Ditching the rules to build a team that lasts | Bryan Cantrill, Steve Tuck (Oxide)
Transparent and uniform salaries, solution to the "N+1 shithead problem", and origin story of the Oxide Computer Company.
From building a new kind of server to building a new kind of company, co-founders Bryan and Steve join the show to chat about their "meet cute" and the origin story of Oxide, their unconventional recruiting process, transparent and uniform salaries, and their solution to the "N+1 shithead problem".
Ronak & Guang’s Picks
#1 Everyone at Oxide makes $201,227 USD
For a company with more than 50 people, this is pretty nuts.
Interesting follow-ups that we chat about:
For roles that are traditionally paid less (i.e., Support), you can easily attract the best in class, but what about roles that are paid higher?
Uniform compensation does away with levels; how do you track your performance when there are no levels?
How does this change the recruiting process (no negotiations)?
#2 Asking every candidate the happiest and unhappiest moment in their career
Early in Oxide's interview process, candidates fill out a set of questions that include:
What was the happiest moment in your career? and
What was the unhappiest moment in your career?
Reflecting on the answers that Bryan has seen throughout the years, "all the unhappiest moments basically all rhyme with one another. All the unhappiest moments are basically [where] the people who were responsible for execution knew the right thing [that needed] to happen, and bad leadership, bad management was preventing it from happening."
On the other hand, "the happiest moments are way more interesting and can be way more difficult. For me, the happiest moments of my career are when the extraordinary team comes together to do something really special. Those happiest moments definitely vary for people, but they're very revealing when they talk about those happiest moments."
The cool part about these questions? Before the interview, as the interviewee, you get to see the interviewers' answers from when they interviewed 🤯.
Segments:
(00:03:03) Bryan and Steve's "meet cute"
(00:05:56) "the sun does not shine on me"
(00:12:19) the dagger that went into sun
(00:21:23) culture of exonerating yourself vs solving customer problems
(00:23:25) the shared "error in judgment" of joining joyent
(00:27:54) the origin story of joyent
(00:29:44) reporting to the (physical) chair
(00:31:26) the comically bad ceo candidate
(00:36:23) the enterprise software shift
(00:40:21) the importance of curiosity in sales
(00:48:30) filtering for curiosity in hiring
(00:52:26) oxide's unconventional hiring process
(01:04:01) bryan's worst hire
(01:05:21) the limitations of traditional hiring
(01:08:32) the value of written reflections
(01:10:28) "what were the happiest moments in your career?"
(01:21:16) misconceptions about sales and go-to-market
(01:22:03) trust and alignment in sales
(01:30:24) building connections across organizations
(01:34:23) how to do performance reviews when everyone's paid the same?
(01:40:00) the power of transparency in compensation
(01:50:14) validation through impact
(01:53:14) origins of on the metal
(01:55:45) transparency and open communication
(02:01:32) the importance of storytelling
(02:04:56) building a company differently
Show Notes:
Bryan’s blog post on the transparent and uniform compensation model at Oxide: https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-values
On the Metal’s interview with Jeff Rothschild: https://share.transistor.fm/s/6fa1eaa4
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Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en