Building a team worth being on

The biggest lever on whether Flagon is any good is who's on it, not the process or the tooling. A small team of unusually good people who trust each other will out-build a large team of fine ones every time, and it isn't close. So the most important thing we do is keep the bar high and hire slowly, especially when it's tempting not to.

Talent density over headcount

Every hire either raises the average or lowers it, and on a team this small one wrong hire costs far more than a missing one. We'd rather be short-staffed and stretched than fill a seat with someone who isn't clearly a lift. Growing the team is a decision we make when the work genuinely needs it, not a number we chase to look impressive. See small by design for how that shapes the org.

Craft and character, not pedigree

What we look for barely mentions your résumé. We care whether you can take an ambiguous problem and make something genuinely good out of it, whether you're kind and direct, and whether you'd make the people around you better. Where you went to school and how many years you've clocked tell us almost nothing about that. The full picture is in how we hire; the point here is that a world-class team gets built one careful, unhurried hire at a time.

Keeping the bar high is everyone's job

The bar isn't something a hiring manager guards alone. Everyone who interviews owns it, everyone who works alongside a new hire gives honest feedback, and nobody gets waved through because we're busy. It's tempting, when you're underwater, to lower it just this once, and that's exactly when it matters most to hold, because the cost of a wrong hire lands hardest on a small, stretched team. A great place to work is mostly great colleagues; protecting that is protecting the thing itself.

The deal runs both ways

A team worth being on isn't only a high bar to get in. It's what we owe you once you're here: real ownership, honest pay, room to grow, and colleagues who are actually good. We ask a lot, so we hold up our end. What that looks like day to day is a world-class place to build and growing here.