We at Mainframe are aggressively ramping up the size of our engineering team. I currently spend the majority of my time meeting, recruiting and interviewing potential candidates. Going through this process has helped us refine and crystalize our thinking, who we’re looking for, and what we value most. Here’s a glimpse into our thought-process.

Technical Brilliance
This is obvious but needs to be said. We’re looking for world-class engineers. Our intention is to build the strongest engineering team Europe has seen. Not out of arrogance, but out of necessity. What we’re doing is really, really hard!

Knowing that our team is already incredibly strong, we like to ask ourselves these key questions: Is this person smarter than everyone else already on that team (back-end, web team, iOS, etc)? Will this person stretch us to be better? Can we constantly be learning from this person? If yes, this box is checked and we keep going. If no, we pass.

tl;dr: Smart, talented, intelligent, bright, genius, skilled.

Execution Machine
We love when someone has clearly demonstrated the ability to execute and ship product. At the stage we’re in, very few other things matter. We have lots of guesses and ideas and hopes of what could, maybe, possibly, someday work. But the fact is we simply just don’t know. So the faster we ship and iterate, the faster we learn and adapt. Our short term objective (like so many other startups) is to learn/adapt sufficiently fast enough that we find product/market fit before we run out of money. Simple as that.

Since we’re assessing an individual candidate, it’s sometimes easier to look at individual achievement: open source projects (github), hackathon submissions, school work, previous products/startups, etc. We want people who love making, creating, building, hacking, and most importantly… shipping! They crave putting their technology into the world (even when it isn’t perfect).

tl;dr: doer, go-getter, hacker, achiever, shipper, person of action.

Creative Leaders
We want people who are leaders. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are managers, have management experience, or like to manage people. It simply means that they are entrepreneurial, resourceful, self-directed, self-motivated, and self-sufficient. We don’t have the resources and bandwidth to dictate every little task that needs to be done. Leaders take ownership of a problem; they are creative and innovative enough to come up with solutions on their own. They never make excuses. They are tenacious problem solvers.

Leaders are also principled. They have conviction in their beliefs and aren’t easily influenced by the latest fad or noise from spectators. We want to be working with people who have good character, and high integrity — people who are honest and trustworthy.

Leaders bring positive energy to the team. They have a “can do” attitude. They can effectively communicate their ideas, yet humble enough to admit when they made a mistake. They aren’t afraid to try new things or take calculated risks — even if it sometimes means failure.

tl;dr: problem solvers, creative thinkers, positive, energetic, happy, influencer, self-motivated, driven, entrepreneurial.

Team Players
We wanna work with people who are unselfish — people who will put the team before themselves and help wherever is needed. We want people who are confident, yet not cocky or arrogant. We will always give credit where it’s due. But these people are humble, and will be quick to recognize and appreciate the contributions from the rest of the team.

We want people who not only value teams, but crave for the team experience. It’s people who love getting exposed to different perspectives and ideas; people who love absorbing knowledge and learning from others.

Being a team player is also about being mindful of the business needs. Everyone in this company has ownership — we all share in its success. So when there are deadlines to hit and milestones to be reached, we are thoughtful of what we can prioritize and what compromises we need to make so that we can hit our business goals. We are pragmatic. At our current stage, we need to optimize for speed, not perfection. At a later stage, that will be much different. We need people who can understand and appreciate the bigger business picture and prioritize accordingly.

We often judge this by doing working, collaborative sessions with candidates. We also do references with people they’ve worked with in the past. We often ask the candidate who they least want us to speak with. Their reaction and response usually sparks an interesting conversation.

tl;dr: collaborative, generous, social, pragmatic, disciplined, focused, efficient.

Love for Learning
Learning (and applying those learnings) is an essential part of the startup process. We want people who are sponges for learning and knowledge.

The world of technology (and the markets they serve) is constantly changing and evolving. We want people who are staying current on the latest frameworks and technologies — not for their jobs but because they are genuinely passionate about learning. We love intellectual curiosity. We love people who tinker, who experiment, who hack. We love people who ask questions.

This quality is often reflected by where candidates spend their free time. What are they doing when they don’t actually have to be doing something. Evenings. Weekends. Where do they spend their time? Do they read? Are they programming on side projects (github)? Going to museums? Traveling? Cultivating unique skills or hobbies. These are all positive signs for someone who likes to learn.

tl;dr: learner, sponge, curious, hacker, tinkerer, explorer, try new things.

Missionaries, not Mercenaries
I know we are biased… but we believe what we’re doing is incredibly exciting. We’re fundamentally changing how the world connects, communicates and collaborates. We want to work with people who are as enthusiastic about it as we are. They wake up everyday bouncing off walls, excited to get to work. Days fly by because it doesn’t feel like work. We want people who are passionate about the vision, and motivated by the impact we could make.

We love to see people who are hungry for success. We love underdogs. We love people who have a chip on their shoulder and are out to prove their naysayers wrong. We’re constantly told that what we’re doing is crazy… that we’ll never be able to do it. We know how it feels. So we love to see one’s ambition, drive, and resolve to win. We love people who are fiercely tenacious and competitive — not with team members… but with the big incumbents who we aim to uproot. We’re a bunch of crazy misfits seeking to destroy and disrupt. We wanna win! We like seeing that in other people.

We give huge bonus points to people who have a history for working in this general problem space (email, messaging, new protocols, federation, collaboration, productivity). It demonstrates passion, interest, excitement in the domain. Furthermore, they probably bring great experience, lessons and knowledge that could help us.

Brian Chesky of Airbnb used to ask potential candidates if they would still take the job if they knew they only had one year left to live (he later changed it to 5 years realizing it originally may have been too aggressive). It’s a good question to be asking. If you don’t have true, passionate believers in the cause… people will start quitting the moment adversity arrives.

tl;dr: passionate, excited, driven, hungry, tenacious, competitive (externally), motivated.

Location Matters
The first few years of any startup are the most important. So many things can go wrong. So many things do go wrong. It’s important to minimize and reduce the inefficiences/risks the best one can. We feel like having a team together, under one roof, sets us up for better longterm success. We want people who can appreciate that, who value that.

So much of our work is not just code — it’s design and architecture and discussion and whiteboarding. We’re inventing new technology, new protocols. These aren’t situations that a quick skype call can address. We believe that being together is optimal. We wanna give our startup the absolute best chance we can to succeed. Startups are already hard enough. Why would we do anything that would make it harder?

We also value the importance of creating a strong culture. Being together, we will forge relationships and create bonds that will hopefully help carry us through the tough times that inevitably come. We will set the tone for what we want this company to look like as it grows — culture, values, habits.

We want people who can fully commit, relocate to London and be side by side with us on a mission to change the world.

tl;dr: in London or willing to relocate to London

If this post resonates with you, take a look at our hiring page. We’d love to connect!