“The challenge we face in recruiting,’’ said Shah, “is finding people with a lot of flight hours, who have deployed big systems. And that tends to be people who’ve spent five, 10, or 15 years at bigger companies.’’
Shah also thinks that many start-ups wind up competing directly with other start-ups for the software developers who know they want to work at a start-up. By focusing on employees working at larger companies - which he defines as having 1,000-plus employees - Shah believes that “we can bring new blood into the start-up community, without having to fight other start-ups for the best people.’’
What about people who believe that big company jobs are inherently more secure than those at a start-up? “I think we’re about as safe as working at a Cisco or a Borders,’’ Shah said. Last month, Cisco announced it would cut 6,500 jobs, and Borders said it would lay off all of its employees as part of its liquidation.
HubSpot has raised about $65 million in venture capital funding; the company focuses on helping businesses “get found’’ on the Internet by prospective customers, using social media like blogs and strategies that increase visibility on search engines.
I was also curious whether the Prison Break campaign might bring HubSpot the employees least likely to succeed at a start-up: comfy old-timers used to their reserved parking spots and days that end at 5.
“We think we can filter those people out,’’ said Shah. “I think there are gems to be found - people who are tired of working on projects that don’t get released or are frustrated by the bureaucracy they have to deal with.’’
Shah said he would consider the program a big win if it brought his company just four or five senior engineers. HubSpot has about 265 employees.
