20VC: Why Hiring in Tech is Broken and Founders Need to be as Good at Firing as they are Hiring, Why Product Differentiation is Unsustainable & Why the Current Generation of Tech Employees are Entitled and What Needs to Change with Jean-Denis Greze @ Plaid

Jean-Denis Greze is Chief Technology Officer at Plaid where oversees global product business units across North America and Europe. Prior to joining Plaid, Jean-Denis was Director of Engineering at Dropbox. Jean-Denis is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Nex Health, Merge.dev and Rupa Health to name a few.

In Today’s Episode with Jean-Denis Greze We Discuss:

1. The Journey to One of the Most Powerful CTOs:

• How JD made his way into the world of tech with his first role at Dropbox?

• How does JD analyse a Linkedin CV today? What are the signals of outperformers?

• What does JD know now that he wishes he had known when he started in tech?

2. Hiring the Best: 101:

• What are JD’s single biggest lessons on hiring the best talent?

• What have been some of JD’s biggest hiring mistakes?

• Why does JD believe founders need to be as good at firing as they are hiring?

• Does JD believe people can scale with the scaling of a company? If they do not scale, do you layer them or do you let them go?

• How does JD determine whether to bring in an external candidate vs promote someone from within?

3. Product Differentiation is not Sustainable:

• Why does JD believe that product differentiation is not sustainable? Why is UX as a moat BS?

• How does this lead JD to suggest Salesforce is a short in the public markets?

• Why does JD believe that Snowflake is also a short?

• What does Snowflake teach us about the different stages of product market fit?

• What are the biggest mistakes founders make when analyzing product market fit?

4. Remote Work, Titles and Entitlement:

• Why does JD believe most tech employees treat their employer in the same way French citizens treat the French government?

• How does JD analyse the impact of remote work on both productivity and culture?

• Why does JD believe titles are BS in the beginning but matter with scale?

• Why does JD believe that you should not hire for the long term?