By Robin Choy (https://twitter.com/robin_choy), CEO at HireSweet (https://www.hiresweet.com/) This is definitely one of the biggest challenges any startup faces. Having high quality engineers who join your company in the early days, taking a risk on you while more mature companies are also chasing them can truly be game-changer. Robin is the co-founder of HireSweet, a team helping startups recruit Software Engineers by developing cutting-edge AI tools. 700+ startups have scaled their teams with their help, often from 10 to 100+ people. The knowledge Robin has acquired about the process is pure gold. Join us to discover how to set up a super efficient process to build the best possible tech team for each stage (0 to 3 people in the tech team, 3 to 8 people, 8 to 20 people).

1. Scale your tech team from 0 to
Series A
The Family – 2019/09/15

2. SCHEDULE
1 – Tech hiring is tough & paramount
2 – Who Am I?
4 – Q&A
3 – The hiring process

3. TECH HIRING IS
TOUGH & PARAMOUNT
1

4. LE PROBLÈMETECH HIRING IS TOUGH
Tech companies struggle to find good software engineers and
traditional sourcing methods are outdated.
Hires in
Software Developers
2014 - 2024
Training of
Software Developers
2014 - 2024
+ 17% + 30%
Source : US Labor of Statistics 2016 & People In Tech 2016

5. TECH HIRING IS PARAMOUNT
0 – 3 tech people: Pre-Seed, The founders onboard the first key people
3 – 8: Post-Seed, The founders & team build and iterate on the process
20+: Post Series B, The hiring team keeps on innovating & iterating
8 – 20: Post Series A/B, The hiring team scales the hiring machine

6. TECH HIRING IS PARAMOUNT
0 – 3 tech people: Pre-Seed, The founders onboard the first key people
3 – 8: Post-Seed, The founders & team build and iterate on the process
20+: Post Series B, The hiring team keeps on innovating & iterating
8 – 20: Post Series A/B, The hiring team scales the hiring machine

7. WHO AM
I?
2

8. TECHNOLOGYHIRESWEET: 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HELPING 700 STARTUPS

9. TECHNOLOGYHIRESWEET: 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HELPING 700 STARTUPS

10. TECHNOLOGYHIRESWEET: 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HELPING 700 STARTUPS
ROBIN@HIRESWEET.COM

11. SMART AND GET THINGS DONE

12. WHO

13. WORK RULES!

14. THE SALES ACCELERATION FORMULA

15. THE HIRING
PROCESS
3

16. THE HIRING PROCESS
Score Cards, Job offers &
Templates
1 - PREPARATION
Hiring is selling
4 - CONVERSION
Your team is your #1
unfair advantage
5 - RETENTION
Inbound, Outbound &
Referral
2 - SOURCING
Building the process
3 - ASSESSMENT

17. 3.1 – Preparation

18. PREPARATION
• Score Card « Who »
• Daily missions, typical
week
• Differentiation
• Arbitrages
Offer & Profile
• Angel List, Welcome To
The Jungle
• Unfair advantages
Employer Brand &
Unfair advantages
• List the criterias
• Prepare the
stakeholders
• Set the tempo
Dra; the process
KPIs : Time-to-hire, conversion after first call

19. JOB OFFER CHEAT LIST
Make sure no other company could use the posting

20. JOB OFFER CHEAT LIST
Avoid « Generic wording »
Make sure no other company could use the posting

21. JOB OFFER CHEAT LIST
Avoid « Generic wording »
Make sure no other company could use the posting
Describe the person’s actual first month (time allocation, specific
projects…)

22. JOB OFFER CHEAT LIST
Avoid « Generic wording »
Make sure no other company could use the posting
Describe the person’s actual first month (time allocation, specific
projects…)
Make it clear “what’s in it for them” and your unfair advantages

23. JOB OFFER CHEAT LIST
Avoid « Generic wording »
Make sure no other company could use the posting
Describe the person’s actual first month (time allocation, specific
projects…)
Make it clear “what’s in it for them” and your unfair advantages
Describe the stack (what’s fixed, what’s moving) & technical
challenges

24. TECH UNFAIR ADVANTAGES LIST
1. Team (Academics, previous successes, connexions)
2. Specific tech challenges (target top 3%)
3. Dedication to learning (training, books, events)
4. Package (above market salary, BSPCEs)
5. Work/life balance (Remote, flexibility)
6. Ecosystem connexions (Meetups, etc.)
7. Thought leadership (blogs, events)
8. Industry & mission (target top 3%)
9. Funding (top-VC, BA)
10. Traction (with figures)
Rule of thumb: take your closest 5 tech startups – could they use that exact wording?

25. 3.2 – Sourcing

26. SOURCING
• Active Referral
• Onboard your team
Referral
• Plateformes
• Job boards
• Agencies
• Freelances
Inbound
• Definition
• Identification
(HireSweet, LinkedIn,
GitHub etc.)
• Scaling(PersistIQ,
HubSpot, Reply)
Outbound
Outbound: 1 phone screen per 20 send
Inbound & marketplaces: 2 phone screens per week

27. 3.3 – Assessment

28. ASSESSMENT
• Sell & let speak
• Look for huge mismatch
• Aim #1 : convert in
interview
• Don’t try & assess at
this point
Screening Call
• How to build the case
study
• Auto-feedback
• Coaching
• Rate the performance
objectively
Technical Interview
• Score, score, score
• Look for past
perfomance
• Give practical insights
about your team
Fit interviews
KPIs : Time-to-offer, Churn rate during the process

29. THE ULTIMATE INTERVIEW PROCESS
1. Phone Screen (15 to 30 mins)
(50% conversion)
2. Onsite Technical Assessment (1h00 to 2h00)
(40% conversion)
3. Culture Interview (1h00)
(80% conversion)
4. Team Meeting (1h00)
(80% conversion)
5. Phone Offer (15 mins)
(50% conversion)
16 Phone screens à 1 hire
Total interview time = 4h00 – 5h00

30. ASSESSMENT

31. RESOURCES
Online tests: CodinGame, Codility, HackerRank
Process: Who, Smart & Gets Things Done, The Acceleration Formula
Inspirations: Drivy/jobs, poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

32. 3.4 – Conversion

33. CONVERSION
• NPS / Why that score?
• Concrete examples
Reference check
Toolkit
• Design your process for
selling
• Go all-in
• Explain what you can
teach
Conversion
• No explosive offers
• Be quick & followup
gently
• Pre-onboard
Follow-up
KPIs : Conversion rate

34. REFERENCE CHECK TOOLKIT
1. In what context did you work with this person?
2. What were her biggest strengths?
3. What were her biggest areas for improvement back then?
4. How would you rate her overall performance on a 1-10
scale?
5. Why?
6. What are examples of moments where she fought/
improved?

35. 3.5 – Retention

36. TAKE AWAYS
Hiring is paramount
Hiring is selling
Retention is paramount
Unfair advantages matter

37. INTERMISSION
? ?
? ?

38. Q&A
4

39. TRÉSORERIE
“Get busy hiring or get busy dying”
Andy Dufresne

40. The Family – 2019/09/15
Scale your tech team from 0 to
Series A