S2 #6 Steve Bartel
How to Build High-Performing Early-Engineering Teams at Small Startups
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Steve Bartel, the founder and CEO of Gem. Steve has had a very interesting career-journey over the years. He was employee no. 25 at Dropbox and he helped build their data-science team from scratch. Then he co-founded Gem, an all-in-one recruiting platform.
I've known Steve for several years now and, quick disclaimer, we have used Gem for a while now - going back to the days when it used to be called ZenSourcer. So, I invited him to talk about what it takes to build high-performing teams, especially in the fast-paced world of startups.
Here are some of the key takeaways from our conversation.
The Importance of Recruiting Culture
Steve's description of the recruiting culture at Dropbox was eye-opening. At Dropbox, he said, recruiting wasn't just about filling roles; it was about creating a culture where everyone, from engineers to the CEO, was invested in bringing in top talent. Drew Houston, Dropbox's founder, was deeply involved in recruiting, and that set the tone for the entire company. Steve mentioned how he was personally called by Drew to join the team and even went so far as setting up a two-week internship just for Steve!
The Power of Work Trials
In fact, the two-week internship that Steve did at Dropbox eventually found its way into Gem's hiring approach in the form of work-trials. At Gem, they offer potential hires the chance to work with the team for a few days or even a couple of weeks. This, Steve says, is less about evaluating the candidate and more about giving them a chance to evaluate the company. Particularly, for early-stage startups that don't yet have a strong talent brand, this approach has proven to be incredibly valuable.
Leveraging Networks for Early Hiring
When Steve started Gem, he quickly realized that there was no silver bullet for hiring talented early-engineers. They had to rely heavily on their networks. Steve and his co-founder reached out to hundreds of people, not just those actively looking for jobs, but also those who might be interested in the future. They hosted social events, game nights, and dinners to create low-pressure environments where people could get to know the team. This approach paid off, with some hires coming on board months or even a year after their initial conversations.
Steve also shared a neat little sourcing trick that they used in the early days of Gem to hire really talented people to build Gem's early-engineering team. I recommend you listen to Steve explain it himself but the gist is this: Steve managed to figure out a way to convert cold-sourced second-degree connections into (somewhat) warm first-ish-degree leads!
The Future of Recruiting: AI and End-to-End Platforms
Looking ahead, Steve sees two major trends in recruiting: the move towards all-in-one platforms and the integration of AI. Gem has been expanding its platform to cover everything from sourcing to applicant-tracking to interview-scheduling. The goal is to streamline the recruiting process and provide a better experience for both recruiters and candidates.
AI is also playing a big role in Gem's future. And, through having an end-to-end platform, Gem can provide AI with the most accurate and comprehensive data, making it more effective. Because, as Steve explains it, the challenge with AI isn't the algorithm—it's the data.
Closing Thoughts
Steve's journey from Dropbox to Gem is a masterclass in building high-performing teams. Whether it's creating a strong recruiting culture, leveraging networks, or embracing new technologies, there's a lot to learn from his experience.
If you're a startup founder or a recruiter, I strongly urge you to listen to the full episode on the 1st10 Podcast. And if you're a startup looking to build your founding team, don't forget to check out Gem's free startup program at gem.com/startups.
About Us:
1st10 was founded on the simple philosophy that there is nothing more important to the success of your startup than the first ten engineers you hire. Because the first ten will impact the next ten and any wrong misstep can be the difference between success and failure. 1st10 works with visionary founders and exceptional engineers to build world class engineering teams.
1st10 was founded by Boris Epstein, original founder of Binc, the firm best known for pioneering embedded recruiting in Silicon Valley. Binc built early teams for Pinterest, Ripple, Stripe, Square, Airbnb, Reddit, Tesla and many more. Binc was acquired by Robinhood in 2021.