The Advantages and Challenges of a Startup with Sophie Troy
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Speakers
Sophie Troy
The Advantages and Challenges of a Startup
Working at a startup comes with its fair share of unique challenges — ranging from the hiring process to mentorship. Choosing to work for a startup can be a rewarding work path, but only for those with the right predisposition.
Startup Solutions: Building From the Ground Up
In this episode, we interview Sophie Troy, Vice President of Engineering at Vamp, about how she’s helped build Vamp into what it is today and advice for those thinking of following in her footsteps.
What we discuss:
- A deep dive into Vamp
- Building the hiring process & mentorship
- Downsides & challenges of a startup
Key Insights
A deep dive into Vamp
When Sophie first joined Vamp, it was very much a framework of the working model that they use today. Sophie describes her previous role as one that she couldn’t learn from any more. So, when she heard about the opportunity to help Vamp through their early stages of development, she knew what her decision would be.
“You always want to be challenging yourself and learning new things,” Sophie explains.
Vamp is an Australian startup platform that makes influencer marketing and content creation safe, easy, and effective — whether you’re a beginner or expert. Vamp integrates with all the big social media platforms — connecting influencers to brands and agencies.
Instead of focusing on celebrity influencers, Vamp’s target market are micro influencers with a highly engaged community.
Building the hiring process & mentorship
Hiring the right kind of talent to help your business succeed requires the right kind of interview process. Without it, you risk wasted time hiring and firing candidates that could’ve been sorted out early on.
As with the framework, the hiring process for Vamp was in its infancy when Sophie began. Starting with input from her co-workers, she built a base process — slowly adding in interview questions and technical tests. But, balancing the process for hire with the level of competition in the industry can be a challenge.
“The key thing is to keep the interview process as short as possible.” — Sophie Troy
A Key takeaway
For the person who thrives on the opportunity to integrally share in the overall building and success of a company, often thinking on your feet and shifting focus, a startup could be the place for you. If that sentiment doesn’t resonate, it may be time to take a step back and rethink the choice to become involved.
Episode Highlights
- "You don't want to bring too much process and all that into a startup, but you could bring just enough to make the team effective.” — Sophie Troy
- “The key thing is to keep the interview process as short as possible.” — Sophie Troy
- “We've managed to achieve a lot with quite a small group of people and create quite a feature-rich product as well.” — Sophie Troy
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