I interviewed with Napo in Spring 2025 for a PMM role. Overall I had a mixed experience that led me to share this for the leadership team, hoping it can help the team review their process and how they make candidates feel.
The first step was with the hiring manager. She was new, knowledgeable, great, and I felt inspired by her leadership. My understanding was that the role was new and that they were looking for someone quite quickly.
The second stage interview was with two members of the team, one recently joined, the other had been at the company for over two years. It was an Amazon-style interview which felt unnecessary for a scale-up, but we went through the process. I was told I'd have 20min for interviewing them, I only had 5. Interviews are both ways, allowing us to get a sense of whether this is a right fit mutually.
While one of the interviewers was lovely and open, at some point, I could see the tone of the conversation shift. One of them paused the discussion to say they’d had a PMM before who was more “inbound,” and that hadn’t worked, so now they were explicitly looking for someone “outbound.” First, it was news to me that they had someone before. Second, it became apparent early in the interview I was not what they were looking for. This threw me off balance and I struggled with a couple of questions after that. In interviews, it's always helpful to maintain a supportive tone, even when there's a mismatch. If you see a candidate is not the right fit, limit the questions, make it a conversation, lead with kindness and wrap up earlier. After all, I am also a potential customer.
When I had the opportunity at the end to ask some questions, that's where I ended up speechless. I even stumbled upon my words. I asked how the values from the company are represented in the day to day. One of their values is ⭐️ Do the right thing: We prioritise ethics over profits and always act in the best interest of our customers and their pets.
One of the interviewers shared that when they first joined, the company was focused on values such as people before profit. But post raising their VC Fund, this is now the opposite to the point the website should be updated! To be fair, in some ways, I thank this person for their honesty, but perhaps, the team should pick people who are ready to 'sell the company' rather than the opposite, especially during interviews. As this was the only person I met throughout the process who had been with the company for a while, that gave me pause about how values are lived within the organisation.
Overall my touchpoint with HR was great, always responsive, and provided feedback soon after my last interviews. This was appreciated. The conversation was recorded on Gemini. None of the interviewers had dogs.
