Ayo Omojola: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yeah, yeah. I think the team looks today about half and half. So I had this experience going through IC, where... And just kind of growing up, my career in Silicon Valley, where I knew a bunch of founders who were absolute beasts, like incredible people, could do amazing things, and they would bounce off organizations. They would be like, "All right, I'm going to go work at Amazon," and just not last. And when I was at Cash App I went through a bunch of hiring processes where I was like, "Hey, we should try and hire some founders to do this, look at these companies," et cetera. And a thing that would happen that... And this part really isn't about founders, although founders are like one way sort of this happens. But a thing that would happen quite often is, by the time that as a hiring manager you get a bunch of resumes to look at, like you post the job, a bunch of people apply, you're partnering with a sourcer, by the time you get a bunch of resumes to look at they've screened out everyone that doesn't just like fit inside a box. And it's like, at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and then at certain set of schools, and then a certain type of experience, et cetera. And so what would happen is like, if you just happened to not look like that profile I don't even see you. And I would say, "Hey, I would like to hire some non-traditional candidates here who were like founders or whatever," and I would just never get it. It was almost like the machine just worked a certain way, like there was an algorithm, and the algorithm was upstream of me. And I had this belief that sort of these people that I had seen, many of whom have now gone on to start companies that are doing quite well, would be incredible value add. Like basically, it's kind of like, if you could just hold onto a rock for a little bit it can take you pretty far. And so this was one of the things I talked to Eren about actually, early on when I joined Carbon. And I was literally in the job posting, I'd be like, "If you've been a founder before, even if your startup has failed, please apply to this." Because [inaudible 00:25:15] anything common among founders too is, there's like this sort of imposter syndrome that goes hand-in-hand with the chip on the shoulder. And so my team's much smaller now than it was, but I probably I think the whole time that I've been at Carbon, hired about 15% founders. And I'm actually 100% certain the thesis was right, and I think it just came with costs that were kind of theoretical at the time, and now they're real. I think like the two big costs are if there's any waste or bullshit in your organization, like they fucking see it right away and call it out. And so there's this like, you have to... There are just these scenarios where I'd just be like, I just have to sit and listen to somebody tell me all the things that we're doing wrong. So there's one, it's a way to cut through bullshit, that's one cost. st these scenarios where I'd just be like, I just have to sit and listen to somebody tell me all the things that we're doing wrong. So there's one, it's a way to cut through bullshit, that's one cost. And then I think the second cost is, and I say cost as in like it is not better for the organizations. You have these people come in, they're incredible. And you really can only keep them for like two, or two and a half years. And so what ends up happening is, they're just like, "Oh, I want to... " Obviously if you're going to be a person that starts a company you're ambitious, so they're like, "I'm going to run a team somewhere else, I'm going to go try some other thing, I'm going to go build a company." And so it's kind of like a team that I think is differentially higher output, but also differentially higher attrition on the market. Got it. I was going to ask about the cons, and I like that you shared them already, because I imagine working with a lot of founders adds a lot of stress too.…

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