Are you an entrepreneur? Milo may want to hire you.
CEO Andrei Kushid said the company, which develops visual collaboration tools, has made a “major shift” in its hiring strategy over the past two-and-a-half years.
To stay ahead of the AI era, “we decided to bring in more entrepreneurs,” Kushid told Business Insider.
The CEO said that when he talks about entrepreneurs, he’s not talking about people with side hustles or personal projects. He’s referring to founders who focus on a specific field.
Khushid estimated that in the past two and a half years, the company has hired about 40 entrepreneurs out of a total workforce of 1,600.
The company’s value will reach $17.5 billion in 2022, some of its founders said. Some employees were hired through acquisitions, including Jeff Chow, former chief product officer at Freehand and CEO of InVision. Mr. Chow currently works as Milo’s Chief Product and Technology Officer. The company also hired Uizard co-founder and CEO Tony Beltramelli as part of the acquisition, who currently leads AI at Miro.
Kushid said that amid today’s economic uncertainty and rapid technological change, entrepreneurs are “a little bit more prepared” than those without an entrepreneurial background.
“They need a little less guidance. They’re a little more used to uncertainty,” Kushid said.
The CEO said he is very happy with the company’s founding group. He said it doesn’t make sense to build an entire workforce out of entrepreneurs alone, but it’s important to have a critical mass that helps shape the mindset of the broader organization.
The importance of agile teams
Miro’s focus on entrepreneurs comes as the company works to reinvent itself for the AI era. Founded in 2011, the company started as an online digital whiteboard but has since transformed into an AI workspace.
“We are reinventing ourselves,” Kushid said.
Where users once placed content on Miro boards to collaborate with colleagues, they can now collaborate with both colleagues and AI expert agents on a shared digital canvas.
The CEO said that during the pandemic, Milo’s user base went from about 5 million to 50 million, and that number has since doubled.
The CEO said he is particularly looking for candidates with a high tolerance for risk and mental agility. Both of these characteristics are important given the pace of change, he said.
Khushid said the past two years have shown how rapidly progress can occur. Developers still need to be systems thinkers with deep architectural understanding, but staying flexible has become just as important.
“The key principle for us is mental agility,” Kushid said.
