# Ramp hires for standout ability rather than a full checklist

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ramp-hires-for-standout-ability-rather-than-a-full-checklist/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Eric Glyman](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-glyman/) · Eric Glyman is cofounder and co-CEO of Ramp. · Co-founded Ramp, now used by 85,000 businesses and building AI tools to automate finance and manage company spend.
- Host: [Christine Anderson](https://realalpha.app/people/christine-anderson/) · Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Blackstone
- Show: Inside Blackstone
- Episode: [Ramp Co-Founder and Co-CEO Eric Glyman on AI Adoption, Jobs, and Token Spend](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/), Nov 3, 2026
- Moment: 22:08 to 25:14 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ramp-hires-for-standout-ability-rather-than-a-full-checklist/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1328

## Quote

> “And so when we're trying to build systems of extraordinary scale, **this is who I'm calling first**.”
> — [Eric Glyman](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-glyman/) at [24:58](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1498) · Inside Blackstone

## Takeaways

1. Define the one skill that matters most for each role.
2. Look for ability beyond conventional credentials.
3. Some teen Minecraft server builders develop engineering skills early.

## About this segment

His brother's school experience shaped an approach that values uneven strengths. Ramp seeks exceptional ability in a role's key skill, including young Minecraft coders and candidates standard screens miss.

From “Ramp Co-Founder and Co-CEO Eric Glyman on AI Adoption, Jobs, and Token Spend”, Nov 3, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/)

## Transcript

From the transcript Inside Blackstone publishes with the episode.

[22:14](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1334) And I think it really is unique and stands out. So… Thank you. Very cool. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about culture… Yeah. … at Ramp. You have a hiring philosophy around hiring people that are sort of earlier career and also hiring people that spike in certain areas. Yeah. Tell me a little about that. If you kind of start with a lot of job applications, often they start with an idea, I want someone who does this. And someone says, that's great.

[22:38](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1358) Did you consider this? Good point. This requirement. Did you consider this? This requirement. And before you know it, you have a job description that's really long with all these requirements, and you're filtering and filtering and filtering people out. And so you're finding in some sense, almost someone who is, checks all the boxes, but maybe is average across a lot of dimensions? I'm sure they're exceptional in their own ways, but you, you're not asking for this one thing we're really looking for, the thing which is most important, who's great at that?

[23:08](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1388) Who's the best in the world at that? And so when we say spikes, part of what we're trying to really ask is, if there was one job this person is doing and there was one way we're gonna go and measure that. Could we find people who've shown extraordinary ability in this? It turns out one of the best hiring pools for finding young engineers is people, kids, when they were 14, 15, 16 years old, who played Minecraft.

[23:32](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1412) They learned how to code, early on. They'd make their own private servers. You'd find these incredible people who didn't just talk about building great systems. They've been doing it… They've doing it. … for 10 years. And so it becomes a different type of hiring exercise. And how do we find people that others have missed or overlooked? Was there a story that led you to that? Was there a moment where you figured out how to do that or why you took that approach?

[23:55](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1435) It's, some of it is, is just how I grew up. Like I think about, you know, my older brother, right? He had a lot of learning difficulties, growing up. And I was, he's my older brother. So when you're younger, like your older brother is your hero, you look up to them… Of course. I saw someone who was brilliant. if he wanted to. He knows way more about history than me. His ability to do research is really extraordinary.

[24:22](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1462) And yet, because, you know, it's harder for him to write, he would get held back, right, from a school that would, was looking for people to be perfectly well- rounded or to be at a sufficient level. Right. And yet, when I thought about him, there were some kinds of problems where like he's better than anybody I know. The world is filled with people like this. Like someone on the team went to community college.

[24:47](https://realalpha.app/v/cgXAk8pZ1uA/?t=1487) They were part of this Minecraft group. They have autism. And yet, this engineer is able to focus on and obsess over systems and go deeper and deeper and deeper and focus in a way that most engineers can't. And so when we're trying to build systems of extraordinary scale, this is who I'm calling first. That kind of intelligence really matters.