Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
00:19:47 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:19:47] S1: A a thousand percent. Because it goes back kinda to to a point I had mentioned earlier where a lot of people who've never worked in content or or who have never worked with creators end up being the ones briefing them and telling them what to do. And it's like you would never have someone who's not an engineer telling the engineer... Like, I would never go up to the engineering team and be like, hey. You guys need to solve this problem like this and do this and this and this. They're gonna be like, what is this guy telling me? [00:20:07] S0: Okay. So let's go down this tangent of to find someone like Hector. What what are... What does a profile look like if you were to find Hector to lead this work at your company?
00:20:19 · Hector Serrano
[00:20:19] S1: This is one of the most interesting conversations I have with a lot of my friends, especially Tobin, like I mentioned earlier, because we both couldn't be more opposite from each other. Like, if you look at both of our resumes lined up next to each other and I ask you to pick one or the other, a, you probably in your head will think it's pretty clear which one would be the right answer, but at the end of the day, both are the right answer. And, like, I had a 2.5 GPA, Tobin had a four point o. I didn't go to a reach school. Tobin went to Waterloo. I played division one sports. Tobin didn't. And, like, there's all these different things, but at the end of the day, we both ended up being great marketers. But that wasn't really evident if you, like, looked at the face value of our resumes. But I think Wispr has done a really good job of, like, seeing one or two really key things and also, like, being able to see, okay. Is this person a good state for the for the culture? Do they seem hardworking? If they have the same values or the same culture as people already at Wispr, like, I feel like Tanay, Daniel, and the rest of the team are really good at not only spotting early talent and seeing what are those key things to look out for, but also seeing, okay. Is this a good person that good humans have on the team? And I think Tobin and I, obviously, might be speaking a bit too much for myself, but I think we we embody those character traits perfectly. And might be asking, like, okay. Well, what are the traits I need to look for in a good marketing hire? And it's like, honestly, it's not that complex. It's like, has this person grown an account even if it's, like, 10,000 followers, and do they somewhat understand what they're talking about in terms of creator and they've made content? Like, that's how basic it is. Like, as long as they have some experience in building a following, even if it's a small following, it shows you that they understand the consistency it takes to, like, grow a social media following. It shows you that they understand trends and how to make a video and how to edit and how to film, etcetera. And, yeah, I think that, like, it comes down to that. Like, do they seem like a hard worker? Are they a good person? And do they have those, like, minimum, like, 10,000, 15,000 followers?
00:22:09 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
And then taking a shot on them, and you can't just bring a young person in and then be like, okay. Like, you're not where you... Where I want you to be. Like, you're gone. Like, Tanay and Daniel, again, and the whole Wispr team always gives us a lot of time to learn and fail. And I know for a fact for the first seven months at Wispr, I was kind of I was kind of all over the place. I mean, I still joke about it with Daniel how, there was some hard conversations here and there where you're like, what's Hector doing? But, yeah, they gave me the freedom to to keep experimenting, keep trying new things, and it didn't really matter if you failed as long as you're con... Consistently, like, learning and getting better and getting better, and, like, that's the same for Tobin. Tobin came in. They gave him some money and some time to experiment, and after, like, two months, he found something that worked, and it stuck. [00:22:52] S0: Okay, this is extremely valuable. There was this tweet the other day that came out of just like the hardest role to hire for right now is basically someone like you, someone that can talk about the product, the technical aspects, get people excited, make the product compelling. You're telling us what this profile looks like. So just to reflect back what you just said, one is evidence that they're very hardworking, evidence they're a good person, that their values and culture kind of aligns with your company. Three, they've actually grown a platform to at least 10,000 followers, and this could be any platform like Instagram, TikTok.
00:22:52 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[00:22:52] S0: Okay, this is extremely valuable. There was this tweet the other day that came out of just like the hardest role to hire for right now is basically someone like you, someone that can talk about the product, the technical aspects, get people excited, make the product compelling. You're telling us what this profile looks like. So just to reflect back what you just said, one is evidence that they're very hardworking, evidence they're a good person, that their values and culture kind of aligns with your company. Three, they've actually grown a platform to at least 10,000 followers, and this could be any platform like Instagram, TikTok. [00:23:27] S1: I I would say Instagram is probably the highest sign because TikTok is typically, like, a bit more brain rock content, and, like, Instagram is, like, a bit more polished, better package, and also the followers you get on there as a platform are just better. So I just think Instagram is probably a higher signal than TikTok. It's pretty easy to grow on TikTok, like, posting some brain rot stuff, I would say. [00:23:46] S0: I see. What about, like, x and YouTube?
00:23:46 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[00:23:46] S0: I see. What about, like, x and YouTube? [00:23:48] S1: YouTube is is decent, but I would say if you understand a platform like Instagram, you can crack any platform. And, yeah, that's my experience. I mean, Instagram and YouTube, I would say, if you can if you can crack Instagram and YouTube, I confident, especially if you're a young individual, you can crack any platform. Like, I'd I'd never posted on x much until, like, two weeks ago, and I went from, like, 500 followers on x to, like, 18,000. And I wasn't really used to posting on a text only platform, but I figured it out after, like, a week. It's like, okay. It's a volume game. You need to keep it short, kind of have your own style, and, like, actually give some value, and, like, that was pretty easy to learn. And I also think if you start on x, it's a bit harder to get into video because video is, like, a whole another beast. Sitting down and filming is is not an easy thing. I've I've had some colleagues. Like, I pushed them to start making videos. Shout out to Eric. He's our he's our media buyer, how to make a video. And, yeah, he he struggled a little bit in his first one, but I think it's good to step out of your comfort zone and and try to trump some videos. But, yeah, it's definitely not easy. So I would I would say, yes, Instagram and YouTube.
00:24:50 · Lenny Rachitsky
[00:24:50] S0: That's actually how I discovered Duanex, and it's it's just, like, blown up on on my entire feed. Just Hector videos recently. I didn't realize you just started posting in two weeks. That's insane. Clearly another sign of how effective you are at this. So another kind of bullet point I want to double down on there is just this idea of young talent. That's something you talk a lot about, just the value and almost like the alpha in hiring young people.