How I got recruited to work at Close
Steli Efti, our CEO, spent years recruiting me. The biggest push was a three-month campaign of weekly meals, calls, and even pitches from Y Combinator partners, and it ended with me telling him no. A year and a half later, I said yes. I learned a lot about the importance of persistence and follow up in hiring through this experience.
He wrote up the story, along with that of another hire, Nick Persico, on the Close blog: We tried to recruit these 2 people for 5 years. It was worth every minute.
Today, Phil Freo heads engineering and product here at Close, so it’s not an understatement when I say our inside sales CRM wouldn’t be what it is today without him. In fact, it might not exist at all.
But long before Phil and I worked together at Close, he and I were just friends. At the time, we were both involved in educational startups. I was founding my own and Phil headed engineering at another.
Even back then, I knew I wanted to work with him and I made sure he knew that, too. I remember getting drunk at a TechCrunch party one night and saying (read: slurring) something like, “Phil, I think you’re really amazing. I love your energy and your intellect. Someday, I want to work with you. I need to work with you. I will work with you.”
He said he felt the same, though maybe he was just being nice. After all, what are you supposed to say in a situation like that? Either way, the whole thing was hypothetical. I wasn’t in a position to make an offer, and he wasn’t looking for anything new.
Even so, I made my intentions clear: One day, in some way, I would work with him. And so began a recruiting process that would span years.
Or watch Steli’s video:
I’ve also kept this in mind when recruiting other people myself, and have even included a link to this post when reaching out to people we’re clearly trying to recruit.
Here’s another time where persistence in hiring paid off:
Replying to @philfreo
💎 Relentless Followup When you find someone you really want to work with… never stop following up. - I met @caseywebdev years ago (wrote a book together) & was super impressed - I kept checking in every few months for 2 yrs - He's now a key engineer on our team!
