Recrui'ng

A Great Tech Team

Sco$ Dietzen CEO, Pure Storage
sco$@dietzen.com dietz@purestorage.com

(Alumni of Zimbra, WebLogic, and Transarc)

Original content herein available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

GeFng a Product Right is Very Hard

The intellectual level needed for system design is in general grossly underestimated. I am convinced more than ever that this type of work is very difficult and that every effort to do it with other than the best people is doomed to either failure or moderate success at enormous expense. Edsger Dijkstra

GeFng a tech. product right is very hard

Ease of use/design
Even on the enterprise side: consumer-icaQon of IT

Reliability & performance Security & manageability Maintainability & packaging (SaaS, Appliance, etc.)

Building a new product from scratch is much harder than enhancing a successful product Top talent essenQal given amount of work to get done
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Start-Ups Need the Best

It takes top talent to shape a new product from whole cloth
Many more degrees of freedom to navigate ExponenQal gaps between producQvity of great, good, and average engineers Also gaps between starters & nishers Top talent thrives when unconstrained by legacy
Dietzs best recruiQng line: Do you really want to spend the next year turning 10 year-old so?ware into 11 year old so?ware?

Beware sense of enQtlement; Hire great athletes, not resumes Interview process must facilitate the cream rising to the top You should push candidates past their comfort zone
Make them think Real-Qme coding, debugging & opQmizaQon exercises Do they challenge poor assumpQons?

But have fun too! New hires need to feel a cultural t

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RecruiQng Eort
25-50% of founders/leaders Qme (albeit in waves, heavier early on) Worth the Qme Beside geFng a great team, you may well work together again down the road Time savers
Pre-interview hurdles Manage the day
Online quizzes (think C.S. GRE) Phone screens Hard interviews up front Opaque & exible schedule

However, keep in mind, you dont want to alienate those that for whatever reason dont make your cut

Marten Mickos You should touch 20 or more candidates for each one you hire. The other 19 should become good-will ambassadors.

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Sourcing & References

Sourcing
Employee referrals Handful or two of good external recruiters Online job posQngs, LinkedIn, et al. CommuniQes (open source or otherwise) Internships (typically short-term loss for long-term win)
As soon as you have sucient personnel to on-board them

References

Leverage VC recruiQng arms

Back-door be$er than front-door Trusted back-doors be$er than untrusted Ask hard quesQons probing for gaps

Seek grades or stack rankings relaQve to peers If you were giving the candidate career counseling, where could they have improved?
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Team Building
Despite your eorts, you will sQll make hiring mistakes
As soon as you realize you dont have a t, make the change As hard as it is, if handled well, managing out a less eecQve contributor can actually boost morale of the rest of your team Aler all, not everyone makes an elite team Dont skimp on basic benets, laptops, other cost eecQve things that juice producQvity Dont reward negoQaQon, reward merit
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Go the extra mile for those that do

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Entrepreneurial RecruiQng
(Blind, stupid) opQmism required Sell hard! But dont over promise Be honest and open about the opportunity
Ideal candidate develops re in the belly during the recruiQng process

Be a team player (theres no i in team) But also be in charge The right candidates are looking for leaders and a mission
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The Charge
Greatest thing about our industry is what a small group of passionate people can accomplish Mobile devices, open source, and clouds have dramaQcally reduced the hurdles to your success You just need the spark for an amazing product! Four golden rules for converQng that spark to success

A stellar, func'onal team is your strongest asset But cash is your life blood, manage it ruthlessly (for most of you, that means not over stang, in numbers or in seniority) Get the rst version out the door quickly & iterate ... don't wait for the perfect product Make decisions fast. Some will be wrong. Make sure you have enough feedback in the system to course correct
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Best Quote on Entrepreneurship?

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end---which you can never aord to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be. Admiral Jim Stockdale

Thanks you! Comments most welcome. scott@dietzen.com

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