Hiring a VP of Engineering

Jason Warner (@jasoncwarner, MD @redpointvc), a veteran of GitHub, Heroku and Canonical, talks about the process and challenges of hiring a VP of Engineering. 

SHOW: 543

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SHOW NOTES:

• Jason Warner joins RedPoint Ventures (Forbes)
• Jason Warner, CTO at GittHub (Forbes)

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background prior to Redpoint VC and what you’re now focused on in the VC world. 

Topic 2 - Let’s start with “Why do you need to hire a VP of Engineering?” When does it matter as an early-stage startup, and why does it matter when a company is larger? {high leverage}

Topic 3 - What are you looking for in that hire? What is your process for creating a potential list of candidates? What criteria are most important for you to evaluate? {curve bender}

Topic 4 - We hear a lot about “engineering interviews” (technical). How much of that is involved in your hiring process, and how are you measuring the other disciplines that are needed for this role? 

Topic 5 - If you’re hiring from the outside, how much do you involve the engineering and product teams, and how do you think about the value of internal-knowledge vs. external-knowledge? 

Topic 6 - Once you identify the candidate, what steps do you take to encourage early success? How do you measure on-going activities?

Topic 7 - What advice do you have for people that are interviewing for these roles?


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