficiently, but took over the work of the B and C players and did that too.
When I asked him what he thought was going on, he said:
“From the A players’ point of view, working with B players simply slows you down. You spend time meeting with them, correcting their mistakes, and supporting them. In our case, they created a negative return.”
When it comes to eliminating B and C players, there are two options.
- Invest the time to turn a B player or C player into an A player. This usually involves adjusting their role and providing training and coaching.
- Move them on, and redistribute the work to your A players.
In most cases, the second option is harder, which often means it’s the right one.
It’s a brave founder who can truly embrace this concept, but if you want to switch from a vicious cycle to a virtuous one, this is the kind of decision you’ll need to make.
Help me become a better CEO ->
Step 3: Invest Time in Talent Acquisition
Earlier in this piece, I said founders say they don’t have time to dedicate to talent acquisition.
Strictly speaking, this isn’t true.
We all have the same 24 hours, and we can choose how to use them.
Great founders allocate time to acting long-term. It comes down to will.
Dedicating time to talent acquisition looks like this:
- Refining and evangelising the internal vision
- Building a talent network of exceptional people you may want to hire in the future.
- Recruiting continuously rather than reactively.
- Making time to personally interview your first 1,000+ employees.
Being present in interviews isn’t just about checking for fit. It’s about creating a fit.
When a founder outlines the external and internal vision for the company, it allows talented people to opt-in before they join.
Great people aren’t looking for a country club. They are looking to join a company committed to excellence.
Becoming a Visionary
Most founders in a vicious talent cycle find a way to justify keeping the wrong people and to avoid spending time finding the right people.
The only way to transform your company into a truly talent-dense organisation is to create a vision for your company that’s so inspiring it moves people to act.
Every decision you make today is either getting you closer to this vision or further away.
The question is: Which decision are you going to make?
Continue Learning About Building a Talent-Dense Team
- Want to attract A players? Learn what it takes to attract top talent.
- Not sure what an A player looks like? Read about the three traits of a Super IC.
- Ready to hire? Here is how to recruit superstar employees.
Join my $100M CEO newsletter ->
Originally published Jul 22, 2026.
