The Undefeated Underdogs Emuye Reynolds - How to build and scale your engineering teams in startups!
👉🏼 About the Guest:
Emuye worked as Head of Engineering at Superhuman, where she focused on scaling the engineering team. She joined Superhuman in 2016 to build the mobile team and also managed the customer delight team, becoming an integral member of company leadership.
Previously, she worked at Zite Technologies and is an advisor for many startups. Emuye's first gig was at Apple, where she joined as an iOS developer and worked on Apple TV and made her mark on one of the revolutionary devices we use today.
👉🏼 About the Host:
Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is the Head of Community + Brand at Threado, building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.
👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:
Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
👉🏼 Description:
Listen in as Sharath and Emuye discuss hiring, moving into startups, leaving a legacy, and more!
👉🏼 Timestamps:
- 00:00: Episode Highlight
- 00:55: Shoutout to Acquire.com
- 03:22: Introduction to Emuye Reynolds – one of the first iOS engineers in the world!
- 04:53: When founders should build an engineering team
- 07:06: Upsides and downsides to joining a startup and what to look for before you join
- 13:09: How should founders decide which shots to take?
- 14:48: Apple's startup-like operations system
- 19:01: The impact of Apple TV and Steve Jobs' involvement
- 23:17: The mindset behind creating products that leave a legacy
- 26:07: Positioning vs product
- 29:34: Joining Superhuman and the appeal of vision
- 33:51: The importance of hiring in startups
- 37:34: Importance of research and process in hiring
- 40:20: Emuye's #1 hiring strategy
- 42:53: What do people miss in interviews?
- 44:42: Advice for transitioning from big corporations to startups
- 46:46: Next steps for Emuye
- 48:09: How to build a product
- 50:17: Decisionmaking in different stages of a startup
- 52:24: Outro and closing thoughts
👉🏼 Resources:
- Have your product acquired: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
👉🏼 Where to find Emuye:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/emuyereynolds?lang=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emuye/
👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
- Website: https://5harath.com/
- Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/