Hey there,
It's time for the 3rd edition of Line of Work, a bi-weekly newsletter discussing the more human elements of the Bitcoin, crypto & blockchain industry. Our goal with this newsletter is to track key hires and departures, rising stars in the industry, growing companies and all elements related to talent. If you've missed any of the previous editions, you can check them out here.
PS: If you'd like the next edition of Line of Work delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe here!
👨💻 (block)Stacking talent with Lambda
In a recent announcement, Blockstack unveiled a partnership with Lambda School, the remote coding bootcamp leveraging ISAs (income share agreements) that's rapidly becoming a Silicon Valley and global tech darling. Okay cool, another announcement right? Well actually, this time might be different.
The Blockstack + Lambda School combination is interesting to me because, at surface level, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Blockstack needs developers to build applications on their tech stack. Lambda needs something for their students to hack on during their time learning with the program.
There are a ton of sayings around "starting them young" and in this case, Blockstack has the opportunity to onboard newly minted software engineers onto their platform while they're young in their careers. Seems like a win for Lambda with big upside potential for Blockstack if the Lambda students enjoy working on the platform and stick around post-graduation.
Looking at the long game for this partnership, Blockstack founder Muneeb Ali, had an interesting tweet that I think demonstrates their ultimate goal.
Thinking of a new metric for tracking decentralized computing growth.
No. of startups at YC demo day building on crypto networks vs AWS.
These founders are early indicators for what tech stack gets used.
— Muneeb (@muneeb) August 19, 2019
💸 Competing Outside of Compensation - MIT
As someone who spends nearly every minute of the day recruiting for companies in the blockchain & crypto space, compensation is something I think about quite a bit. There is a constant battle raging to acquire top talent, which has led many companies to ramp up compensation to remain competitive.
Some companies simply don't have the financial means to compete against the deep pockets of more established/well-funded players. However, the demand for the same quality of talent still exists, despite the limited budget.
So how can you go about attracting those workers without blowing your entire compensation budget?
According to MIT, there are three things to consider in lieu of paying through the nose.
- If candidates are extraordinary, treat them that way
- Perfect your recruiting process if you want to hire the perfect candidate
- Keep in mind that money isn’t the only lever
- Perks like generous health benefits, flexible remote work, parental leave, gym memberships, etc, can all be effective as part of a package
- Foster and promote a creative culture that encourages an appropriate level of failure
- Encourage employees to experiment in passion projects and avoid micro managing when possible
🔲 Square'd Up - CoinDesk
Yesterday, Square Crypto made a great hire, bringing aboard Matt Corallo, formerly of Chaincode Labs and Blockstream. I had a chance to hear Matt speak at a Lightning meetup a while back in NYC and found his approach to Bitcoin development extremely refreshing, so I'm excited to see his continued contributions.
Aside from Matt's hire, Square's approach to the Bitcoin world is rather interesting. Because Square does over $3 billion a year in revenue, largely unrelated to its crypto business, it has a unique luxury to move slowly and with intention in its crypto business. Square is seemingly unaffected by the ebb and flow of the market, with no pressure to add additional cryptoassets into its platform or make any moves that might compromise on the team's beliefs.
Square's focus on contributing to open-source development within the Bitcoin ecosystem is something I hope to emulate as Proof of Talent continues to grow (more on that in the future 😎).
👨⚖️ From Public to Private - Wall Street Journal
A tale as old as time.
No, I'm not taking about Disney princesses dancing with beasts. I'm talking about government regulators stepping away from agencies for high paying gigs in the private sector.
Robert Cohen, who formerly headed up the Cyber Unit for the SEC is moving to a role with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as partner. You may remember Cohen's name for leading the SEC's high profile case against Kik, in the battle for "Is this utility token a security or not?"
Now that Robert Cohen is with Davis Polk & Wardell, a firm who represents Coinbase and other notable companies in the industry, it'll be interesting to see if he starts to #DefendCrypto with his new private sector clients.
🔥 Hot Opportunities with Proof of Talent
In case you don't know, I run a recruiting firm, Proof of Talent, that works exclusively with companies in the Bitcoin, crypto and blockchain industry. We currently have over 15 unique roles open, with 8 clients in the US, so if you're interested in working in the industry, feel free to send your resume our way.
Here's a quick run down of the coolest, most unique positions we currently have available at Proof of Talent.
Head of Data & Research in NYC- $25M Series A firm building crypto trading software is seeking a quantitative data analyst with a Wall Street trading background to build out a data/research/insights business unit for internal clients and external marketing. This is an awesome opportunity to build your own BitMex Research, Circle Research, etc. The role is on-site in NYC.
Head of Sales in NYC - Seed stage blockchain data analytics company is hiring their first sales professional. The ideal candidate will have a background in enterprise SaaS sales as an Account Executive or Sales Engineer/Solutions Consultant with a passion for crypto/blockchain. The role is on-site in NYC.
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS - We're hiring across the board for software engineers. Backend, frontend, fullstack, SRE, you name it, we got it. If you're a software engineer with +2 years of experience, we likely have a gig for you in NYC, SF or Boston.
Until next time
If you have any tips, stories or information regarding talent in the crypto industry, please send it over and we’re happy to evaluate and include it in our next edition!
If you found this newsletter helpful or enlightening, we’d be grateful for you to pass it along to your friends!
Best Regards,
Rob Paone
Founder of Proof Of Talent – A blockchain & crypto focused recruiting firm