Monthly Archives: January 2014

Q & A: Careers at a digital healthcare company

If you are looking for an amazing place to work, drchrono might just be for you.

How did we find and hire our first few employees?
Our very first hires were people we found who were looking for jobs in the recession back in 2009 when we started drchrono. When times are bad, hiring tends to be amazing as talented people are looking for jobs.

Getting out there is key, talking, getting booths and socializing at conferences we met some of our best employees early on as well. Don’t underestimate where you can find good people who believe in an idea, talent is everywhere, you just need to keep your eyes open and get out there.

A key for our company early on was and still is having an inspirational mission. What is our mission? We are trying to make the world a better place by fixing healthcare. Healthcare in the US is broken, very broken, it is hard for doctors to get paid for work, it is hard for patients to see what they are paying, and the healthcare industry today is mainly driven by paper and fax machines. In todays day and age this just shouldn’t be, healthcare can be better. Our goal is to fix what is wrong with healthcare by using disruptive tech, and thinking in innovative ways. Our mission naturally attracts people who are trying to make a difference. People motivated by a mission.

Which positions are the hardest to fill and why?
Generally brilliant software developers are the hardest people to find and positions to fill, we are picky and only want amazing talent at drchrono so it makes it even harder. My cofounder Michael and I are software developers, so we keep the bar high and only look for these best people we can find in Silcon Valley.

Silicon Valley has a shortage of amazing engineers due to all of the startups that are flocking here, starting here and raising capital in the Valley.

We don’t look at an engineers degree, but past projects to tell us what they are made of and can do. It isn’t the developers school but a persons past projects and software built and speed of development that gets them hired.

What are the qualities of an ideal startup employee?
We look for people who want to change the world, not just get a paycheck. We look for people who have done amazing work, they think like a startup of one, building or doing something that makes them standout from the crowd. We want people who are go getters who get things done.

A fun “whois” hack

If there is that one customer you need to talk with, that one investor you need to email, that one partner you want to connect with, there is a way to get their contact info in a fun way.

The secret way to get directly to them is to simply go onto the companies domain (granted this sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t), do a whois lookup and wala, you have a direct email address and direct phone number, there is a fun hack for you!

Bodies Don’t Equal Success in a Startup

Take a look at the number of employees Kozmo.com and govWorks.com had. Take a look at the funding that Pets.com had, all failures.

It isn’t the amount of people you have in a startup company that makes it successful. It also isn’t the nice office space or the amount of funding you have, it is more than just that. Overhead can create massive problems if you grow without the right plan, the right culture, the right vision, the right team.

The problem with true hyper-growth… It’s the problem like baking a cake in three minutes. You’re in the kitchen and you have sugar, flour, egg on the ceiling. What the hell are you doing?

Marc Andreessen at a Y Combinator talk, spoke about how startups are like baking a cake, you have to put the ingredients in at the right time and timing has to be just right, if any of it is mixed up then the cake will not come out right. Andreessen said at his early days at Netscape days they were hiring around 100 people per week.

It isn’t all the glitz, press and funding that creates success. What makes a company successful? Passion, a great dedicated team, execution, timing, bad or lack of competition, good idea. It is critical to have growth. That growth can be exponential user growth or sales. When the right company with all of these elements gets funding sometimes magic happens, it is hard work but the company grows like crazy.

Look at Apple, it had exponential sales in the early days, a lot of sales. Look at Instagram, it was exponential user growth, a lot of users. Or even CraigsList, they are a very small team, but everyone has heard of them. Growth is what creates a healthy company. If a company is to survive it needs growth.

When your first starting out you might hire a few people but keep making sales and users happy. Sales, support and growth are essential.

The right people in your company are what make it successful, people are everything, but counting the number of bodies in a startup doesn’t mean the company is successful, it is the quality and passion of the people who are there working day in and day out on the company that make a great company.

There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.
~Jason Fried, 37signals founder