“we take a good hard look at public GitHub profiles to see who's engaged in what... we look for those that build side projects on their own that can identify a user pain point and like really build and be obsessed with that... it just becomes a referral flywheel”

Screen GitHub profiles before interviews to hire product-minded engineers

ElevenLabs screens engineering candidates' public GitHub profiles before the first interview, looking specifically for developers who independently build and ship side projects. This filters for product-minded engineers who own outcomes rather than just close tickets. These hires then attract similar people through referrals, compounding the culture without diluting the founding character of the team.