Satellite is a decentralised messaging protocol & application built on IPFS.
The Blockchain Recruiter was engaged on two separate occasions to hire Senior Software Engineers with a strong track record in low-level systems engineering using Rust.
Like many Web3 startups, early hiring practices at Satellite were informal and inconsistent, often relying on existing networks and gut feel.
While some hires were successful, many were not – and with an unusually long ramp-up time due to the complexity of the codebase, this turnover was highly disruptive to the engineering team and ability to meet milestones.
Additionally, with Rust devs being one of the most sought after talents in Web3, it was challenging to bring the right people to the hiring table among fierce competition from bigger, better funded projects.
Satellite was typically “too crypto” to be appealing for engineers from other industries, but lacking their own native token, at a distinct disadvantage in attracting crypto-native engineers compared to teams who are able to offer more upside and more familiar business models.
This combination of factors produced the perfect storm of hiring challenges that we were called in to fix.
Sometimes it pays to slow down in order to speed up.
By investing many hours upfront into a multi-stakeholder deep dive on all things Satellite, we were able to get clarity upfront on what excellence looks like, how to recognize best-fit candidates, and how to “sell” the team in the market, despite some disadvantages against more established teams.
We then paired this with our Talent GTM process in order to create unique candidates who are not window shopping every Rust job in town. This can take longer, but the better results produced typically far outweigh the downside of the additional time investment.
In fact, between the first and second hires we made with Satellite, they tried working with another big name crypto recruiting agency for cost reasons. They produced five candidates within 24 hours of taking the brief, one who was hired. However, this person was fired within a couple of months. Both of our hires, by contrast, have gone on to be among the very best engineers hired at Satellite.
Once the finalists were at the hiring table, we used our superior understanding, positioning and pre-qualification to strip away risk and ensure offers were accepted – despite the intense competition for Rust devs.
“It’s a little jarring working with you because of the fact that you don’t have a list of resumes to give us. The biggest change is that you don’t have a list of people looking for jobs ready to send to us. You’re actually looking for people that are a good fit,
You spend a lot of time – multiple hours – trying to understand the kind of company we are and the people we’re looking for. You just have a different process.”
I had this unique opportunity to compare and contrast another recruiter and everything they were doing was exactly the kind of stuff where, see, this wouldn’t happen with Harrison. It was such a stark contrast.”
– Sheldon McGee, Engineering Manager
