Saleae

Saleae is on a mission to make hardware test equipment sexy.

Founded 2008
1-15 employees
  • Hardware, Internet of Things, & Electronics
  • Headquarters address
    408 N Canal St. South San Francisco, CA 94080

    Saleae’s mission is to enable engineers and enthusiasts to truly love testing their electronics designs.

    This multi-billion-$ industry has comically-bad UX and near-zero innovation - it badly needs love, and we're going to give it.

    We're profitable, well-loved, and used by engineers at Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Google, and every other hardware manufacturer on the planet.

    You would be one of the first ten employees, joining engineers who've built robots, web and mobile apps, SSE optimized data processing pipelines, and 14-layer circuit boards with FPGAs.

    The Interview Process

    1. Chat (30 minutes ) - are you interested, are we interested?
    2. Technical Phone Interview (2 hours)
    3. In-person Interview (4 hours)
    4. Offer!

    We'll ask for some code samples, references, etc. Also, it can often make sense to meet more extensively in person in a less formal way to assess mutual fit.

    Super Brief Company History

    Saleae 1.0
    My brother Mark and I started Saleae in 2008 because a particular EE tool we needed to use - called a 'Logic Analyzer' - really sucked. From 2008-2015 we grew the company $3.5mm in sales, dominating its tiny niche.

    Saleae 2.0
    Towards the end of 2015 we were looking for what to do next, and decided that we were still really passionate about this space, and needed to solve this much larger problem where most test equipment for electrical engineering has terrible UX and no innovation.

    We're 100% bootstrapped, profitable, and have a pile of cash. We think with the right team, we can build a multi-$100mm business in this space.

    What's it like to work @ Saleae?

    We love shipping great product as a team. If you love working with smart people on hard problems and shipping great product that helps real people, then you'll fit in great here.

    The Saleae Playbook

    How a company operates is an extremely important aspect of selecting a startup to work with. Here is the table of contents of our Playbook - please ask us about any of this that's important to you.

    Saleae Playbook TOC

    Mission & Objectives
    - What is Saleae’s Mission?
    - What are Saleae’s Objectives?
    - How are Objectives Set?

    Values & Culture
    - What exactly are Values?
    - What exactly is Culture?
    - What are Saleae’s Values?
    - How are Values and Culture managed?

    Strategy

    How is Saleae Funded?

    How does Saleae Execute?
    - Organizational Objectives
    - Quarterly OKRs
    - Scrum
    - Roles

    How do OKRs work at Saleae?

    How does Scrum work at Saleae?

    What are Roles at Saleae?

    How is Individual Performance Measured/Managed at Saleae?
    - Immediate, reciprocal, unfiltered feedback
    - Role Scorecard 360
    - OKR Results
    - Quarterly meeting with your manager

    How is Compensation Managed at Saleae?

    How is Hiring Managed at Saleae?

    How do we Select Partners at Saleae?

    How do we manage Partners at Saleae?

    Our Values

    Values are beliefs (hopefully true) about what behaviors are most likely to achieve the success of our mission. Each week we score each other, 360-style, on a small rotating section of these.

    1. We are generally cheerful, enthusiastic, and optimistic. We celebrate our achievements, take time to be grateful, and show that we appreciate each other.
    2. We seek out and find meaning in our work. In our time here, we do the best, most passionate work of our lives.
    3. We are incessantly curious; We are intensely interested in a wide variety of subjects, and are open to new ideas, experiences, and change. We fight against becoming stubborn or complacent.
    4. We think big by default.
    5. We can be relied on to keep our commitments and to hold each other accountable.
    6. We take care that our teams have interpersonal trust, passionate debate, commitment to team objectives, high individual accountability, and keen attention to results. (a la The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.)
    7. We insist on, and provide, unfiltered, quick feedback.
    8. We are genuine, candid, and direct; We say what we think even if it is controversial. We challenge prevailing assumptions when appropriate.
    9. We proactively share information and help colleagues.
    10. We call out behavior which is inconsistent with our values.
    11. We are humble and readily admit when we are wrong.
    12. We treat people well. We don’t tolerate politics, excessive drama, entitlement mentality, egotism, dishonesty, interpersonal manipulation, cynicism, talking behind someone’s back, abuse of power, or treating people with disrespect.
    13. We act in the best interests of the company.
    14. On the most important questions, we reason from first principles.
    15. We seek and identify root causes.
    16. We invest in analytics and rely on data when possible.
    17. We value and balance both creative vision and data driven iteration.
    18. We do not leave decisions “undecided”. We default to action.
    19. We take care to separate what must be done well now, from what can be improved later; We say no a lot, so we can focus on what is most important.
    20. We insist that the best idea wins out over authority or ego.
    21. We insist on knowing exactly what our mission is, and the precise role we each of us plays.
    22. We continually think about what we’re doing and how we could do it better; we iteratively improve.
    23. We demand simplification and vigilance against complexity.
    24. We always – always – hire up. Mediocre engineers do not build great companies.
    25. We think long term and study the end game. We evaluate and develop ideas around the extent to which they can contribute to a sustainable endgame advantage – a monopoly. In particular how they can contribute to a x10 product advantage, network effects, brand, and economies of scale.
    26. We seek to develop products that offer tremendous value, are incredibly emotionally compelling, are marketed extremely well, address a large market, and capture a large portion of the value they generate.
    27. We each seek an increasingly sophisticated understanding of our market, technology, distribution, and customer. We regularly speak with customers, with potential customers in new markets, and with advisors.
    28. We always strive for what is most right and most optimal, not what is most obvious, easiest, or what everyone else does. Our thinking is not constrained by convention, societal or industry norms, or common practices/beliefs.
    29. We are comfortable with uncertainty and risk
    30. We care intensely about our success.
    31. We strive for and reward results. Hard work is important, but not sufficient.
    32. We are obsessed with execution quality and speed.
    33. We are manically determined, we bend the world to our will, and we do not take no as an answer.
    34. We maintain a relentless operating rhythm.
    35. We maintain continuous momentum towards clear and ambitious goals.

    Tech stack

    Node, React, Mongo, Electron, Docker, Travis, Fastly, Digital Ocean, Segment.io, C++17, VHDL

    Benefits

    Compensation and retirement

    401k matching

    Health and wellness

    Insurance (Health)
    Insurance (Dental)
    Insurance (Vision)
    Child or elder care stipend
    On-site fitness center
    Fitness reimbursement

    Vacation and time off

    Paid time off
    Flexible working hours
    Maternity benefits
    Paternity benefits

    Values and quality of life

    Snacks and beverages
    Catered meals
    Saleae - Company Photo
    Saleae - Company Photo
    Saleae - Company Photo
    Saleae - Company Photo
    Saleae - Company Photo