# Decagon uses bar raisers to protect its hiring bar

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/decagon-uses-bar-raisers-to-protect-its-hiring-bar/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Ashwin Sreenivas](https://realalpha.app/builders/ashwin-sreenivas/) · Ashwin Sreenivas is cofounder and CTO of Decagon. · Co-founded Decagon, the conversational AI platform valued at $4.5B, after building Helia, which Scale AI acquired.
- Host: [Nakul Mandan](https://realalpha.app/people/nakul-mandan/) · Host, Knuckle Up with Nakul · General partner at Audacious Ventures; his show goes deep with founder CEOs on how they build.
- Show: Knuckle Up with Nakul
- Episode: [The AI founder advice you won’t hear on X | Ashwin Sreenivas (Co-Founder at Decagon)](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/), May 19, 2026
- Moment: 25:52 to 29:03 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/decagon-uses-bar-raisers-to-protect-its-hiring-bar/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1552

## Quote

> “if you just have threes all across the board, okay, there's **no clear champion** for this person.”
> — [Ashwin Sreenivas](https://realalpha.app/builders/ashwin-sreenivas/) at [26:54](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1614) · Knuckle Up with Nakul

## Takeaways

1. About 20–25 bar raisers conduct final interviews.
2. They assess autonomy, speed and depth across functions.
3. All-threes feedback is not enough without a clear champion.

## About this segment

After the standard interviews, 20–25 cross-functional bar raisers assess candidates for speed, depth and values. A hire needs a clear strength, not uniformly solid scores.

From “The AI founder advice you won’t hear on X | Ashwin Sreenivas (Co-Founder at Decagon)”, May 19, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[25:59](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1559) But before that, do you guys have an overall recruiting philosophy and framework that the entire org follows? Or each hiring manager ends up having their own framework? We do have an overall philosophy. And even to this day, Jesse and I are pretty involved in recruiting. I mean, at this point, neither of us can do all the interviews anymore because there's just too many. But even now, including for ICs, we review hiring packets.

[26:25](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1585) And so we're still pretty involved. And the things that we're trying to make sure of are that all the new hires that we bring on align to the kind of core cultural values that we're trying to look for, right? So have we looked at this person's ability to operate across multiple teams? Have we looked at their ability to go really, really, really deep on problems? Has the interviewer on the Decagon side probed for all these things?

[26:55](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1615) Have we found a clear champion within Decagon? We, like many other companies, hire on the one, two, three, four scale. And if you just have threes all across the board, okay, there's no clear champion for this person. They haven't spiked strongly enough and we shouldn't be making them an offer. So yes, we're still pretty involved in recruiting up and down the line. But at that pace, 450 employees being hired in three years, like how do you maintain that bar?

[27:18](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1638) Because the flip side is you maintain the bar that high, hiring becomes slow. I'm of the opinion that when you need to hire at scale, You just, you need to talk to a lot of people, right? There are a lot of great people out there in the world. And now it is our job to find them and convince them that, hey, Decagon is a great opportunity for you. In terms of how we maintain the hiring bar, we actually have a group of bar raisers internally that do the final interview, right?

[27:46](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1666) So once you've gotten the thumbs up from everybody, one of the bar raisers interviews you. And, you know, we've specifically picked out the bar raisers as people within Decagon. and we're like, hey, these are the people that really kind of hold our values. They've demonstrated it over time and they know what they're looking for amongst new folks. Actually, I've never heard this before. So the bar raiser, how many bar raisers at Dekacon today approximately?

[28:10](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1690) I think like 20, 25 people. Do they go and interview that final interview in their own functions or it can be cross-function? It can be cross-functional because again, the thing that these people are looking for is this person's ability to move quickly without needing to wait for permission or decisions, dive deep into various areas. And they're looking for evidence that this person has done this in the past.

[28:30](https://realalpha.app/v/_FmwqPzqkjY/?t=1710) Because in terms of competency at the function, that's what we expect the regular interview process to do, right? And you're right, we're hiring a lot of people. So a lot of people that are interviewing might themselves be newer, but we always make sure that the hiring manager himself is extremely competent at interviewing capability for that function. Even to this day, for managers, both Jesse and I are reasonably involved.