There is a glut of startups posts by rich and experienced founders and VCs about hiring only AAA+ people for your startup

This is a completely egocentric worldview. Even if you could define some of the qualities of what would make a hire AAA+, people with those qualities would not by definition be AAA+ candidates

What makes someone a AAA+ hire at one startup can make them a F- at another

Many VCs and Founders try to condense incredibly complex personal decisions down to easily digestible and practicably implementable advice and blog posts. In these scenarios, the easy things to talk about are the practical and easily measurable

• does the candidate have a degree from a top university?
• have they worked at a start up before?
• have the cashed out at start up before?

or any of many other good qualities, skills or experiences that would be an asset to a startup

But they would be lying if they said they hired only on these criteria. These criteria are necessary but not sufficient for classifying someone as AAA+, and are often not even necessary

What is rarely addressed are some of the most critical qualities that make someone AAA+ – the qualities within the startup and within the recruiter. A candidate being AAA+ is all relative. All parts of the equation must align for someone to be AAA+ – the candidate, the company, the problem being solved and the environment

Don’t fall into the trap of looking for Mark Suster’s or Fred Wilson’s AAA+ candidate, because its going to be different from yours