Talent Compounds is one of our values. 90% of a startup's problems are solved by just having the right group of people in the building Slack.
Personality traits that cause people to be successful here
Genuine builders. Some people do jobs for the money. Those that have truly found their passion are far stronger.
Easy to work with. People who are low ego, flexible, energetic, and upbeat will raise those around them. We often, but don't exclusively, hire those with more experience since it's easier for them to contribute meaningfully. Things can and do get very hard here – whether it's scaling, shipping complex products, handling a stream of support requests, or trying to ship something that touches multiple teams. We need those who won't get disheartened, and will collaborate, iterate, and ship their way out of anything. We proactively reward those that do these things, not those that self-promote.
Will join us on the journey. Some people are inspirational to work with – they lift others up. We have a huge opportunity at PostHog, and it often feels like we've caught lightning in a bottle. Anyone joining the company at this stage could make this the last job we all ever need. We want people that will push to get this done, for each other's sake. We don't hire mercenaries. We need to feel people here are producing the best work of their lives.
Drivers not passengers. Proactive people that can fully own projects and get them done (or make sure they get help) are what we need. For many of our roles, while it isn't a common job title, internally we have the concept of product engineers – people who can take high-level requirements, decide what to build, do so with customers, and keep iterating.
Great (and terrible) reasons to join us
Let's start with why you should join:
- You want to ship an epic product with incredible people.
- You want impact and autonomy, and work well with uncertainty.
Why you should not join:
Getting our brand on your resumé. If you join for self-promotion, you (ironically) won't do well! Apply to a bigger company who can give you a clearer career ladder.
Getting a pay rise. We pay generously, but you'll need to love building to be happy here. You'll need to be here a long time to get the real upside from options.
Mainly wanting to lead others. Reluctant managers are often the best. We don't pay more if you manage others. We want people to lead by example by doing an exceptional job of individual work.
A small group of stronger people and compensation
When we raised our Series A, one of the first things we did was to make sure we didn't lose our existing team (at least for pay reasons!) before we added more people to it. This is still true today – we proactively review everyone's pay three to four times a year and increase it if people have leveled up.
When it comes to churn due to pay, fairness is just as important as the absolute level. We do this in line with a transparent pay system that we even make public. We aim to pay generously and fairly between people.
For options, we offer the most generous terms possible as it feels like the right thing to do. We think this makes it as likely as possible people can see huge upside if we are successful (making it easier to raise and more realistic that people will actually get money from them). That motivates everybody.
One of the hardest parts about building a high performance team, is letting people go when they aren't performing. We are decisive and do this faster than many others would. We offer four months severance when we let people go for performance reasons to give people more time to move on – and so it's easier for us to make a change if we need to.
While we will give direct feedback, if we don't see this being responded to quickly ahead of letting someone go, we will part ways, so people can find a job they are better suited to, and so we can find a team member better suited to the job. The end result is that everyone on the team is contributing meaningfully.