CEO

Scheduling time with me

If possible, let’s talk asynchronously and publicly.

My most common working hours are 07:30–17:30 US Pacific Time, but I am regularly available at times that overlap more with other timezones.

Asking for a review from me

If you need me to review something (such as a blog post or plan), please state:

• The context (ideally a single link to an RFC or other written down doc)
• What input you need from me

This is to avoid me jumping in and making low-level wording fixes when you’re looking for high-level strategy input.

If the document to be reviewed isn’t private, please post the review request with the context above publicly. Other people involved may have relevant context of their own to share.

Asking me to send an email

If you want me to send an email with a specific message to someone else (e.g., a customer), you should send me an email with:

• Instructions, such as “Please email this, bcc me on the outgoing email, forward me any responses, and cc me on further emails.”
• Recipient name(s) and email address(es)
• Email subject
• Email body (text, no HTML)
  • Omit any niceties like “Hello” and “Sincerely”. I will add those myself.

Interviews with me

If you’re interviewing with me for a role on the Sourcegraph team that doesn’t directly report to me, here are my goals for the interview:

• Make you feel confident that Sourcegraph is an awesome company for you to join
  • I don’t want candidates to join Sourcegraph just because they got “convinced by the CEO”. We want a hiring process that makes it easy for people to determine if Sourcegraph is an awesome company for them. That’s a big reason why we decided to be transparent. So, I don’t view this as a “hard sell”, but rather a 2-way discussion.
• Understand if you will be successful in the role
• Demonstrate our values and culture and ensure you will help uphold these things

How the interview will usually go:

1. Before the interview, I will read your application and the feedback from other team members’ interviews. I want to learn what you’re looking for in your next role and decide what areas we should discuss.
2. I’ll say hello and do some small talk to build rapport. If you don’t like small talk, feel free to tell me that and cut me off. :)
3. I will describe my agenda for the call. If you have another agenda in mind, just say so.
   • “First, I’d like to share why we started Sourcegraph and got to this point, so you know what you’d be joining.”
   • “After that, I would like to talk about __________ (areas of discussion I decided on from my review).”
   • “I want to leave time at the end for any questions you have. Would you prefer to cover your questions now, or at the end?”
     • I don’t like putting candidates on the spot for questions (“Do you have any questions for me right now?”), so I tell them in advance that they will have time for questions and give them the option (but not requirement) to ask immediately.
     • Most candidates do have thoughtful questions. If you are nervous because you aren’t sure what to ask, then just ask to discuss topics that you care about, even if they aren’t questions per se. I do want to see you engaging in the interview and don’t want it to be 1-way.
4. I often ask:
   • What’s a big important thing you did that made a lot of money for your company or helped a lot of users/customers, that wouldn’t have happened if not for you?
   • What is your experience with Sourcegraph as a product?
   • Why are you interested in the product?
   • How many other people at your company are in your role?
   • What kind of work given to people in your role would people at your company think you would be the absolute best for, out of all N people in your role? Worst?
   • If we move forward and were to give you an offer, how would you make the decision?