A VC Firm Created More Than 50 Free Guides to All Aspects of Startup HR

Sometimes as a writer I have to think long and hard to package a study, insight, or quote for maximum impact. But not today. Today’s post needs very little introduction because it’s appeal is obvious–everyone likes free, high-quality stuff. And that’s just what early-stage VC firm Homebrew is offering entrepreneurs. 

“When we started our venture fund Homebrew one of our goals was to help grow the startup pie, so to speak, not just get our slice. Writing up what we consider ‘best practices’ and sharing with the broader founder community is an attempt to live these values,” partner Hunter Walk explained on Medium recently. 

Together with the firm’s portfolio company, Coda, Homebrew has developed more than 50 guides covering nearly every aspect of startup people operations. And they’re all completely free. Some of the topics they cover include: 

• Sourcing talent 

• Conducting technical interviews 

• Onboarding new employees 

• Compensation 

• Mental health 

• Performance management 

• Creating diversity and harassment policies 

Walk promises more guides are in development, but if your business is facing any of these challenges or you just want to get up to speed on the latest best practices around any of these topics, you can download all the current guides from the Homebrew site. 

Homebrew may be doing the startup community a serious solid by developing and publishing their internal insights. But they’re not the first Silicon Valley player to pay it forward (and burnish their image) with free resources for fellow entrepreneurs. Google has long been generous with sharing not just the results of its internal research into policies and practices, but also in crafting free guides laying out how it approaches key topics. 

For instance, the company has published a lengthy guide to effective, high-impact training. Google also offers a ton of free resources around its data-backed hiring process, including a job description checklist (research shows tons of companies write awful job descriptions), a structured interview grading rubric, a guide to interviewer best practices, and a sample candidate survey. 

Struggling more with customer service than HR? Then this truly massive and absolutely free guide to customer service from two consultants in the space might be helpful.