The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:25:46 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:25:46] S0: I think a lot of people with common sense are realizing we're in a bad situation. What makes me optimistic is because when I speak to people, there is some common sense. Hopefully, those people with common sense will elect a a more sensible government in the future that will do the right thing. [00:26:02] S2: With respect, do you think that's actually a fair assessment, though? I mean, right now, it looks like Nigel Farage and reform will be that government. And, actually, when you look at populace and and The UK populace, transparently, it's it's not the intellectual Matt Clifford that is the average person on the street. [00:26:17] S0: I think what's key is the next government... Because ultimately, I think deregulation is you just need a will, like a very, very strong will to do it. As long as the following government's gonna attract a top team around them and being advised the right regulations to look at and and to delete or reform, I think we could do it. [00:26:39] S2: Do you feel you have a political party home today? I feel kind of politically lost, if I'm honest, which is like I used to be a a kind of conservative. Now I don't feel any particular allegiance to the conservatives on the committee, to be honest, but I don't feel particularly strong belief in Nigel Farage and reform. I I think labor's terrible, but I don't feel like I have a political home like I used to.
00:26:39 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:26:39] S2: Do you feel you have a political party home today? I feel kind of politically lost, if I'm honest, which is like I used to be a a kind of conservative. Now I don't feel any particular allegiance to the conservatives on the committee, to be honest, but I don't feel particularly strong belief in Nigel Farage and reform. I I think labor's terrible, but I don't feel like I have a political home like I used to. [00:27:00] S0: I wanna make sure there are people who have... Who are competent to lead the country. Right? I wanna make sure the most competent individuals are leading the countries regardless of party. [00:27:09] S2: Who would you most like to see? [00:27:10] S0: Macclifford is a pretty good choice. I'm probably in the same camp as you for now. [00:27:15] S2: We said about talent in The UK. One thing that's always very hard with talent is detecting it. And part of that is the interview process. And you helped me, again, you know, hire my chief of staff even. When you look at green flags in interview processes that excite you, what are some of the best signals that one can give in an interview process? [00:27:34] S0: Basically, when I when I explain to the candidate, you know, about what we're trying to build at Fuze, ambitions, how we wanna be a number one energy company in the world, the hard work that requires to build it, like, I usually see is, like, the body language, right, as well as the facial expression. Like, are they leaning in or they're leaning out? And you wanna be hiring people who are leaning in.
00:27:34 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:27:34] S0: Basically, when I when I explain to the candidate, you know, about what we're trying to build at Fuze, ambitions, how we wanna be a number one energy company in the world, the hard work that requires to build it, like, I usually see is, like, the body language, right, as well as the facial expression. Like, are they leaning in or they're leaning out? And you wanna be hiring people who are leaning in. [00:27:52] S2: I don't like bounces either. You know when you look at someone's CV and it's like one year, one year, [00:27:56] S0: one year, one year. That's also not great. [00:27:58] S2: Anything else where you're like, not great? Fluffy CVs for me. Like, okay, you hire a marketing manager. I wanna see I increased MQLs by 38%. I did that through these three core channels. I learned this about Facebook advertising, but then it saturated when we hit expand. I'm like, oh, very detailed, like clear attribution led data. [00:28:16] S0: I'll say very long CVs is bad. Yeah. I think it should be maximum page. Like, if Elon Musk can fill... Put a CV in one page, so could you. Yeah. It reminds me of, like, you know, like your first ever CV. Right? And you're trying to fill the page, and you couldn't think of anything to put. And you're, like, putting in the, like, special skills like Microsoft Word. It's got that type of vibe.
00:28:16 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:28:16] S0: I'll say very long CVs is bad. Yeah. I think it should be maximum page. Like, if Elon Musk can fill... Put a CV in one page, so could you. Yeah. It reminds me of, like, you know, like your first ever CV. Right? And you're trying to fill the page, and you couldn't think of anything to put. And you're, like, putting in the, like, special skills like Microsoft Word. It's got that type of vibe. [00:28:37] S2: Right? Professional Tiddlywings player. Other hobbies, skiing, Art. I fucking hate art. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you. Okay. So we have that. How do you structure your hiring process? I'm always looking to be better at hiring. How do you structure it, and what would be your biggest advice to me on how I should optimize mine? [00:28:56] S0: Yeah. I think first define the skill sets you you need. Right? So for example, for a software engineer, it could be coding skills, system design, problem solving, and as well as culture fit. So we basically find, okay, who is the best coder in the company? Who is the best assistant design? And then we assign those people to assess those skills individually. And then at the end of the process, they kinda gets a grade, right, for every single step. If they're above a certain threshold, then we offer. And that's also how we decide on how much we offer, right? So as a company, we don't actually use any comp bands. We simply look at the grades, and the higher the grade, the higher bid. Because ultimately, we're buying skills.
00:28:56 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:28:56] S0: Yeah. I think first define the skill sets you you need. Right? So for example, for a software engineer, it could be coding skills, system design, problem solving, and as well as culture fit. So we basically find, okay, who is the best coder in the company? Who is the best assistant design? And then we assign those people to assess those skills individually. And then at the end of the process, they kinda gets a grade, right, for every single step. If they're above a certain threshold, then we offer. And that's also how we decide on how much we offer, right? So as a company, we don't actually use any comp bands. We simply look at the grades, and the higher the grade, the higher bid. Because ultimately, we're buying skills. [00:29:37] S2: Wow. So sorry. This is really interesting. So you will essentially say, okay. We are looking for a software engineer, and we need... I don't know. You choose your language, whatever we're going for. We need x language, and then you will rank rank them out of 10 on that one core core skill, and then you will assign them a salary as a result
00:29:37 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:29:37] S2: Wow. So sorry. This is really interesting. So you will essentially say, okay. We are looking for a software engineer, and we need... I don't know. You choose your language, whatever we're going for. We need x language, and then you will rank rank them out of 10 on that one core core skill, and then you will assign them a salary as a result [00:29:51] S0: of that. Actually, we don't even look at language. So although our whole back end is in Python, we will hire any back end developer even if they know nothing about Python. So it's a coding challenge in the language of their choice. It's system design, which is about how you architect the whole system. Problem solving, which is have they successfully solved the problem in the past, whatever that is, as well as culture fit. Right? And basically, if they get, let's say, straight As in every single one, we bid a very, very high offer. [00:30:19] S2: Okay. They are a seven out of 10. Should you just not hire them? Like, should it not be like an all in, we should give them the top whack or don't hire them at all? [00:30:29] S0: Yeah. So our our threshold is we will hire anything above a b. If you get straight b's, you'll still get an offer, but the offer will be much lower. And it could be below what you're making today. If you have a better offer elsewhere, like, good luck to you. [00:30:43] S2: Why would you do that? That feels like to me, like, in venture, we'd say that's like a nah deal. Like