The cost of hiring someone bad is so much greater than missing out on someone good.

Kraus’s line distills a common startup and management lesson: hiring mistakes are asymmetric. A “bad” hire can impose compounding costs—lost time, damaged morale, misdirected strategy, customer harm, and the opportunity cost of fixing or undoing work—while passing on a merely “good” candidate usually leaves the organization roughly where it started. The quote argues for selectivity and for treating hiring as risk management rather than simple headcount filling. Implicitly, it supports slower, higher-signal recruiting processes (references, work samples, trial projects) and a willingness to leave roles open rather than lower standards under pressure.