This is part of Builder’s Notes, where we write up what we’d have wanted to know starting out. This one’s about hiring.
We spend our days helping companies tell real buyers from people who wandered onto the pricing page.
Hiring is the same problem with higher stakes.
One person here can change how the whole company operates. So we’re slow to hire, and we’d rather show our working than keep it in a drawer.
This post is for two kinds of people. If you’re thinking about applying, it’s exactly what happens after you hit apply. If you’re building a team, steal whatever’s useful.
What do we look for?
It shifts by role but these five factors show up in almost everyone we hire, along with the question we use to find each one.
10x potential
How far you could take the role, not how well you match the one on paper. You pick the right problem instead of clearing the one in front of you.
Ownership
You finish things instead of handing them on, including the thing everyone else forgot. Teams here are small and there’s little scaffolding, so what you own is yours.
Strategic depth
You know why something worked and what you chose against. Here, the best argument wins, not the most senior one.
Function readiness
You want a bigger job than your last one. Most roles here are the first of their kind, so there’s nobody to copy.
Culture add
You can tell what a room is missing, and you’re happy to be it, even when that’s awkward. We hire for add rather than fit, because similar people reach similar answers. Call it star power.
What jumps the queue?
Proof you’ve done the thing.
Anyone can call themselves a self-starter. Far fewer people have started something, grown it and kept it alive when nobody was watching, and those are the people we want to hear from.
So we ask for it in every job we post. Each one ends with a short list of the two or three things that would make us reply first: specific to the role, and never a list of adjectives. If that’s you, don’t bury it on page two. Put it in your first line.
Match one of those and you’ve jumped the queue. We’ll be reading the rest of your application already wanting it to work out.
Why are we so careful?
We don’t take outside money, so every salary comes out of revenue we earned. We’d rather leave a role open than fill it with someone we’re unsure about.
One bad hire is survivable. Several in a row cost money the team had to earn.
Should you use AI on your application?
We use AI all day. We build it into the product, write with it and work alongside it. We do NOT hire with it. A person reads every application, usually the one you’d be working for.
That’s a lot of reading, so we have a few quick exits. They save the long read for the applications that truly deserve it.
- No answer to “why us, why now?” That’s a no. If you can’t say why you want this job, we can’t either.
- Our job description, played back to us. If your answer reads like the JD run through ChatGPT, that’s a no. We wrote it. We know how it goes.
- Nothing we’d remember. Correct isn’t the bar. Interesting is.
Use whatever you like to check your spelling. The answer has to be yours, because that’s the part we’re hiring.
Hot tip: Dee, our Content Lead, didn’t stop at the form. The day after she applied, this landed in Stef’s LinkedIn DMs:
Subject: Not me using my MailCredits to make an impression
Hi Stef!
I sent through an application for the Content Lead role at Snitcher yesterday, and I’ve just been sitting around thinking about it since. This not only because of the role itself, but it’s because at least 25% of my current role is spent decoding where the hell our traffic is coming from, and, short of doing an interpretive dance or paying an Etsy witch to cast a spell and tell me, I’m still stumped a lot of the time. This product is incredible.
I’m not known for my subtle approach – so I thought I’d be cheeky and slide into the DMs to see if there’s anything else I can do at this stage to stand out from what is probably a very large pool of talented folks? Whether that’s coming up with a “first 90 days” plan or just sending a meme every day until you announce who’s made the first cut 🤪
Synergistically yours, but like, cooler
Dee
Stef liked it so much that the day she signed, he posted it to the whole company as “one of the best cold outreach moves I’ve ever seen.” Jerre’s welcome when it was announced was one word: “finally.”
That’s what interesting looks like.
What does the process look like?
Application
Apply through our Careers page. Your hiring manager or the head of the function reads every application. No recruiter sits in between, and referrals go through the same process.
First call
You’ll talk with your hiring manager or the head of the function. We give you more context than a first call usually carries, so a mismatch shows up early, on either side. We cover what you’re after, why this role, your background and compensation.
Team interviews
You’ll have a couple of conversations with the people you’d work with most. Depending on the role, that could be a live technical review, a portfolio review or a written interview you answer in your own time.
The case
Time to put your money where your mouth is. You get a brief that looks like the real work, like a 90-day plan, a campaign or a technical exercise, and present it to your hiring manager, a teammate and someone from leadership.
HQ day
Half a day at our office in Hilversum with the whole team, not a panel. One question on both sides: can we sit next to this person for eight hours a day? If you’re outside the Netherlands, flights and accommodation are on us.
Decision and offer
Everyone on the hiring team scores you separately before we compare notes. If it’s a Strong Yes, we don’t play games. You get a written offer covering salary, perks and a start date.
How do we score?
Every stage has a written scorecard, and each of us fills it in alone before we compare notes. That way the decision doesn’t drift toward whoever spoke last or loudest.
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 4 | Raises the bar |
| 3 | Meets the bar |
| 2 | Falls short |
| 1 | Mismatch |
There’s no middle option. If someone sits between a two and a three, it’s a two. Rounding up is how a small team fills with people nobody was excited about. (Yes, we’re that nerdy about it.)
One low score doesn’t end anything. A two in one area next to fours everywhere else is a strong scorecard.
What can you expect from us?
Most roles take four or five conversations over four to eight weeks. That’s enough to give you more than one way to show what you can do, without bloating it to ten interviews.
Reach the case stage and you get a gift card for your time. We know you’re fitting this around a job and a life.
You get honest feedback at every stage. If it’s a no, we’ll tell you why.
And if something stalls on our side, you’ll hear it from us. We’ve all been ghosted after a final round. We’re not doing that to you.
So, is Snitcher right for you?
Maybe not, and that’s fine. Snitcher is a bad fit for some very good people.
You’ll do well here if you want a problem and the room to solve it, not a plan to follow. Very little red tape, the real numbers (good and bad) and a manager who clears the road instead of checking your homework. That sounds like freedom (and most of the time it is). But it also means the first person checking your work is you.
What you get in return is the whole picture. You see how strategy gets set, how deals get closed and how the product gets built, just by being in the room. Whether you stay five years or leave to start something of your own, you’ll go knowing how to build a business, not just how to do a job.
We’re hybrid. Most of us work from HQ in Hilversum and the rest are spread across time zones. We get everyone together a few times a year, because some decisions only get made in a room.
If that sounds like you, apply. If you’re not sure, apply anyway and tell us what you’re unsure about. ;)
— Stef
