Are you an entrepreneur? Miro may want to hire you.
In the last two and a half years, CEO Andrey Khusid said that the company, which makes a visual collaboration tool, has made a “big shift” in its hiring strategy.
To get ahead in the AI era, “we decided to add more entrepreneurs,” Khusid told Business Insider.
The CEO said that when he speaks about entrepreneurs, he’s not referring to people with side hustles or solo projects. He’s referring to founders with a focus on a specific area.
Khusid estimated that in the past two and a half years, the company has hired around 40 entrepreneurs out of 1,600 total employees.
The company, which was valued at $17.5 billion in 2022, said some of the founders it has hired have joined through acquisitions, such as former Freehand chief product officer and InVision CEO Jeff Chow. Chow now works as Miro’s chief product and technology officer. The company similarly hired Uizard’s cofounder and CEO Tony Beltramelli as part of its acquisition, and he now leads AI at Miro.
Khusid said that, amid today’s economic uncertainty and rapid technological change, entrepreneurs are “a little bit more ready” than those without an entrepreneurial background.
“They need a little bit less guidance. They’re a little bit more comfortable with uncertainty,” Khusid said.
The CEO said he’s been very pleased with the company’s cohort of founders. He said that while it doesn’t make sense to build an entire workforce of only entrepreneurs, it’s important to have a critical mass to help shape the broader organization’s mindset.
The importance of an agile team
Miro’s focus on entrepreneurs comes as the company works to reinvent itself for the AI era. Founded in 2011, the company began as an online digital whiteboard, but has since transformed into an AI workspace.
“We are reinventing ourselves,” Khusid said.
Whereas users once placed content on a Miro board for collaboration with colleagues, they can now collaborate with both colleagues and AI specialist agents on a shared digital canvas.
During the pandemic, Miro scaled from about five to 50 million users, and that number has since doubled, the CEO said.
The CEO said he specifically looks for candidates with a tolerance for risk and mental agility. Both of these attributes are important given the pace of change, he said.
Khusid said the past two years have shown just how quickly progress can happen. While developers still need to be system thinkers with a deep understanding of architecture, remaining flexible has become just as important.
“The key principle for us is mental agility,” Khusid said.
