Sam Rosen, CEO of MakeSpace reached out to me directly via LinkedIn. I had been referred to him from a former colleague who knew one of our leaders. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as I just got back to NYC from traveling and was about t accept another position. At that point, the firm was less than 20 people, post Series A. Sam and I spoke the next day for about 45 minutes and I learned about the company, their growth plans, and his vision for the company. I left the call wanting to learn more, and the Office Manager coordinated my on site interviews the next day. I came in for 3 hours, where I met the co-founders, CFO, and VP of Operations.
The interview was structured. The co-founders spent their time getting to know me as a person, learn about my prior experience recruiting for startups, and dug deep into what I was looking for in my next role a well as presented the challenges that I would face if selected for the role - essentially developing this function of the business from scratch. Their CTO, VP of Engineering and I spoke at length about the tech landscape in NYC and we shared ideas on identifying strong caliber talent. My meeting with the CFO was very behavioral. We covered high points, low points, and major accomplishments at each role.
Prior to going into the interview, MakeSpace wasn't my top choice as I knew very little and was cold contacted. However, after getting to know the key members of the leadership team, learning about the vision of the business, and the challenges I'd have the opportunity to work on - I was beyond excited. After contacting my references I received a verbal offer and signed off on the written the next day. The entire process took a week.