PayPal's Extreme Cultural Fit
Share
Shaan Puri shares a story about PayPal's hiring practices under Max Levchin, highlighting their focus on cultural fit.
"Max Levchin, one of the creators of PayPal, talked about their hiring practices. They were interviewing an engineer and asked, 'What do you like to do outside of work?' The guy said, 'Oh, I love playing basketball.' Max was like, 'I don't want to hire this guy.'
When asked why, he explained, 'I've never met a great engineer who says he loves to play pickup hoops. Great engineers have other hobbies.'
Max's philosophy was that even if they were wrong about this specific candidate, it was better to have a very tight filter. They were trying to create a specific culture at PayPal, and they only wanted to attract people who would reinforce that culture. They were willing to immediately repel otherwise smart people who might dilute that culture.
This approach was part of what made the PayPal team so successful, with many members going on to create billion-dollar companies later on."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.