<aside> 💡 Note this is the process we followed specifically to hire for non-technical roles. Our engineering hires followed a similar process, but with some key differences. In time, we’ll share those too.
</aside>
When searching for the best hires a compelling vision stands as the cornerstone. It must resonate with candidates. A good vision is a stronger differentiation than a competitive compensation package for the ambitious, aggressive people you want winning your mission alongside you.
At Popp, the product itself is a tangible manifestation of our mission. Showcasing Popp was integrated into the hiring process. Candidates who lit up discussing Popp had strongest appeal.
We have designed our early roles at Popp to be everything we would have wished these roles to have been when we were at a similar stage in our careers. Our role descriptions form the basis of every application and many of our interview conversations. They’re not generated by an LLM. And they are transparent about compensation, culture and responsibilities. Here is an example.
We advertised the role on LinkedIn and through our network of founders and investors. We had 160 applications via LinkedIn in 3 days, and 40+ through our network.
In addition, we conducted a highly-targeted search. Cold outreach, albeit time-consuming, can be effective, especially when initiated by the founders. Key tips for successful outreach include brevity, personalization, and easy-to-follow calls to action. We conducted a search on LinkedIn filtered by top universities, top generalist programmes like Jumpstart, and existing experience in similar roles.
This is the rubric of messages we sent to candidates we sought to poach from other organisations. This resulted in 6 conversations with outstanding strong-fit candidates:
Intro:
Hey [X], Great to connect. COO of Popp AI here.
Personalisation e.g: [I just finished your article on X. Im a huge fan of Y as well].
We’re just closing a £1.2M pre-seed round led by SuperSeed and are scaling up our team.
Are you free for a ten min chat [calendar link]?
If rejected/ghosted:
Hey [X], understood this may not be a good fit right now. If you’re open to it though, why don't we hop on a short ten min call anyway? I’ve found great things can happen when smart people connect. Want to book a short intro chat if you’re open to it [calendar link]?
If these strategies had not been successful, we were willing to consider hosting an event to attract talent in to meet us and other great startups in our ecosystem. In future, we will compensate employees for referrals. A-players attract more A-players.