Business Insider’s Owen Thomas Is In Talks To Be The New Editor At ReadWrite
My old boss Owen Thomas is very close to becoming the new editor-in-chief at the SAY Media-owned tech site ReadWrite, according to sources with knowledge of the company. I’m hearing that it’s not quite a done deal, but that it’s looking very likely.
Naturally, I called Owen to ask if this was the case, but he declined to comment. A SAY spokesperson told me, “There’s obviously a lot of interest in ReadWrite. There are a lot of good candidates in the mix, and no one’s been hired yet.” (Just to reiterate — I’m not saying he’s been hired, just that the discussions are pretty far along.)
Owen may still be best known in startup circles as the former editor of Valleywag. He’s currently the West Coast Editor at Business Insider, and he was also the founding editor at The Daily Dot, executive editor at VentureBeat, editorial director at NBC, and a reporter/editor at Business 2.0. He’s definitely drawn his share of controversy (I was working for him at VentureBeat when Elon Musk called him “the Jayson Blair of Silicon Valley”), but he’s also a funny, well-connected writer, and an editor who I learned a lot from.
Earlier this month, we got the scoop that then-EIC Dan Lyons was leaving for marketing software company HubSpot.
Update: After the post went up, SAY VP of Social Ted Rheingold called to reiterate that it’s “a very open position with lots of interest and lots of candidates.” It sounds like I may have been a little premature in saying “probably” in the headline, so I changed it to “in talks.”
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Want To Successfully Recruit For Your Startup In 2013? Focus On Developers, Data And Big Problems
Editor’s note: Dan Portillo joined Greylock Partners as vice president of Talent in 2011. John Schmocker is on the Greylock Talent team and works closely with portfolio companies to help them build out their core engineering teams.
Talent makes or breaks a company, particularly a new one that’s just finding its feet. Landing the right engineer on your team can make all the difference; likewise, missing out on the UI/UX talent you need can be devastating.
Finding, attracting, and retaining top talent is at the top of the to-do list for any ambitious startup. Building your team is an essential pillar of building your company, and it often requires expertise that’s outside the comfort zone of a founding team. It’s essential for startups to find help where they need it: identifying the right talent and great sources of talent (not just candidates, but also recruiters and recruiting agencies), implementing and managing the recruiting process, selling and closing great candidates and on-boarding them effectively.
The Core Talent team at Greylock focuses on technical talent for our portfolio companies. We focus on introducing great talent to the portfolio and help to create strong recruiting machines inside those companies. We continuously interact with the talent marketplace – what companies are looking for, as well as what’s most appealing to the strongest candidates. Below are a few trends we anticipate for 2013, but keep in mind that the dynamics are constantly in flux, especially in technical arenas.
1) High-Demand Skills
The skills in highest demand in 2013 are those from developers with expertise in fast-growing platforms and environments, including: iOS, Android, Scala, Node.js and full-stack Python developers with experience building applications that scale well.
In enterprise environments, it can be especially difficult to find engineers that love deep technical challenges. For consumer applications, look for candidates adept at a high velocity iteration of code.
2) Roles To Fill
Some of the toughest roles to fill will be those that didn’t really exist a year or two ago. These roles include:
- Big-data analysts and developers who can build appropriate data infrastructure and algorithms that efficiently analyze and leverage that data
- Growth hackers or growth engineers that can drive viral features within a product (which is increasingly becoming just as important in the enterprise as it is in the consumer market)
- UI developers who know how to design and code for enterprise environments
Not only are experienced candidates tough to find, but it may be difficult to assess the candidates you do find. Even the best candidates won’t have as deep a track record in these areas as you’re accustomed to since they won’t have been at it for very long.
3) Quantitative Analysis
A knack for quantitative analysis may once have been a plus in roles outside the engineering team (such as marketing and communications), but in 2013 most, if not all, functions will require quantitative skills. Introducing quantitative skills into functions that currently don’t focus there is a major challenge. It takes time and requires some creativity. Kickstart a new quantitative function with stars from other areas in the company. Get your data scientist to introduce candidates and interview other candidates. Don’t underestimate the challenge.
4) What Makes You A Draw?
What will make you a compelling draw for top talent? Here are some attributes that we see the best talent drawn to:
- Small (10 people or fewer) companies with compelling founders and executives
- Interesting and well-articulated engineering challenges
- The opportunity to make an impact – the sooner the better
- A demonstrably compatible culture and organizational mission
- A convenient and desirable location
5) Entice Your Recruits
You can’t be sure the prospects you want will accept your offer, but you can boost the odds by bringing your A-game, and the right mindset, to the recruiting process. Don’t forget: You’re selling every prospect on your company just as much as they’re marketing themselves to you. Are you grilling them on their past accomplishments before you’ve got them gung-ho at the prospect of working for your company – and for you?
Here’s one more tip for your 2013 recruiting strategy: Stay on top of the recruiting landscape. The most effective strategies and the crucial insights are a constantly moving target. After all, last year’s recruiting strategy and tactics are … well, so last year.
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Samsung Hiring More U.S.-Educated Talent: Wants Science, Engineering Post-Grads, MBAs, Interns
South Korean electronics giant Samsung — which makes pretty much every gadget and gizmo you can think of from mobile phones to household refrigerators and even tanks – is on a graduate recruitment drive aimed at further strengthening its North American business, according to the Korea Times. Specifically Samsung Electronics is seeking to hire post-grads who hold either a Master’s or doctoral degrees from “prestigious U.S. universities”.
Science and engineering graduates are top of its list — with doctorate candidates required to have a degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, medical engineering or material engineering. It is also open to applications from science and engineering students who expect to gain their post-grad degrees by the end of the year.
Also on Samsung’s want-list: people who obtained MBAs in the U.S. MBA candidates must have two years work experience in companies and a degree in marketing, management development, product strategy or business strategy, the paper reports.
A European recruitment specialist for Samsung Electronics, Lorenza Salerno, has been previously quoted on its MBA hiring drive saying: “Just because we’re a technology company doesn’t mean we only hire scientists. We definitely need people with MBAs. When Samsung looks for MBAs, it’s usually for candidates who have experience at leading global companies like Unilever, IBM or Procter & Gamble. Samsung is looking for people who not only have a solid academic background but also good business experience which they can share with the company.”
Samsung is also seeking to take on interns who are still at college. There are no details on how many jobs it wants to fill with U.S. educated post-grads. We’ve reached out to Samsung for more details and will update if they respond.
The paper reports that successful candidates will start their internship with Samsung next summer, and begin working full time in 2014 at the company’s office in Korea.
Earlier this year Samsung Semiconductor announced it would be expanding the size of an existing facility in San Jose, Silicon Valley, ramping up its local employment.
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Keen On… Crowdwire: What Twitter Teaches Us About Obama And Romney [TCTV]
As the author of the New York Times’ bestselling Hamlet’s Blackberry, William Powers taught us how to build a good life in the digital age. And now Powers himself is doing just that. At Crowdwire, a Bluefin Labs funded project, Powers is using the tens of millions of Twitter and public Facebook comments to analyze the Presidential election. And as he told me over Skype, Crowdwire is providing analytical depth about voter sentiment that “nobody else has offered before.” At Crowdwire, Powers really is going deeper with digital and, in particular, offering us remarkable insight into how women, minorities and other groups are perceiving the two candidates.
As I told Powers, I’m absolutely convinced that Obama will win in November. But the more cautious Powers isn’t convinced. “Anything can happen” between now and the election, he told me. But whatever does, indeed, happen – one thing you can be sure about is that Crowdwire will provide us with deep digital insight into it.
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Report: Leaked Memo Indicates Hulu CEO Jason Kilar May Be On His Way Out
An internal memo from web streaming company Hulu purportedly obtained by show business industry publication Variety indicates that the company’s CEO Jason Kilar may be on his way out the door.
The three-page memo dated July 2012, which Variety reported on in an article published today, is said to cover “a range of sensitive issues pertaining to how two of Hulu’s parent companies, News Corp. and Disney, plan to transform the streaming service” and starts off with two very blunt bullet points:
“Outline transition plan for new CEO. Discuss potential candidates and process.”
It’s not clear whether the memo is meant to plan for a departure initiated by Kilar himself, or one initiated by Hulu’s board. Reportedly, Hulu did not respond to Variety’s requests for comment.
The Variety piece has a full rundown of the memo and the current state of affairs at Hulu — it seems like the potential CEO departure is one of many moving parts at the company these days, and they’ve got an exhaustive report of the situation. More analysis will be coming from our TechCrunch’s resident Hulu expert Ryan Lawler.
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