Justin GordonFounder, The LA Grind & The SF Grind

Built to Last: How Matic Attracts Long-Term Talent

4 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker explains how Matic addressed the surge in demand for computer‑vision talent caused by the rapid growth of AR/VR and self‑driving car technologies between 2012 and 2017. Rather than competing for short‑term hires, Matic deliberately structured its compensation and culture for long‑term commitment: a six‑year equity vesting schedule (instead of the typical four years), explicit communication from day one that the company’s mission is a zero‑to‑one, multi‑year effort, and a transparent hiring conversation that filters out candidates seeking only short stints. This approach encourages self‑selection of mission‑driven engineers who understand the long‑term vision for robotics, leading to a stable, dedicated talent pool.

Chapters

Between 2012 to 2017, AR/VR became really big, self-driving cars became really big. So there was obviously a lot more demand from computer vision and computer vision skill set across the board. So one, it was hard, but two, the way we solved that problem was by saying that we're going to optimize everything for the long term. So instead of a 4-year vesting schedule, we had a 6-year vesting schedule for our equity. So, and we still do. And we talked about this idea from day one that this is the mission. It will be the zero-to-one thing. It will take time and be very direct and very honest with people that if you're here, if you want to join something for a year or two, we're probably not a good place. And then have that conversation. And then usually if you create enough of that things, people self-select very well and say, I belong here or I don't. And we were lucky enough to find a few who were just really mission-driven, who understood this is how the robotics would play out, that yes, this is the right approach. And we would walk them through every single thing, including our long-term vision.