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Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

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Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#121

Post by dchhugani »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #103

Deepak first let me say I choose to view this community as a group of people who win together, therefore I want you to win, and sincerely wish success for your team. Now let’s get to work on your feedback. >>[It’s challenging to get everyone receptive to our new approach] This provides no information. It’s an entrepreneurial truism. Do you think a large percentage of startups visit sand hill road and never get reject…

hello! firstly, thank you very much for the kind words on wanting to help win + the thoughtful response.

- To your points on challenging & controversy:

understand it's ambiguous, was trying to be concise. Basically the point is conventional wisdom is that in recruiting, companies pay, job seekers don't. And if you charge job seekers, certain people think you are preying on the vulnerable. We are continually tweaking our message to make sure people understand this is quite the opposite - giving the outsiders an advantage or at least a level playing field.

- To your thoughts on the model 1. It sounds like you described a perfect scenario. You were immature, but had projects and other things to show you were qualified. Still people wouldn't answer your emails or interview you. Hindsight is 20.20 and it sounds like today you have a successful job, but maybe it could've come much sooner if you would've landed some of those interviews. What's the price you can put on that?

2. It's easy to say finance, software, and others are fundamentally different industries and that's why one will work better than the other. That's probably true in some ways, but the core insight is the same - the best way to get a job is to figure out what they're looking for and despite what you're saying - that most definitely is not available online. You can google Glassdoor forums and chats, but they become outdated only a few months after, and most of those are not at the specific group or team-level, they're generic. I cannot think of a better way to get timely, accurate, and personalized information than by getting it from a human being who is / recently has been on the inside. can you?

I am convinced that your advice is amazing - we have to continually ask ourselves if we're working on the right thing, if we're the team to beat conventional wisdom, etc. The best way I know how to do that is to see the numbers grow and focus on our initial niche before expanding.

Thank you!

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#123

Post by mmt »

dchhugani wrote: post #116
mmt wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the alternative is the status quo, where the only ones with access to this information are family members, top school alums, or people in the elite circles. As you yourself pointed out in another sub-thread, "this knowledge is not rocket science" and someone responded, essentially, that it stands to reason that it is already available on numerous web sites. Some of that knowledge may even be borderline proprietary…

repasting what I addressed above. My point was not that the advice is generic, but that you don't require super specialized knowledge to give it that needs extensive "quality control." The Telecom, Media & technology group at Goldman Sachs will have specific bankers, preferences, and things they look for in candidates, as well as industry-specific things you need to study to truly prep. But any analyst WITHIN THAT gr…

> the information of how to land a job in a specific group is very unique and not easy to commoditize across an entire industry or with generic blog posts, but the complexity of that knowledge is very low, hence many are qualified to accurately give it

I think that's the key assertion I was missing, the uniqueness of the information to each group.

I suspect that, because that generally does not apply nearly as much in the tech industry, HN readers (including myself) are more likely to respond with skepticism.

This may even be the case for people coming from other industries, so you may want to find a way to emphasize this particular value proposition.

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#124

Post by marpstar »

dchhugani wrote: post #16
qz_ wrote: post #15

Are the insiders paid, and do their employers know they're working with you guys?

Insiders are paid as individual advisors. We don't work with employers, so we ask insiders to make sure this is OK with their company. In some cases, there are employer policies against them doing this, and in those cases, we focus on former employees. Former employees still have the network and the knowledge on what it takes to land the job, what the culture is like, and how to help someone prepare for interviews.

I'm helping build a similar service in a tangentially-related market. I hope you don't mind a few questions:

Do you offer "insiders" a percentage cut of each service purchased?

How do you find "insiders"?

We're planning on paying our "insiders" via Stripe and letting "insiders" sign up themselves and go through a short vetting process.

We're still about 3 months from being launch-ready, but I'm intrigued to see a service that operates so similarly to our plans.

Best of luck!

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#125

Post by dchhugani »

philsnow wrote: post #119
shermablanca wrote: post #46

Advice: tell this story! Create a video where you describe this same thing, and promote it on the right channels. You can even add production value by showing b-roll of specific points of your story, such as footage from on-campus recruiting. Perhaps include interviews/testimonials from those happy customers that you mentioned. Your point about spending thousands on education while simultaneously having an aversion t…

Another part of the story that I didn't see in your launch HN summary that you should definitely play up: Companies _desperately_ _want_ to hire people from schools they don't cater to with career fairs. They don't want to be perceived as monocultures where they only hire from the same three schools. At the same time, they can't feasibly do career fairs at the next 50%ile of schools. Great candidates from "top 100" s…

Thank you! This is awesome feedback. We know that banks also want to diversify where they recruit people from. They're having trouble finding people from the non-Ivy schools, females, and also diverse backgrounds. We've heard that from people who handle recruiting there and it's an important initiative. We think that's an emerging trend in other industries like tech too, as you say!

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#126

Post by resu_nimda »

mmt wrote: post #107
Invictus0 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they didn't shut down so much as the founder sold out.

I have trouble understanding what significance the "so much as" means, nor even the "sold out", since it appears to have been an acqui-hire, with the (cash) assets being returned to investors. The company did shut down. We can only speculate on the founder's motivation.

Usually, "shut down" implies that the company failed. And usually, when VCs give you $11M, it is not with the expectation that you will simply return that amount a year later. You have sold them on the idea that you care about your startup and you actually want to see it grow and succeed. It says right in the article that WeWork offered the founder $5M in comp and "reactions from the company’s investors have included surprise, disappointment and a desire to forget the deal ever happened."

If that's not selling out, I don't know what is. Not that I'm particularly worried about those poor VCs, in fact maybe they should hire the guy, great demonstration of unprincipled opportunism.

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#127

Post by lifeisstillgood »

dchhugani wrote: post #18
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #5

I sit squarely in the "insider" role here, and normally would be very interested in anyone who is proactively calling me up and saying "i want to work on your team" - but to avoid breaking any protocols / laws we would want the interviewee to come in the front door as usual. All I suspect that is happening here is if I sign up as one of your insiders, you drop me interesting candidates and then they have to go throug…

I should also add - when people call you up directly and say "I want to work on your team" the dynamic is incredibly different than when you use The Lobby. On the candidate side, this entire conversation is about impressing you and making you potentially like me. I'm not going to ask you real questions that I'd ask a friend on the inside on culture, compensation, recruiting process. And on your end, it's basically an…

I think I get it. I would personally be more comfortable perhaps with a meet-up style arrangement - there will be 8 candidates and 2 or 3 "fintech insiders", and there is some speed dating style chats, and group style feedback.

Otherwise, and I can read you are earnest and have thought about this, otherwise I just feel it is the wrong side of a very grey and vague line. The paying for one on one advice seems ... odd.

But, and I suspect this is very important, I only have the perspective of a white well educated english speaking middle aged male with attendant confidence. If I was missing any of those I suspect that my perspective might chnage.

If the university alumni team for any university / boot camp called and asked me to do the group style approach I would probably clear my diary.

So I am not sure why the pay for advice part bothers me so much.

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#128

Post by hectormalot »

dchhugani wrote: post #66
jawns wrote: post #65

About 10 years ago, I had a similar idea (called RungJump). It allowed you to fill out a detailed job dossier about your position at a particular company, and then users could purchase the dossier; RungJump would take a cut, and the person who wrote the dossier would get the rest. It was kind of like a premium version of Glassdoor, where the expectation was the dossiers would contain more candid info. Here are some o…

thanks for this! Great points. Here's how we think of them: chicken & egg: we build hyper local liquidity the way Uber tackles neighborhoods or cities, hence the initial focus on investment banking. The few similar products we've seen try this inevitably try to do dozens of industries or hundreds of roles and this makes it impossible to achieve true liquidity or to allocate marketing dollars properly. Quality control…

> Employers really, really do not like their employees being paid on the side to dish about the company. And employees were (rightly, I think) hesitant to potentially put their jobs on the line to make a little side cash. In fact, the more exclusive and well-paying the job, the less likely it was worth the risk for insiders to participate. I would imagine The Lobby will face the same problem, especially since it's starting out with a narrow focus on "elite finance" roles, and promising anonymity only goes so far.

I think you skipped this point, or I misunderstood. I work as a management consultant and get regular request to help people (eg is the job something for them, practice interviews, etc). It’s internally encouraged to help in this way, but I’d be extremely hesitant about taking money for it because I don’t think it passes the blush test (couldn’t tell this to a colleague without blushing), and creates wrong incentives (eg there are things about the recruiting process that should not be shared)

Anonymity only strengthens the impression that it’s not ‘kosher’ for me

What are your ither ideas to tackle this? (And perhaps you get sufficient people with just anonymity, that’s fine too :)

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#129

Post by dchhugani »

hectormalot wrote: post #128
dchhugani wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thanks for this! Great points. Here's how we think of them: chicken & egg: we build hyper local liquidity the way Uber tackles neighborhoods or cities, hence the initial focus on investment banking. The few similar products we've seen try this inevitably try to do dozens of industries or hundreds of roles and this makes it impossible to achieve true liquidity or to allocate marketing dollars properly. Quality control…

> Employers really, really do not like their employees being paid on the side to dish about the company. And employees were (rightly, I think) hesitant to potentially put their jobs on the line to make a little side cash. In fact, the more exclusive and well-paying the job, the less likely it was worth the risk for insiders to participate. I would imagine The Lobby will face the same problem, especially since it's st…

Thanks for pointing that out - I missed it here. Answered a similar question elsewhere in the thread:

"Definitely agree that this could be a problem. Practically speaking - we keep identities anonymous and so employees are protected.

Ethically speaking - if you have a buddy inside the company, they'll tell you how to prep for these questions anyways.

It all comes back to our main point - if you don't have an inside connection, you don't get the juicy insights someone with that advantage does. So your odds of landing the job, let alone knowing what it takes to land it, are always lower. We bridge that gap - everything else in our view is a solvable problem because this engages current/former employees in the recruiting process + helps companies discover more talent."

The summary is that we're fine with keeping it anonymous now and here we have to take a bit more of a disruptive approach. Airbnb and Uber were both illegal (As in literally breaking laws) and still scaled and ultimately succeeded because they believed in the fundamental benefit of their service to the world.

The Lobby is completely legal, just maybe against some company policies, but we feel the benefits far outweigh the cons of some random company policy, even for the company itself as described above.

Re: Launch HN: The Lobby (YC W18) – 1-on-1 calls with company insiders to get hired

#130

Post by dchhugani »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #127
dchhugani wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should also add - when people call you up directly and say "I want to work on your team" the dynamic is incredibly different than when you use The Lobby. On the candidate side, this entire conversation is about impressing you and making you potentially like me. I'm not going to ask you real questions that I'd ask a friend on the inside on culture, compensation, recruiting process. And on your end, it's basically an…

I think I get it. I would personally be more comfortable perhaps with a meet-up style arrangement - there will be 8 candidates and 2 or 3 "fintech insiders", and there is some speed dating style chats, and group style feedback. Otherwise, and I can read you are earnest and have thought about this, otherwise I just feel it is the wrong side of a very grey and vague line. The paying for one on one advice seems ... odd.…

I think I understand why it bothers you. I think if you heard one of the calls or how it happens you'd understand the magic behind them.

Paid dynamic just makes it all about making it valuable to the candidate. It also lets the candidate say/ask anything in a 1-on-1 private & personalized dynamic.

The problem with AMA's or meetup style things is again it's not as personalized or private.

But those are things we want to tinker with as well.

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