Mike Knoop is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Zapier, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically.
https://twitter.com/mikeknoop
https://zapier.com
Kevin Hale 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.
https://twitter.com/ilikevests
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
https://twitter.com/craigcannon
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Topics
00:10 – Kevin’s intro
00:30 – Mike’s intro
1:30 – How Mike and Kevin met
3:30 – Market sizing for consumer software
4:40 – Zapier’s growth strategy today vs 2012
5:55 – Jumpstarting a platform like Zapier
8:30 – Building an app directory before building a product
10:30 – Applying to YC twice
12:50 – Zapier after Demo Day
14:15 – Zapier’s first remote hire
16:15 – Remote companies not being perceived as legitimate
18:15 – Noticing remote was working then committing
20:55 – Qualities to look for when hiring remote employees
23:55 – 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?
25:25 – Remote mistakes in the early days
27:00 – When to change modes of communication to allow for deep work
28:55 – When to ask for someone’s full attention
31:00 – Product and design practices at Zapier
34:05 – OKRs for teams vs individuals
39:15 – Tools for remote teams
43:15 – No internal email at Zapier
46:20 – Keeping morale high in a remote team
48:45 – What happens at a Zapier retreat
51:10 – Remote design critiques
56:10 – Serendipity and over optimizing for it
58:00 – Setting up a remote company for success
