00:41:25 · Guillaume Moubeche, Reggie Marable
[00:41:25] S1: about this? Like, how do you think about this? Like, what what makes you think that this is a benefit, like, long term? [00:41:34] S0: Diverse organizations outperform diverse... Organizations that aren't diverse. You can go look at... History will tell you. You can look at statistics. The reason why, it's because you have creative friction, you have different thoughts, different ways to think, and it just creates this melting pot of just beautiful ideas when you have people from different backgrounds, people from different career backgrounds, people from different races, people from different creeds, religion, and genders. It just creates so much creativity. That's something that we are really focused on at Sierra is not only building the best sales organization in the world, but the most diverse. Once again, it's diversity of background, career, gender, and race. And if you look at my my my own leadership team is mostly female. And we have a very, very diverse... A racially diverse team, gender diverse team, career background. So it's something we're focused on because I believe it's gonna make us a better company.
00:41:34 · Reggie Marable, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:41:34] S0: Diverse organizations outperform diverse... Organizations that aren't diverse. You can go look at... History will tell you. You can look at statistics. The reason why, it's because you have creative friction, you have different thoughts, different ways to think, and it just creates this melting pot of just beautiful ideas when you have people from different backgrounds, people from different career backgrounds, people from different races, people from different creeds, religion, and genders. It just creates so much creativity. That's something that we are really focused on at Sierra is not only building the best sales organization in the world, but the most diverse. Once again, it's diversity of background, career, gender, and race. And if you look at my my my own leadership team is mostly female. And we have a very, very diverse... A racially diverse team, gender diverse team, career background. So it's something we're focused on because I believe it's gonna make us a better company. [00:42:30] S1: And in your process, is it something that you look for? Because some people, you know, like, would argue that you should always hire kind of like the best. And if eventually, like like, how how how do you built in diversity inside, you know, like your company? For example, you're only attracting, I don't know, like a male who's done like business school, all the same business school. Like, we've seen it. Like, if you look at teams in the Silicon Valley, you know, like, it's it's not always that diverse. So
00:43:05 · Reggie Marable
[00:43:05] S0: Yeah. It's it's a challenge, but, I will give huge props to once again to Greg Marsh, head of recruiting, and then Alicia who leads our sales engineering recruiting, and then Michelle Carr who leads our sales recruiting. They they are... They just... It's a priority. It's a focus, and it starts off with top of funnel sourcing. So we have... And also too, making sure you have a diverse recruiting team. So our recruiting team is diverse. And then we also have a few firms that focus on top of line, top of top of funnel diversity recruiting for us. But it's just something we we make... We're intentional about it. We also, we invest in... Like, we're going to Afrotech this year. We're partnering with Sistas in Sales. So we're looking at at different ways to attract, diverse talent. Once again, it just goes back to making it a priority, and and keeping that like top of mind, and making that your North Star. It's definitely hard, man, especially being a tech. But if you focus on it, and you put resourcing on it, and everyone is aligned on making sure like we build a diverse company, then you can execute on that.
00:44:10 · Guillaume Moubeche, Reggie Marable
[00:44:10] S1: Nice. Yeah. I agree. I think it's... If it's not intentional and if you don't do it from the start, I feel like it's essentially like never gonna happen because you would have people like, one one of my friends is like an exceptional, like, developer. But essentially, like, everyone tries to hire her, but whenever she comes into a meeting and she sees that the engineering team is like 40 white guys, not gonna join. Like, she told me, like, I refuse jobs at great company just because it didn't feel like, you know, I had, like, yeah, enough, like, space for myself or... Yeah. So... No. It's it's interesting. [00:44:50] S0: You know, and and another another another important thing of having diversity is, like, we we hire a lot from referrals. So if you don't have a diverse company, then your your source of referrals probably won't be diverse either. But if you if you focus on diversity and have a diverse team, and they have a diverse, you know, [00:45:09] S1: personal, professional network, then it's just gonna create more diversity at... Know, from your your referral sources as well. Yeah. I agree. And I think referral is is probably the best source to find, like, the the best hires. Like, do do you actually give, like, bonuses for people who refer, like, employees? Or No. Not yet. It's just part of our DNA. Again?
00:45:09 · Guillaume Moubeche, Reggie Marable
[00:45:09] S1: personal, professional network, then it's just gonna create more diversity at... Know, from your your referral sources as well. Yeah. I agree. And I think referral is is probably the best source to find, like, the the best hires. Like, do do you actually give, like, bonuses for people who refer, like, employees? Or No. Not yet. It's just part of our DNA. Again? [00:45:32] S0: We wanna work with, like, low ego, humble, hardworking, great people, and we attract... We've attracted a lot of humble, hardworking, people, and guess who they know? Other humble, hardworking, great people. And what's really cool, I I believe, like, half of our employee base is from referrals. [00:45:50] S1: Nice. Wow. [00:45:51] S0: Yeah. So half of our team was referred by somebody that works at Sierra, which is pretty cool. [00:45:54] S1: That's super cool. No. That's super cool. We... We've done... We've added bonuses on our side. Like, I mean, that's... I guess it's it's always like a a balance, but for developers, it had worked pretty well. [00:46:09] S0: That's great, man. [00:46:10] S1: Yeah. No. It's it's interesting. I know we're like almost running out of time, and I want to be cautious because I know your time is is valuable. If you had like to to give, you know, like an advice to someone who's just had like a big failure and they're a bit down, like they they don't know like what's the next stage for them, like what would you... What should you tell them?
00:46:10 · Guillaume Moubeche, Reggie Marable
[00:46:10] S1: Yeah. No. It's it's interesting. I know we're like almost running out of time, and I want to be cautious because I know your time is is valuable. If you had like to to give, you know, like an advice to someone who's just had like a big failure and they're a bit down, like they they don't know like what's the next stage for them, like what would you... What should you tell them? [00:46:36] S0: I would tell them to don't lose like their confidence, don't lose their spirit, their energy, and I would give them this quote from Nelson Mandela, I never lose, I either win or learn. And I would just encourage them to look back and reflect on why they failed, and what can they take from that experience to make them better, to make them stronger, so they're never in that situation again. So once again, it goes back to Nelson Mandela, I never lose, I either win or learn. And I think failure is a great way to learn more about yourself and to reinvent yourself and and figure out what you can do to become better and stronger. [00:47:16] S1: I love it. Reggie, like, thanks a lot for, your time and everything you shared. What's the the best way for people to follow Sierra and follow your journey?