The interview process was casual and friendly when compared to the standard VC backed tech startup interview process. I still had to answer a series of questions, both focused on my past experiences and my personality, but I came out of the process unharmed. The recruiter found my information on LinkedIn, shot me a message, and we went from there.
The initial phone screening was with the recruiter, where she explained a lot about the company, and I related it to my previous work. My resume fit the job description very well so the conversation was smooth and I was quickly passed over to the Director of Product.
The second meeting was again over phone, this time with the Director of Product, and she had a series of questions focused on the few things I didn't have experience with, and why I thought I could survive in this environment even without those skills. This may seem scary, but I had my head on straight and worked through the questions one by one. I appreciate that this was the focus as I had never worked for a company this small, and it was a good self check for me to make sure this is in fact the direction I wanted to go. Overall, this call was mostly focused on my work experience.
Soon after that I met with the Director of Product for lunch, where we focused less on work and had more or less a simple lunch conversation focused on what we do in our past times and discussed why we moved to SF and where we came from. It was at this point that I learned that our personalities were very similar and this could potentially be a very good mutual fit.
Finally, I came into the office to meet the CEO, COO, and VP of Engineering. It was quite obvious at that point that I was interviewing them vs vice versa, and once that clicked the conversations were very smooth. All 3 asked me fairly tough questions that I had to work through, but overall the vibe was very friendly.
I personally think this type of interview process brings a much better vibe to the company, as I find that people work harder when they know it's for the good of the company vs for their survival. I enjoyed the process and am quite content with the company as I've been there for a few months now.