#115 - Mike Knoop and Kevin Hale

Y Combinator

Mike Knoop is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Zapier, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically.
Kevin Hale is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before YC Kevin was the cofounder of Wufoo, which was funded by YC in 2006 and acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011.
You can find Mike on Twitter at @mikeknoop and Kevin at @ilikevests.
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
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Topics
00:43 - Kevin's intro
01:03 - Mike's intro
2:03 - How Mike and Kevin met
4:03 - Market sizing for consumer software
5:13 - Zapier's growth strategy today vs 2012
6:28 - Jumpstarting a platform like Zapier
9:03 - Building an app directory before building a product
11:03 - Applying to YC twice
13:23 - Zapier after Demo Day
14:48 - Zapier's first remote hire
16:48 - Remote companies not being perceived as legitimate
18:48 - Noticing remote was working then committing
21:28 - Qualities to look for when hiring remote employees
24:28 - Nina Mehta asks - What’s the best way to share work and knowledge across designers working on different parts of product without distracting from focused working time?
25:58 - Remote mistakes in the early days
27:33 - When to change modes of communication to allow for deep work
29:28 - When to ask for someone's full attention
31:33 - Product and design practices at Zapier
34:38 - OKRs for teams vs individuals
39:48 - Tools for remote teams
43:48 - No internal email at Zapier
46:53 - Keeping morale high in a remote team
49:28 - What happens at a Zapier retreat
51:43 - Remote design critiques
56:43 - Serendipity and over optimizing for it
58:33 - Setting up a remote company for success