20VC: Why Hiring in Tech is Broken and Founders Need to be as Good at Firing as they are Hiring, Why Product Differentiation is Unsustainable & Why the Current Generation of Tech Employees are Entitled and What Needs to Change with Jean-Denis Greze @ Plai
Jean-Denis Greze is Chief Technology Officer at Plaid where oversees global product business units across North America and Europe. Prior to joining Plaid, Jean-Denis was Director of Engineering at Dropbox. Jean-Denis is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Nex Health, Merge.dev and Rupa Health to name a few. In Today's Episode with Jean-Denis Greze We Discuss: 1. The Journey to One of the Most Powerful CTOs: How JD made his way into the world of tech with his first role at Dropbox? How does JD analyse a Linkedin CV today? What are the signals of outperformers? What does JD know now that he wishes he had known when he started in tech? 2. Hiring the Best: 101: What are JD's single biggest lessons on hiring the best talent? What have been some of JD's biggest hiring mistakes? Why does JD believe founders need to be as good at firing as they are hiring? Does JD believe people can scale with the scaling of a company? If they do not scale, do you layer them or do you let them go? How does JD determine whether to bring in an external candidate vs promote someone from within? 3. Product Differentiation is not Sustainable: Why does JD believe that product differentiation is not sustainable? Why is UX as a moat BS? How does this lead JD to suggest Salesforce is a short in the public markets? Why does JD believe that Snowflake is also a short? What does Snowflake teach us about the different stages of product market fit? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when analyzing product market fit? 4. Remote Work, Titles and Entitlement: Why does JD believe most tech employees treat their employer in the same way French citizens treat the French government? How does JD analyse the impact of remote work on both productivity and culture? Why does JD believe titles are BS in the beginning but matter with scale? Why does JD believe that you should not hire for the long term?