Just closed $60M, looking to hire PMs and product engineers. Any advice or interest?
Hey all, we just closed $60M from a top VC to build out our product team but our hiring machine is a bit stuck. Anyone have experience or guidance on how to hire PMs and product engineers? Currently using Angelslist, linkedin, etc. but I feel like we could be more effective. On the flip side, if you’re interested in making a switch in to product (looking for creative, deeply analytical people- doesn’t matter if you’ve got product experience and don’t need to have technical skills for PM role) hit me up
Find somebody good and have them bring friends
Looking on Blind isn’t a bad idea. LinkedIn really does exist for this purpose though, so it’s less the medium you use and more who you choose to pursue. Look for people who might coming off of an extended break. Tons of younger talent out there that worked for FAANG or other big companies, then took a year or so off. They’ll be fresh and ready to get back to it, and probably have a good perspective. Consider people from consultancies and agencies. They’re often used to more chaos and frenetic pace, and are accustomed to doing a lot of creative thinking. Possibly target higher-level UX designers, who often take on more product management type work.
Really appreciate that insight. Seems like a lot of companies are really zeroed in on people with product experience / background, when in fact there are a lot of backgrounds that have great skills minus the bad habits. Thanks!
Exactly. You get it! And that’s awesome. If I was open to moving to NYC I’d consider joining, I just like Seattle too much :-) Big companies usually do require more specialized people, but I find that specific industry and domain expertise doesn’t matter nearly as much as assumed. That’s like...crap for algorithms and lazy recruiters to use. “Product” is soooo broad. Where you’ll struggle is making sense of someone’s LinkedIn. Many of the best people aren’t looking, and thus they don’t put a lot of effort in keeping their LI updated. They may not be writing Medium posts or commenting on them. Other people who might be good fits also might be sifted out by filters and unconscious bias. I would advise also looking at people with some liberal arts grounding. People who studied philosophy, history, literature, classic languages, and who work in tech can bring a ton of deep and varied thinking to complex scenarios. Interesting people tend to have interesting interests. It’s harder to discover, but people who are involved in their community and do things outside the office probably have a lot to offer, too.
How is TC?
Yeah, share the comp band
How’s comp
Interested, DM.
DMd
Why do you need your director of PM to have a CS degree?
Poach people from MyFitnessPal. They are part of under armour and it doesn't seem to be working out well for them. The turned what used to be a half-decent app into a Nascar car with a bunch of ads slapped onto it
Appreciate that insight. For your previous question, we’ve got a complicated data architecture and lot of opportunity to better use ML / AI, hence preference for CS degree
DMd