What happens to an executive’s hiring process when they go from a Fortune 500 to a smaller corporation to founding a business? Tom Gardner, CEO and founder of CircleOp, tells This Is How I Hire that not much changes—all the foundational principles remain the same. By way of background, Tom founded CircleOp, an app that guides meeting leaders and participants to maximize the effectiveness of work meetings. Prior to founding this company, he served as COO and General Manager of Trailhead Engineering, capitalizing on a long executive career that began in design engineering.

Tom and I discuss how he came to rely on his well-developed set of best practices for learning about and selecting candidates—and when he broke those rules to hire quickly and fire thoughtfully.