#115 - Mike Knoop and Kevin Hale

Mar 6, 2019 1h 4m

About this episode

<a href="https://twitter.com/mikeknoop">Mike Knoop</a> is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at <a href="https://zapier.com/">Zapier</a>, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically. <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">Kevin Hale</a> is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before YC Kevin was the cofounder of Wufoo, which was funded by YC in 2006 and acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011. You can find Mike on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeknoop">@mikeknoop</a> and Kevin at <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">@ilikevests</a>. The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>. *** Topics 00:43 - Kevin's intro 01:03 - Mike's intro 2:03 - How Mike and Kevin met 4:03 - Market sizing for consumer software 5:13 - Zapier's growth strategy today vs 2012 6:28 - Jumpstarting a platform like Zapier 9:03 - Building an app directory before building a product 11:03 - Applying to YC twice 13:23 - Zapier after Demo Day 14:48 - Zapier's first remote hire 16:48 - Remote companies not being perceived as legitimate 18:48 - Noticing remote was working then committing 21:28 - Qualities to look for when hiring remote employees 24:28 - Nina Mehta asks - What’s the best way to share work and knowledge across designers working on different parts of product without distracting from focused working time? 25:58 - Remote mistakes in the early days 27:33 - When to change modes of communication to allow for deep work 29:28 - When to ask for someone's full attention 31:33 - Product and design practices at Zapier 34:38 - OKRs for teams vs individuals 39:48 - Tools for remote teams 43:48 - No internal email at Zapier 46:53 - Keeping morale high in a remote team 49:28 - What happens at a Zapier retreat 51:43 - Remote design critiques 56:43 - Serendipity and over optimizing for it 58:33 - Setting up a remote company for success

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