Jessica Grant

The idea that you have to major in a technical field to work in tech is bullshit. Either we’re doing something really weird and different at Wistia, or the perceptions out there are really wrong. I asked the team to share their previous roles outside of tech in Slack. These are jobs Wistians have held prior to entering tech across all departments and levels of seniority: + Corporate Christmas tree decorator + Goat tender + Spotlight operator for Lady Gaga + Baby ballet teacher + Romance bookshop owner + Bank teller + High-rise sign installer + Beach concession stand cook + Philosophy professor + Mental health therapist + Reality television contestant + Reality television producer + Camp counselor + Ice cream shop manager + Airforce Officer + Broadway star + Folk Singer + Art docent + High-end cheese seller + Bowling alley mechanic + FEMA employee + Pharmacy technician + Whitewater kayaking guide + Lifeguard + Caregiver + Librarian + Cat cafe employee + Baker + Subtitle translator You might assume this trend wouldn’t be true when you look at more senior roles, but it is! Some of our most senior people have the weirdest beginnings. Seeing this, I wish I hadn’t worried so much about locking myself into a certain concentration of study in high school and college. Here’s to finding your own way.

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Hiring top ML and Software Engineering talent for AI startups is tough. But here's a hot tip: working with 3-4 agencies isn’t going to help your case. Why not? When you work with multiple agencies, they all do just enough. You’ll get the same "open-to-work" candidates that are quick to find, because no one is giving it 100%. Why? They know there’s competition, and their goal is to send as many resumes as possible before someone else does. What's the result? You get 20 resumes, maybe 1 or 2 worth a second look. The rest? Not a good use of your time. Worse, high-performers? They're usually not in that pile. Plus, now you're spending more hours in interviews than in strategy meetings. It gets worse! When candidates hear from 4 recruiters about the same role, it doesn’t make your startup look great. They start asking themselves: “Why is everyone pushing this job? What’s wrong with it?” Here's the fix: Partner with one agency you trust and give them an exclusive search. When you give exclusivity, you get full commitment. Instead of 20 mediocre resumes, They’ll reach out to 100 high-caliber candidates and only present a shortlist of A-players. You’ll save time, protect your brand, and get the talent your AI startup truly needs. Win-win.

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I am incredibly inspired by and grateful for my teammates at Verse for achieving our first fundraising milestone together: we recently secured $20.5 million in Series A financing led by GV (Google Ventures) 🙌🏾 🎉 with participation from Coatue, CIV, and MCJ Collective. I've been trying to contain my excitement for weeks 😊 as am sure are my colleagues now that we can share the good news. I'd like to give a big shout out to the engineering team - Jessica Greenfield, Kaleb Pace, Shawn Toubeau, Brandon Clayton, Ryan Kladar, Ryan Triolo, Yuzhou Jiang, and Mahdi Kohansal - for the speed and precision of every line of code they've written, and to Seyed H. Madaeni, Ph.D., Matt Penfold, Shehzad Wadalawala, Dane McKay, Alison Mickey, Debi Ryan, and Tanner McAuley for leading and driving us on the business front. We'll be on the look out soon for more folks to join us 😉 As we used to say at my last job: "We haven't won yet." The path to decarbonization will be a multi-decade, if not multi-generational effort. Verse is just one organization in a constellation of thousands developing real solutions to the climate change problem. Until we achieve net zero emissions at a global scale 🌏 🌍 🌎 our mission remains to be done. #software #ai #energy #sustainability #climatechange #startups https://lnkd.in/gG-DEX5x

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𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘃𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 ⚖️ A couple of months a go I interviewed Kathryn Koehler, director of Engineering Productivity at Netflix, and we talked a lot about… meetings. Kathryn says she spends a lot of time doing two things: 𝟭) 🧹 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 — to allow developers carve out focus time. 𝟮) 🏆 𝗗𝗲-𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 — to allow the *good* conversations happen. The risk that we face, in fact, after all this preaching to the choir of async & written comms, is that we don’t let even *good* meetings happen — and there is really not substitute for them. Kathryn argues that a lot of the 10x work happens in great meetings where people can figure out something hard together and align quickly. So what do good meetings look like? 𝟭) ⚽ 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 — they are about *doing* things, instead of just *syncing.* Most of the syncing may actually happen… *async.* 𝟮) 🏗️ 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 — Kathryn is fond of saying “𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢”. If it isn’t clear what a meeting is about, just don’t go. To meeting owners: always do your own homework and create an agenda that puts everybody on the same page about what needs to be done. 𝟯) 🍻 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 — they create bonding. Use the first minutes to do some small talk, and always use meetings when personal issues are at stake. Think of 1:1s, or retrospectives. You can find the full interview with Kathryn in the first comment 👇

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Interviewing at big and small companies at the same time? Here's why this may be a yellow flag: Let's say you're a staff software engineer, and you're looking at potential roles with Stripe, Notion, and three startups in the seed to Series A range. The startup founders are all going to wonder: Are you actually serious about going early stage? Often it's left unsaid -- though the good ones know how to ask about this. A lot of engineers ask me why this is the case. And it's usually because they landed their last role in the ZIRP era. But we're past ZIRP now, and founders are looking at more than just technical skill. As engineering orgs stay lean and flat, it's more important to these founding teams that each new hire brings real conviction. Will their next hire stay late at the office them, shoulder to shoulder, to solve the next big set of problems? Will they bring a product mindset towards their work that shows care in the craft? And will they actually be able to self onboard in a highly dynamic environment? Unfortunately -- big companies are known to provide a very different working environment. Compensation is higher. Things are more stable. And if your own story around where and why you're interviewing there isn't clear, you may find that startups question the motivation factor. 2021 + 2022 was all about bring as much talent through the door as possible for startups. Today, it's about bringing on the right team member.

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How many times have you felt like you nailed the job interview, only to get blindsided by a rejection email? In my latest piece on LeadDev, I break down why you might have gotten that rejection email that isn't always obvious: 🏢 Misalignment with company size 🤝 Team structure incompatibility 🎯 Expertise mismatch for specific role needs 🌐 Industry knowledge gaps 🧩 Cultural fit issues 🦄 Lack of unique differentiation For each, I offer concrete steps to help you anticipate and address these potential pitfalls before you even apply. Remember, rejection isn't a reflection of your worth. It's an opportunity to refine your approach and find a role where you'll truly thrive. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, I think you'll find some valuable insights here. Give it a read, and let me know what you think! Link in the comments👇

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Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely heard about Paul Graham's viral post on the #FoundersMode mindset. Graham's Founders Mode was inspired by Airbnb founder Brian Chesky. Chesky redesigned Airbnb's product function by combining traditional inbound product management with outbound product marketing. He also became more hands-on with the product. In essence, Graham's thesis was about founders owning the minutiae of the product they're building, rather than delegating it. Graham deliberately provided only a hazy outline of the idea. That's allowed for many interpretations and critiques! The critiques point out that most early-stage founders have probably never led at scale. Breaking functions into "modular design" and delegating to empowered executives is a necessary step towards scaling. Two perspectives I find insightful come from founders who've also led at massive scale. Bryan Cantrill (Oxide) and Brad Porter (co.bot) discuss durable ways to communicate the company's mission and vision. Porter emphasizes trust and mentoring. Cantrill highlights the power of a "writing- (and reading-!) intensive company culture" to scale ownership. My hot take! 🏘 Ownership - I make better decisions because I own it. Jeff Bezos explains ownership by describing the shift in mindset when you OWN a house versus RENTING it. Owners have a 'bug' in their brain. Defects bothers them. They act on it; they cut across boundaries. They also transcend abilities! The best founders I have interacted with get their customer needs like its their own. They are deeply empathetic. They deeply care about the product experience. They cherish customer interactions. They are addicted to message boards, customer rants... 😺 Being Feral - You rarely see a founder who is dogmatic. They are firm on vision and flexible on the path to it. I deliberately used the word feral as founders are absolute survivors. They can conserve energy and prioritize what's important. Failure hurts them. But they are relentless and fight to live another day. They are indomitable. ⚒ Being an Exemplary Practitioner - I am lifting this from the Amazon #PrincipalEngineer tenets. "We deliver artifacts that set the standard for engineering excellence, from designs to algorithms to implementations. Only by being close to the details can we earn the respect needed to be effective technical leaders". You can "find and replace" the word 'engineering' with any other function and operate in founders mode. 📢 Broadcaster No. 1 - Steve Blank once described a startup as a search for a scalable and repeatable idea. A company (or product) serves a customer need. Great founders know that the thing that breaks down as they grow is how effectively they communicate the idea of the startup or the company to their customer and to their frontier employees. The best founders are always the best storytellers. [Citations in comments. A slightly longer post about Founder Mode for recruiters on my Substack] 😎

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The job market is overwhelmed with applications, yet many talented technologists remain unseen, especially with remote work and recent layoffs. 🤝What I'm Doing: This is step 1 of my mission to help talented technologists find the opportunities they deserve. I’m leveraging my network to highlight individuals I’ve personally worked with and can vouch for. ⭐The Rock Stars: Not every candidate can share their name or details publicly. If you want to know more about these exceptional individuals, DM me for more info. 💪 Product Management Pros: Product Owner – A stellar Product Owner who has consistently driven successful projects while working under my guidance. Product Manager/Product Owner – Versatile and adept at both roles, this candidate has a proven track record of excellence in product management. 📈Dynamic, Agile Leaders: Leadership Candidate 1 – A world-class leader with extensive experience in agile methodologies, ready to take on VP-level roles. Leadership Candidate 2 – An agile expert and dynamic leader, perfect for top-tier leadership positions in technology. Leadership Candidate 3 – A visionary leader in the technology space, with a knack for driving teams to success. I have worked directly with every person on this list. Most were part of my team, allowing me to play a role in their evolution into rock stars. Others were peers with whom I collaborated regularly. How You Can Help: ♻️ Share this post to increase visibility. 💬 DM me if you know of any open positions or can offer assistance. 👋Are You in the Same Situation? If you're a talented technologist facing similar challenges, please reach out to me. I'd love to use my network to help more skilled professionals find the opportunities they deserve.

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A lot of folks have been looking at the single year equity grants offered by a number of companies liked Lyft, Stripe, and Coinbase and assuming that the original 4-year grant that companies offer is being packed into a single year. As awesome as that would be, that's not the case. The reality is that the single year equity grant is competitive with the first year vest at any other company. And all in all, it's actually probably a worse option for employees given that you don't have any guarantee for additional stock grants in the following years, whereas a multi-year grant ensures you have something to vest in subsequent years as long as you're still employed. A shorter one year equity grant allows the company to allocate less equity upfront. It also means when you do get a refresh, the stock grant is re-priced with the current value of the stock. Credit for the graphic below to 'Natty' from Semi-Structured: https://lnkd.in/ea7KjuJK We wrote about and covered one year equity grants and what they mean on the Levels.fyi blog here: https://lnkd.in/gNyZZAay We also published a blog on some unique new vesting schedules that are coming onto the market: https://lnkd.in/gd2JDxuP #vestingschedule #stockgrant #equity #salarytransparency

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