How Dropbox’s Recruiting Culture Shaped Gem’s Success: Steve Bartel’s Recruiting Playbook

Feb 21, 2025

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On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, hosts Boris Epstein and Alexis Munger sit down with Steve Bartel, founder and CEO of Gem. Steve was employee no. 25 at Dropbox and went on to found Gem, a leading all-in-one recruiting platform. He offers valuable insights into building early-engineering teams - first at Dropbox and now at Gem. Steve also shares how he translated these experiences into creating the powerful recruiting platform, Gem.

Whether you're a startup founder or a seasoned recruiter, this episode has valuable insights on the challenges of hiring top talent, the evolution of recruiting tools, and the future of AI in recruiting.

Some key takeaways from the episode:

Make Recruiting a Core Company Value: Steve carried over the culture of treating recruiting as a top priority from Dropbox to Gem, where hiring the right people was seen as the key to scaling the company.
Work Trials Are Powerful: Work trials are not just for evaluating candidates but for allowing candidates to evaluate the company. This approach ensures a good fit on both sides.
Build a Product-Focused Engineering Team: At Gem, Steve focused on hiring engineers who were excited about building products that recruiters would love, rather than just solving hard technical problems.
Recruiting is a Grind, Not a Silver Bullet: Whether at Dropbox or Gem, there's no shortcut to building a great team. Especially for startups without a strong brand, it takes consistent effort, relationship-building, and a deep understanding of what candidates are looking for in a role.

Specifically, don't miss the part where Steve reveals a cool sourcing trick that can help you convert cold second-degree connections into warm first-degree-ish leads!

Chapters

00:00 Introductions & catch-up

05:45 Being employee no. 25 at Dropbox

10:14 Recruiting Philosophy At Dropbox

15:27 The Birth of Gem: Solving Recruiting Pain Points

22:45 How to Build a 1st10 Team That Loves Building Recruiting Software

26:04 Attracting Talent in the Absence of a Brand

29:56 Looking to Lure Great Talent to Your Small Startup?

38:48 The Future of Recruiting: AI and End-to-End Platforms

43:34 Gem Careers, Freebie, and Contact Details

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