Amplify’s Talent Partner, Natasha Katoni interviews Tido Carriero, Adam Jacob and Vicki Cheung on the intricate world of engineering hiring for early stage startups.
Natasha Katoni
In the first installment of Technical Recruiting Playbooks Season #2, Amplify’s Talent Partner, Natasha Katoni interviews Tido Carriero, Adam Jacob and Vicki Cheung on the intricate world of engineering hiring for early stage startups. Each episode delivers valuable insights, captivating stories, and expert guidance, all aimed at hiring an exceptional engineering team from scratch.
Adam Jacob is the CEO and co-founder of System Initiative, an Amplify portfolio company, and was previously the CTO and co-founder of Chef. The discussion centers around building world-class engineering teams. Adam shares mistakes he made in past early engineering hiring, emphasizing the importance of fair compensation, and the value of having highly motivated and happy team members. He highlights the significance of curiosity and taste in early engineers, and gives details on the interview process he uses to evaluate these qualities. Adam talks about the creative process of building startups and the importance of setting up a strong foundation in team management and alignment.
Show Notes:
Tido Carriero, the founder of Koala and former VP of Engineering and CPO at Segment joins Natasha to discuss his systematic approach to hiring and building teams. They dive into the intricacies of hiring before and after product-market fit, the importance of understanding a candidate's trajectory, and the value of conducting focused interviews that capture career growth. Tido emphasizes the significance of accurately portraying the company's unique engineering brand and crafting tailored pitches that resonate with candidates. He shares insights on evaluating candidates based on their comfort with ambiguity and adaptability in pre-PMF stages, and highlights the need for strong evaluation practices, such as trial periods. The conversation concludes with a spotlight on the remarkable impact of effective hiring, exemplified by a success story from his tenure at Segment.
Show Notes:
Vicki Cheung, a three-time founding engineer and co-founder and CTO of Gantry and former founding engineer at OpenAI, discusses her experiences in building engineering teams at various startups. She emphasizes the significance of finding founding engineers who possess strong ownership mentality, proactiveness, and an eagerness to learn about both user needs and business goals. She addresses the challenges of hiring engineers from larger companies and adjusting their mindset to embrace strong ownership without territoriality. Vicki emphasizes the value of intentional and explicit conversations about goals, potential, and alignment to ensure team members' success.
Show Notes: