Interview with Zazzle

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So, on Monday I took the day off and went down to Palo Alto for an interview. My friend Patrick Briggs works for a small internet startup called Zazzle.com. They were founded in 1999 by brothers Jeff and Bobby Beaver and their dad Robert, did R&D into new printing techniques for a few years and came out with some awesome inks that are supposed to stay on apparel better than any other. The site opened up in ‘03, and from what I’ve read, they’re already turning around $20m in sales annually. Pretty good.

So, they basically just allow users to upload their own designs and artwork and create custom t-shirts, posters, buttons, mousepads, and dozens of other things. Simple idea. It’s cool.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for jobs in the Silicon Valley area (because I’d like to make a move to be closer to Stanford), or in San Diego, so when I heard about a possible new position opening up from Briggs, I saw it as a big opportunity. I’d heard Jeff and Bobby (the co-founders) speak about entrepreneurship and innovation before to the Stanford Technology Ventures program. And the new project they’re starting up is sort of a community-building effort, utilizing web 2.0 social communities and so on, which is EXACTLY the sort of thing I’m personally interested in improving my skills at. (I’m interested in using social communities to gather support for environmental/social causes one day when I start my own biznazz.)

Anyways, I spoke to my mentor John Pefley (a VP/attorney at a local law firm) for quite a while the day before the interview, and he gave me an INCREDIBLE resource: it was a list of the top 12 things hiring managers are looking for in new employees, and much of it reflected the qualities I know a strong entrepreneur needs (check out my friend Ben’s “Top 10 Ways to Know You’re an Entrepreneur”). So, I took the 9 qualities/values I felt I best reflected and made a list of why I value them or how I bring those characteristics to the table, and I tried to have a story for each one:

• TEAMWORK
• PASSION
• EXTREME FOCUS
• ENTHUSIASM
• AWESOME COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• RESPONSIBILITY
• RESULTS-ORIENTED
• PROBLEM-SOLVER
• INITIATIVE

I turned this into a neatly-designed little “Who Am I?” document to supplement my resume. And I think that (and the mindmap chart I did of all my ideas for where we could take this new project) really impressed them. I know at least one of them said it was better than a traditional resume! I interviewed with five individuals from Zazzle’s team, and it was a really awesome experience. I think I really connected with Jeff because I let him know that I really desire to go to Stanford for grad school (he’s an alum) and that I REALLY want to participate in that fast-paced, bootstrapped entrepreneurial environment and learn from some guys like him and his brother.

After the project/responsibilities are nailed out a bit more, I’m hoping to sit down with them again in the next few weeks. So we’ll see where this goes. At the very least, it’s an awesome opportunity and I’ve gained a few cool new contacts! And if I get to be a part of the team, it’ll really stretch me and teach me some new things I really want to know…

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