Guest Post: A First Interview Template

Here at Collider, we believe it is as much about what you learn on the journey to your destination, as getting there. And this week we wandered through the world of HR. We are lucky enough to work in the same building as Seed.Jobs - who are bringing marketing intelligence and data science to recruitment, empowering companies to engage with the right talent at the right time. And they have been kind enough to share their step-by-step guide to hiring talent. And they've generously shared their first interview template for all to enjoy.

Example First Interview - Getting to know each other in 30 mins

Part 1: Putting them at ease

• Step 1: Start with a friendly opener to put someone at ease and make it a little bit less formal, gets conversation going

Example: "Hey, how are you, how is your day going?"; "Have you had a good weekend / week?"

• Step 2: Establish the format of the interview, so they know what to expect

Example: "Really appreciate you taking the time. I wanted to make this quite informal - I'd love to tell you a bit about us and what we're building, and it would be great to learn a bit about what you have been upto and what you are interested in."

Part 2: Intro to your company - get people excited

• Step 1: Give an overview of your mission

Example: "I'll start by giving you a bit of background on why we started [our project]... 

• Step 2: Introduce the team, give a bit of history, explain how you work

Example: "The company was founded x months ago and we're a team of y hackers and z hustlers...."

• Step 3: Give a view of the future

Example: "We are a product-centric company with a big focus on data, which to us means ...... 

• Step 4: Highlight our approach to teaching/learning/development

Example:  We encourage everyone to always find new technologies to use and you get a lot of responsibility from day 1"

Part 3: Intro to the Candidate

• Step 1: Get them to introduce themselves
• Example: "Would love to hear about you, your background and what you've been upto recently"
• Step 2: Get an idea of what they are looking for
• Example: "What kind of stuff are you interested in doing next? Are you looking for specific opportunities or roles or technologies that you want to work with?"
• Step 3: Understand their motivations
• Example: "Can you tell me why you are interested in XXX"
• Step 4: Get a frame of reference to their timing (when they want to move)
• Example: "In terms of timing, are you looking to move now? What is your notice period?"

Part 4: Determining Fit

• Step 1: Role

Example: "What would you say is the ideal role for you i.e. in terms of responsibilities etc."

• Step 2: Drive

Example: "What motivates you and why?"

• Step 3: Work Ethic

Example: "What is your working style? If you ran the engineering team, how would you do it?"

• Step 4: Self awareness

Example: "What's the biggest impact you have made in a past role; and why do you think so?"

• Step 5: Learning    Example: "What is your approach to learning? Do you spend your spare time researching technologies?"
• Step 6: Creativity

Example: "What is the most creative thing you have done?"

• Step 7: Personality

Example: "What do you do in your spare time? If you could take a 5 years off work with no worry about money - what would you do?"

Part 5: Answering Questions

• Step 1: Give them an opportunity to ask questions

Example: "I've been asking all the questions. Do you have any questions for me?"

Part 6: Next Steps

• Step 1: Thank them for their time

Example: "[First Name], thank you very much for your time. It's been a real pleasure chatting to you"

• Step 2: Inform the candidate on what happens next

Example: "The next steps are, I'll circle up with our team and we should be in touch in the next day or two. Typically our process is we'll send you a test to do, and after that there will be an interview with a couple of our [engineers]"

• Step 3: Find out if they have other processes ongoing

Example: "Finally, just wanted to check - do you have other interview processes going on right now? We can move very fast to make a decision for the right people"

Guest Post: Your First Hire

**This is the first post of two on the hiring process for early-stage startups from our friends at Seed.Jobs.**We are halfway through the Class of 2015 programme! We can't believe that only a short time ago the sky was grey, and our founders were just joining us in London. Two months later, they are all on their way to becoming full-fledged businesses. And a part of that journey is expanding their teams. What are the sorts of things a founder needs to take into consideration when making some of their first hires? Here's a quick list of things to keep in mind;

Step 1: Figure out what kind of people you want to have in your team/project/company

Culture can evolve, but 1-10 employees can really dictate how it is shaped in the early days. Consider the impact of hiring people that you wouldn't go for a beer with, or that work remotely.

Step 2: Figure out how to make those kind of people excited by what you're doing. 

We start interviews by briefly telling people about what we're building and why it's important, and by explaining our work process and culture. Find out how to tell your story to the right audience at the right time.

Step 3: Define what you care about at a high level 

• General
• Interest in what we do
• Communication
• Curiosity
• Tech
• Learning
• Problem Solving
• Knowledge sharing (e.g. open source contribution)

Step 4: Identify core skills/strengths/criteria you want to prioritize for the role

• Required
• Bonus
• Javascript (4/5)
• Angularjs (2/5) - focus
• Reactjs (3/5)

N.B consider what a candidate may want to focus on in next role. 

Step 5: Figure out where you can find candidates that don't apply to you 

e.g. For developers we like to use Angel List, along with contacting people directly through forums. For other roles, such as designers, posting jobs can be effective, but you can find great passive candidates in other places (e.g. Dribbble).

Step 6: Figure out the simplest way to start conversations with relevant candidates 

e.g. a simple landing/jobs page, with Email/Apply with Linkedin (or check out what we at Seed.jobs do to make this easier)

Step 7: Come up with an interview process that sells you, and lets you comparatively assess them

For more info on that, click here.

Introducing: Pixoneye

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**We will be profiling each company joining Collider’s Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what’s to come over the next few months!**

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Who are you and what do you do?

We are Pixoneye. We let our customers in on their customers' personal life stories by combining image understanding capabilities with artificial intelligence on any mobile device's photo and video galleries.

Who are your co-founders & give us one line about each of you!

Ofri Ben Porat (CEO) - 7 years' experience in online and digital marketing and advertising, served as the senior advisor to the Minister of Tourism on all marketing matters.

Nadav Tal-Israel (CTO) – over 10 years' experience in computer vision and machine learning, Nadav served as head researcher on the Samsung gesture recognition developments for the galaxy series

Dr. Iris Yuster (partner) – 20 years in the targeted and segmented marketing and advertising business, Dr. Yuster did her Doctorate for Deutche Telekom with regards to ad serving and correct content on TV platforms.She is also responsible for Pixoneye's post-doc research regarding customer profiling based on their photo and video galleries.

Where in the world are your headquarters?

Pixoneye is an international organization and has 3 offices around the world:

Our headquarters are currently in London, where most of the management and marketing happens. Pixoneye's R&D is located in Tel-Aviv, Israel, smack in the middle of the hottest tech scene in the world (at least weather wise), and finally, Pixoneye's Luxembourg office is responsible for all the company's financials and academic research @ University of Luxembourg.

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)?

On a startup level, London is the capital of Europe with regards to Marketing and Advertising Agencies. If we want to swim with the right sharks we need to dive into the right pool!

On a personal level…Burgers and lobsters.

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What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry?

January 2014 marked the inevitable shift to mobile, as consumers time-spent on mobile was higher than time-spent on any other devices. Digital consumption on mobile is now at 65% however, companies are having a hard time adapting to this new device in terms of targeted advertising and relevant push content. Pixoneye offers a Real Time Personalization Solution on mobile that will allow any company to understand the true and personal story of their customers in an automated and simple way.

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey?

The more personal the device (ie: Mobile phones) the more privacy issues arise when trying to target and learn about the customer. Pixoneye has spent the better part of the past 2 years dealing with this issue which has been the main focus of the technological developments since founding.

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months.

Large agencies and brands are slow moving and complex machines. When pitching AdTech ideas to them (especially on mobile), to go from "ooh! That sounds like a great idea" through "let's talk business" all the way to "pleasure doing business with you" can be a death sentence for start-ups. We hope that with the aid of Collider and their understanding of both start-ups and large agencies we can speed up the above mentioned process and rapidly grow and integrate with our clients.

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us!

When preparing for the web summit in Dublin last year, we sent our intern to make 100 Pixoneye branded hats to give away at our booth, he misheard us and got to Dublin with a suitcase containing 1000 hats. We managed to give away 12 hats at the conference and now have around 988 hats still in our offices. If you wish to receive a free pixoneye hat, please email me @ ofri.benporat@pixoneye.com and I'll make sure to send you one right away!

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6 startup must do's when meeting with brands and agencies

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Rose recently wrote an article for The Drum highlighting 5 tips every brand and agency employee needs to know to have a successful first meeting with a startup. And we’re turning it on its head. So startups, this one’s for you.

Brand and agency meetings can be dubious encounters. You never know if the person you’re talking to is the right person, or if they’ll even understand what you’re doing. So Rose has compiled a list of five things to remember when you’re preparing for that first meeting.

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1. Do your research beforehand

Make sure to research both the company and individuals you will be meeting going in to the meeting. Of course you will do this, but go beyond basic background and company data. Look for common connections or interests you can use the break the ice and get the conversation flowing. Remember, you’re meeting people – and people love to talk about things they’re passionate about.

2. Anticipate the company’s problems by asking questions

And by anticipating the problems they may be facing, you will ask more meaningful questions that can help you articulate how your product will solve these issues in the most concise way later in the meeting. Provide the brand employees with a list of questions probing the problems you can solve beforehand. This allows you to engage in meaningful dialogue from the beginning of the meeting. Some example questions are;

• How are you reaching your digital customers?
• Is it important to know who your retail customers are?
• How are you responding to your competition?
• What solutions are you currently using, if any?

3. Avoid death by PPT

It can kill your meeting by unnecessarily breaking conversation and the opportunity for you to really understand your potential customer by breaking down what their enduring needs are. But we’re not going to the radical anti-ppt stance – use your deck to help explain your product, and to a maximum of 10 slides. However, if you’re ‘presenting’, there’s no longer a dialogue, as you’re doing all of the talking. Communication becomes one-way and you’ve lost the chance to learn anything about your potential customer.

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4. Show them what they’re missing

Create a sense of urgency by highlighting some of the problems they will face by having the sales process dragged on and the problem persist. Be sure to ask;

• How much does it hurt your business to have to wait?
• How much will it cost you in lost revenue per month by not solving this problem immediately?
• If they took on your solution, how would it fit into their sales projections?

By asking these tough questions you’ll be able to work out if they even care to use your solution. If they don’t care, or think the problem they have warrants a solution right now, send your energies elsewhere.

5. Don’t pitch me bro

Just as the 3 Beards event operates, pitching will not provide you with actionable feedback – just an opinion. In an even worse case, they will have an incomplete understanding of your solution because you haven’t fully uncovered their problems – check back in to number 2.

And with useless feedback and false positives, statements such as “Oh, I really like that, it sounds very interesting!” or “I would definitely use that,” happen too often for our liking. It’s your job as a founder and salesperson to ask the harder questions and uncover the truth in these meetings, not to float away on a cloud of joy only to come back to the office and not hear from the brand or agency ever again. You didn't close the sale.

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6. Takes notes and agree on next steps

Even if you do have the memory of a Sea Lion (yes, they’re memories are some of the best in the animal kingdom), you should be taking notes during the meeting. This way you can revisit the details that would have been lost otherwise, and things will be crystal clear. This will also make it easier to determine the necessary next steps at the end of the meeting. And this goes back to the previous point on asking the hard questions – don’t feel intimidated to ask them! By setting out what your next steps are, your chances of having this brand or agency as a client are increased exponentially.

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Seenit named the 'Hottest startup in London'

Tuesday evening the 3rd of February, as everyone headed home, and as Londoners do, they picked up the Evening Standard. Flipping through they would have passed by the regular advertisements, headlines and something covering our alumnus Seenit being acclaimed as the 'hottest startup in London'! The NextTechNow is an initiative presented by Starcom MediaVest Group aimed to create and prolong partnerships with startups working in the mobile, social and data areas. This initiative connects startups ready to take things to the next level by working closely with Starcom MediaVest Group employees to increase innovation in the Madtech industry. Something we believe wholeheartedly in here at Collider!

We caught up with Emily to see what she had to add to their press coverage:

"We're ecstatic to be featured, as such a young company. It's great validation for not only our team but hopefully our clients. It's opened more doors to brands and already kicked off some fantastic new leads."

Congrats again Seenit team - Ed, Emily and Max! We can't wait to see what's next to come!