How to Scale: Lessons from Stripe CEO | Patrick Collison

Summary

In this insightful discussion, the founder of Stripe emphasizes the importance of company culture and strategic hiring in building a successful tech company. He shares experiences from Stripe's early days, highlighting the deliberate approach to recruiting top talent, fostering a culture of transparency and innovation, and the gradual introduction of management structures. The talk also touches on the significance of creating a strong engineering brand to attract the best developers, even when starting from obscurity.

Takeaways

• 😀 Building a strong company culture is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent, especially in the early stages of a company's growth.
• 🚀 The founder emphasizes the importance of working on hard problems as they are more attractive to talented individuals compared to easy problems.
• 🌟 Stripe's initial success in recruiting was partly due to the challenge and complexity of the infrastructure they were building, which appealed to top talent.
• 🎯 The company adopted a long-term approach to recruiting, hiring for potential and fit over immediate skills, which helped them build a strong foundation.
• 🛠️ Stripe's culture encourages engineers to be end-to-end problem solvers, from customer interaction to product design and development.
• 🔑 Transparency within the company, such as email transparency, was highlighted as a key part of their culture, fostering a sense of shared purpose and understanding.
• 💡 The founder stresses the significance of hiring for happiness and pleasantness, as it contributes to a positive and productive work environment.
• 🌱 The company's culture was deliberately nurtured, with regular discussions and adjustments to ensure it remained a living, evolving aspect of the organization.
• 🤝 The importance of hiring people who are known to be good by others was underscored, as they are more likely to attract additional top talent.
• 🏆 Equity was given generously to early employees, reflecting the belief that those who build the company should share in its success.
• 🛑 The company was cautious about introducing external managers, only doing so when it became necessary to maintain the company's growth and culture.

Q & A

What is the 'cruel irony' mentioned at the beginning of the session?

The cruel irony is not explicitly defined in the transcript, but it seems to refer to the paradoxical situation of having someone with 20 years of experience in building company cultures being part of a session that might be discussing new mistakes or approaches in company culture development.

What is the relationship between recruiting and company culture as discussed in the session?

The session suggests that the greatest asset of the audience is both recruiting and culture, implying that there is a strong connection between the two. A good company culture can attract and retain talented individuals, while effective recruiting can help build and maintain a positive company culture.

Why did Stripe focus on solving a hard problem rather than an easy one when building their company culture?

Stripe believed that solving a hard problem was more attractive to top talent than a lightweight business model. It was thought that the challenge of building something durable and impactful would draw in the best people, rather than the idea of working on something perceived as easy or ephemeral.

How did Stripe's gradual start influence its approach to recruiting?

Stripe's gradual start, where they were unsure if they wanted to work on it full-time, effectively pushed out their time horizon for recruiting. This allowed them to hire on a longer time frame, which meant they could be more selective and patient in finding the right people, rather than rushing to fill positions quickly.

What was the significance of hiring people who were 'known to be good by others' at Stripe?

Hiring people who were recognized as good by others was important for Stripe because it would help attract other super talented individuals. The idea is that if the first 10 hires are known to be excellent, they will help draw in more high-quality talent, creating a virtuous cycle of recruitment.

What was the criteria for the first ten hires at Stripe?

The criteria for the first ten hires included being extremely smart, pleasant to work with, able to hit the ground running, and having a reputation for being good. These individuals needed to be productive immediately and be able to contribute significantly to the company's growth.

Why is it important to work with potential hires before making a final decision?

Working with potential hires before making a final decision allows the company to assess their fit more accurately. It helps avoid bad hires by giving the team a chance to spot any potential issues or incompatibilities during a trial period, which can be as short as a week or a few weeks.

How did Stripe's approach to equity distribution among its first ten employees?

Stripe was very generous with equity distribution among its first ten employees, giving away more than 10 percent of the equity. This was based on the belief that it's better to be generous with employees who build the company than with investors.

What is the concept of 'email transparency' at Stripe?

Email transparency at Stripe means that all internal communication is public throughout the company. This practice is intended to allow employees to make better local decisions by having access to the full context of what's happening across different teams and departments.

What is the 'org hack' process at Stripe and why is it done?

The 'org hack' at Stripe is a process where employees identify top organizational problems, and subgroups work on recommendations to improve or remedy these issues. It's done to deliberately and actively work on modifying and improving the company culture and operations.

How did Stripe's onboarding process help prevent siloing between teams?

Stripe's onboarding process required every new engineer to ship something on every other engineering team before joining their long-term team. This encouraged cross-pollination and prevented siloing by giving new employees a broader understanding of the company's operations and fostering collaboration across teams.

What was the rationale behind deferring the hiring of external managers at Stripe?

Stripe deferred hiring external managers because they were able to hire experienced founders and individuals who could hit the ground running without much oversight. This approach allowed them to preserve the potential managers as individual contributors for a longer period, maximizing their contributions to the company's growth.

How did Stripe approach the process of identifying and recruiting middle management?

Stripe primarily promoted from within for middle management positions, which meant moving their most productive people into management roles. This decision was supported by the company's culture and the belief that these individuals would make great managers.

What was the signal that Stripe needed to start changing the management layer?

The signal to start changing the management layer came when the company reached a size where the lack of formal management structures began to hinder its growth and efficiency. This realization prompted the promotion of internal talent into management roles.

How did Stripe build its engineering brand post the first ten hires?

Stripe built its engineering brand by investing time and effort in activities such as participating in security contests, writing engineering blog posts about cool and innovative topics, and showcasing their engineering capabilities. This helped attract attention and talent to the company.