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Posted on October 07, 2008 0 Comments
Several of you have mentioned problem with search on the site lately. We have been experiencing some server issues and are working to fix the problem. We are sorry, but will try our best to get things back to normal as soon as possible.
-Andrew
Posted on September 10, 2008 0 Comments
One of the things we focus on at CoNotes is recruiting a high quality talent pool. For our customers, our main distinction is being able to deliver high-performing people and so far, we feel that we have had success at doing so.
Some quotes from our customers:
“we’ve been receiving some of the best qualified candidates from CoNotes…The percentage of quality people were much higher on CoNotes.”
“the average applicant from CoNotes has been much higher on average than any of our other sources”
We pledge to continue to seek out the best talent for our customers, so please let us know how we are doing!
Posted on August 26, 2008 0 Comments
Some of you commented that the search was providing incomplete results, and we have now fixed that bug.
You should now be able to perform full-text searches. Let us know if you have any problems!
Posted on August 24, 2008 0 Comments
Jeremy Liew at LSVP just wrote a great post titled, “How to interview key hires.” To summarize, he said that companies need to evaluate three high-level criteria of candidates:
1. Technical Skills – Can they do the job?
2. Cultural Fit – Will they work well with the other team members?
3. Performance Skills – Do they have the intangibles that startup members need to have?
I would agree that these are the three main areas that a candidate needs to match to become a hire. However Jeremy didn’t really touch upon the specific position that a company should hire for. In startups, each hire makes a huge difference to the company, and figuring out the proper hiring needs is critical. I would think about the hiring needs of a company much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The next hire for a company is like the next piece of the puzzle. The hire should be complementary to existing pieces, and should be timed correctly for continued growth. Therefore, startups should focus on two main elements in determining its hiring needs:
1. Complementary skills and personalities
2. Upcoming milestones and priorities
Complementary skills and personalities
A company needs to make sure each hire is complementary to existing talent. A hire should add a missing component to a startup, and bring something new to the table. Especially in the very early stages, overloading on skills in the same areas is costly. Therefore a startup that began with 3 developers will probably want to seek out a more “business” focused person that can manage the non-technical issues of the company. In addition, a startup needs to balance the internal-focused and external-focused team members. The CEO is often the primary external-facing employee of a company, while the COO is the primary internal-facing employee. Product development and sales are also two complementary-type roles. A startup needs to ensure it has a balance of team members that can handle all the internal and external responsibilities that it faces. Yet, I am not suggesting a wall between internal and external-focused team members. The best companies cross-pollinate between these roles.
One of the best companies at team building is IDEO, so I also want to direct you to the complementary personality roles Tom Kelley of IDEO has defined in his book, “The Ten Faces of Innovation.” Kelley has broken down ten different personalities that are summarized on the book’s website: http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm. In addition to complementary skill sets, companies need to have complementary personalities. A company filled with Type-A personalities is just as likely to have issues as a company filled with passive personalities.
Upcoming milestones and priorities
A company needs to ensure hires match the timing of company milestones and priorities. A startup is constantly evolving, and its goals evolve as well. For example, product development and marketing are usually the primary focus at a startup’s early stages. Yet once the company matures a little, revenue growth and sustainability come into play. Mistiming a hire is costly in terms of time, effort, and money. Therefore, startups need to look at what milestones must be addressed in the next 12-18 months and where they are currently deficient in talent. The capabilities of the team need to match with the needs of the company. It’s a bit like paving the road that you are driving on (a tricky task indeed), but most startups will tell you that hiring is the most difficult issue for them to manage. As a tip, I would also suggest that startups budget in 3 months to find a hire, and another month to bring that new hire up to speed.
In the end, every startup will have its hiring hiccups — whether it’s hiring the wrong person or adding a position at the wrong time. But the key is to identify those mistakes and correct them as soon as possible.
Posted on August 21, 2008 0 Comments
In the recruiting world, there is so much subjective opinion that it is very difficult to decide if Candidate A is better than Candidate B. That is why brand name universities and companies carry so much weight on resumes.
What ends up happening, though, is that every startup looks to hire some undergrad engineers from Stanford. They all send an email out over various Stanford listservs, hoping for a hit. Sometimes you’ll get a hit, but a lot of times you are just another fish in the sea of startups recruiting at Stanford. And while students at Stanford are great, there are tiers of students. Some startups are inherently going to grab the top tier students, and some the 2nd tier…but the question is whether it’s worth going for the lower tier students or whether you should really start spending time searching for hidden talent at other schools?
So I wanted to see if there was some way to prove there was talent at lesser known schools. The tough part is finding a common, easily-available metric for “talent” at different universities. I couldn’t come up with anything good, so I settled on what data I could find easily — SAT scores at different universities. Before any of you jump on me for using SAT scores as a proxy for qualified candidates for a startup, I ask that you help find me a better metric that can serve as a proxy for such a purpose.
Given that caveat, I really just want to show that there are some non-brand name universities with just as much talent as brand name universities. I also wanted to narrow down the scope a little since a large number of entry positions at startups are engineering related. So I used US News’ list of top undergraduate engineering schools. The names most people would expect are on there (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley), as well as some other schools less well known for their engineering programs (Michigan, Cornell).
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 Stanford University
3 University of California—Berkeley
4 California Institute of Technology
5 Georgia Institute of Technology
6 University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
7 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
8 Cornell University
9 Carnegie Mellon University
10 Purdue University—West Lafayette
More surprising were the schools on a second list for universities without doctorate programs.
1 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
2 Harvey Mudd College
3 Cooper Union
4 Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
5 United States Military Academy
I personally know of these 5 schools because of friends that attended each school, but I doubt a lot of people know that these schools have some great undergraduate engineering programs.
After gathering SAT data on these schools, I then ranked them by percentage of the student body with SAT scores above 1500.
1 California Institute of Technology
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3 Stanford University
4 Harvey Mudd College
5 Cornell University
6 Carnegie Mellon University
7 Cooper Union
8 University of California—Berkeley
9 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
10 University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
11 Georgia Institute of Technology
12 United States Military Academy
13 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
14 Purdue University—West Lafayette
15 Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
Scribd doc with more data here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4953110/Universities-with-hidden-engineering-talent
What stood out to me were 3 specific schools: Harvey Mudd, Cornell and Cooper Union. Harvey Mudd at 32% of their school with SAT scores above 1500 is pretty much neck-and-neck with Stanford. And all 3 have higher percentages than Berkeley and Illinois, two schools with much better known engineering schools.
Now if you want to then look at universities in terms of absolute #s of students with SAT scores above 1500, you get this ranking:
1 University of California—Berkeley
2 University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
3 Cornell University
4 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
5 Stanford University
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7 Carnegie Mellon University
8 Georgia Institute of Technology
9 Purdue University—West Lafayette
10 California Institute of Technology
11 Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
12 United States Military Academy
13 Harvey Mudd College
14 Cooper Union
15 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
This ranking only reinforces Cornell’s standing as a great place for startups to recruit. With just as many undergrads scoring 1500 or above as Illinois, and more than Stanford or MIT, it seems logical to at least make a small effort to reach out to Cornell engineering students.
At the same time, these are the #s that really hurt schools like Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union because companies feel like there aren’t enough qualified applicants in absolute terms at the schools — despite the high percentage of very smart students. But both these schools are in very convenient metropolitan areas (Harvey Mudd is in LA and Cooper Union is in NYC), so the incremental cost is not that high.
While I want to emphasize again that SAT scores are not a great proxy for talented people, it does indicate that there are some schools with hidden talent pools that startups really should be targeting. And moreover, they might want to spend more time at these other schools than some of their current target schools.
Posted on July 30, 2008 0 Comments
I just came across this article about Tata Motor’s Nano car, and found it extremely interesting. The car itself sounds very innovative, but my interest comes from the goal setting and promotion of Tata.
As a startup, you are always treading this fine line between promoting and executing. Those of us in the web community all should know what happens when you over-promote and under-execute (a.k.a. Cuil ). But what the public doesn’t know is that you are really promoting your vision for the company. However, as a leader of a startup, you need to know what you are selling and to whom. Your vision isn’t always what the public needs to hear. Sometimes they just need to know what you can deliver right now.
For those job seekers out there, you also need to take this into consideration. The leaders might have an incredible vision for the startup, but you really have to evaluate if they are the ones capable of executing on that vision. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions back in your interviews with the startup and think hard about if your skills and passion are complementary to the startup’s needs.
Posted on July 28, 2008 0 Comments
CoNotes was just reviewed by Kristen Nicole at Mashable.
Article here: CoNotes Matches Job Seekers with Cool Startups (The Startup Review)
Thanks, Kristen and Mashable!
Posted on July 24, 2008 0 Comments
The guys over at Venture Hacks have written a pretty good list of things to think about or find out once you have an offer from a startup.
Some of the items may be hard to find out, but are very important for you to think about. I would say that #10 is the most important by far. A good leader will reflect his/her traits in the decisions that affect the other items on the list.
I’m paraphrasing their list, but for the full text, go here: I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal?,
I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal?
1. Get your offer in writing
2. Fair compensation is something inline with what other competitors are paying. Do some research.
3. Look at the terms of your options to determine their worth.
4. Don’t worry about what % of equity your options will vest into…worry about their value (See #3).
5. Can I exercise my unvested options early?
6. Find out how much “runway” does the company have (e.g. how much cash does it have in the bank and how long will it last for). This is a good estimate for how long you can expect to be guaranteed a salary.
7. Ask how much the company’s post-money valuation was in the last round.
8. What cash out preferences do the investors have?
9. Find out who is on the board and why.
10. Think about if you believe in the CEO and board of the company.
Posted on July 24, 2008 0 Comments
One feature that we recently added on CoNotes has been adding the LinkedIn pop-up, so you can see who in your network is connected to a startup. To use this feature, click on the “LinkedIn” link that is in the upper right hand corner of every company profile.
When looking at a company, it is particularly important to get as much information as possible, and the best sources of information are the people you know. We hope you find this feature useful, and would love to hear your thoughts!
Posted on July 21, 2008 0 Comments
CoNotes has just passed the 250 mark for jobs posted! We are hard at work to make sure CoNotes is the best place for you to discover startup job opportunities.
Having been a part of several startups, I wanted to pass on share a few learnings from my experiences which may help you find the perfect job.
1. Entering the unknown
By their very definition, every startup is entering the unknown. It is trying to do something that no other company has done — and this is a difficult thing. It is difficult for the company, and difficult for every person inside the company. You will be doing a lot of guesswork, and making the best decisions possible with very incomplete data. Therefore you must be comfortable working in these conditions and willing to learn from your mistakes (and there will be a lot of those!).
As Donald Rumsfeld said, “There are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.” And though he didn’t take his own wisdom to heart, I think it would be wise for you to beware of your company’s unknown unknowns. Don’t pull a Rummy.
2. Get some glasses and focus!
Every startup needs to focus and every member needs to focus. There are so many things going on that it is so easy to get sucked up into doing a lot of things. But what usually happens is that you end up doing a lot of things rather poorly, and nothing well. I definitely fight the urge daily, so wearing my glasses helps me see better.
3. Passion fruit is good. Passion is even better.
The fuel of any startup is the passion of its members. A good startup is like a Jeep. It sucks a lot of fuel, is gangly and rough around the edges. But it can make it over pretty much any terrain it encounters. A Jeep without its fuel will just be stuck in the middle of some crappy place.
But misplaced passion is just as bad as not enough passion. Continuing the analogy, it is the wrong type of fuel. If you join a startup, you need to be passionate about the company and its mission. Granted, there will disagreements within any startup, but you need to believe in what problem the company is trying to solve.
Furthermore, you will be working long hours. You won’t be paid well enough to work so hard, and the only thing that can keep you motivated is your passion. Any maybe when you have one of those nights when you are stressed out, not sure if you made the right decision or not to join this startup, have some passion fruit (it helps to lower blood pressure). Then hopefully you’ll get your passion and passion fruit all in one sitting. What else could be better? Perhaps only an In-N-Out animal style cheeseburger.
If you have found a job through CoNotes, we’d love to hear from you!
Posted on July 10, 2008 0 Comments
Hey there!
As you may have noticed, there has been some major updates to the CoNotes site. We have added a number of features that make finding a great job at a startup company even easier.
These features include:
To take advantage of these new features, you’ll need to create an account, if you haven’t already done so.
Hope you enjoy the improvements! And be on the look out for even more!
-Andrew
Posted on May 21, 2008 0 Comments
So a lot of you have commented that you would like to be able to see all the available jobs in a more convenient way. We agree that it is currently not intuitive, so we are working to address that issue.
However for now, you can find all the jobs listed here: http://www.conotes.com/jobs
You also can search for keywords through that link.
Another thing to mention is that it is unclear how to apply for a number of the positions. That is an issue we ran across as we were loading a number of the jobs into the database, but we are working to fix that ASAP. If you do come across one of these listings, please let use know via email at support@conotes.com.
We are happy to see that CoNotes is generating so much interest. We are supporters of entrepreneurship and it’s exciting that so many people are also interested in joining fast-growth startups!
Posted on May 20, 2008 2 Comments
Hey everyone! It’s been about two weeks since we launched and we are seeing a tremendous response from you. A lot of you have commented that you were in the middle of a job search for startup companies, and that it was perfect timing that we launched when we did. Our aim is to continue to improve CoNotes, so that the job search process is exciting, educational, and interesting. We want the companies that you read about to get your blood flowing, and hopefully that passion translates over into a career that you love.
For job seekers, I want to begin a discussion here around your criteria for selecting a job. For some, it is about the prestige, others the salary, and a good number state it is the location.
For myself, I have always sought out the job that sounded most interesting to me — and for the most part they have been entrepreneurial and technology related. And those two areas are a pretty good summary of where my interests lie. I am a tech guy at heart, but technology in and of itself is not enough. I love the application of technology in interesting ways…and that is where the entrepreneurial interests come in.
There have been many times when I had the option to choose a higher paying or more “prestigious” job. But I hated the thought of not doing something that I loved. Some people say that this approach is very noble or honest, but I think it is just an efficient form of selfishness. Why go two steps (e.g. job to money to happiness) when you can do it in one (job to happiness)?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Posted on May 07, 2008 1 Comment
Hey! This is Andrew, founder of CoNotes. I’m really excited to announce the relaunch of CoNotes. CoNotes is the one place to go to for job opportunities in the most exciting entrepreneurial companies. If fast-growth companies such as Facebook or ZipCar excite you, then this is the place for you. My goal is to help you find your passion and live your dream!
As a business school student at Kellogg, I made a concerted effort to find a position within several startup companies. But I spent hours upon hours looking for, researching, and aggregating information about fast-growth companies. I knew there were tons of others people going through the same frustrating process and that I could come up with a better way to find these companies. That thought was the birth of CoNotes.
So take a look and click around. I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if there is an exciting company that you think needs to be added, let me know!