Hire nerdy business people.

Counterintuitive, right? When you think businessperson, you think of a smooth-talking charmer, the opposite of the archetypal “nerd.”

But when you’re hiring business people, the most important interview question might be, “Kirk or Picard?”

It’s not that they’ll be more fun at hackathons (though that helps). It’s that nerdy = detail oriented.

Contrary to popular belief, business is a science. And practitioners who are dedicated and detail-oriented (that is, nerdy) are more likely to succeed.

Note that I’m not saying that you should post your sales positions at the local comic book store. You still need to look for salespeople in target-rich environments, like ex-athletes or Oracle refugees. But if you find a successful Star Trek-watching salesman, grab him. He’ll probably be worn his weight in Latinum.