Recruiters 32

I had a phone interview last week with the VP of Products at a startup in SF. They’ve got an interesting product—predictive suggestions for sales reps, using big data analytics. But they really wanted someone with deep Agile experience, and I’ve only used the waterfall methodology, although I’ve taken a course and got Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification from the Scrum Alliance.

The VP and I got along well; he’s an Aussie, so that was pretty easy. And I made my case for understanding the principles of Scrum, and how impressed I am with their product—which is true, because it’s applying artificial intelligence algorithms to the applications side of Big Data (one of the über-buzz words in software these days, along with Mobile), and they’ve placed heavy emphasis on the user experience (UX), which is one of my major focal points. (Seriously—there’s a lot of software out there with completely crap UX.)

Well, the short version of this story is that the VP sent me a very nice thanks-but-no-thanks email—in a ten-person company, they have to choose their additions carefully, and solid Agile experience is key at this point, etc.

I’ll admit to being ambivalent about this turn-down. A ten-person startup in SaaS effectively means ten men, probably most under the age of 35. Ten also means that the health insurance they offer is going to be crap—high deductible, high-copay, low coverage; this is because they’re limited to Anthem as a provider of small-group insurance. Other benefits will also be sketchy.

This company is a couple of years old, but it’s still seeking angel funding; they have one customer, in Japan. And they’ve outsourced their development…to Bolivia.

Additionally, they’re in downtown SF, a minimum two-hour each way commute from Sunnyvale and more than $300 per month.

Still—it was an interesting solution. I think I’ll submit a CV to their primary competitor.