DevRev is a developer centric CRM platform. It was founded by Dheeraj Pandey (former Nutanix CEO) and Manoj Agarwal (former executive at Nutanix). DevRev raised $50M in the seed round, which is probably one of the largest ever seed fundings in the history of Silicon Valley.
I first got to know about DevRev through yugeshk. I liked the idea of the product, and was attracted towards the possibility of working in a startup. One of the best things about working in a startup is that you get to build really cool stuff from scratch, instead of having to maintain legacy code. The downside is that it is uncertain if the startup will make it big. However, since DevRev’s founders had the experience of building and growing a company (i.e., Nutanix), this fear was alleviated to a large extent.
Application
I applied for the “Software Developer: University Hire” role directly through DevRev’s “Join Us” page, without any employee referral (which, btw, I don’t think exists in DevRev yet). DevRev’s “Join Us” page has an extremely cute video (which I played on loop for about 5-6 times, because it’s so beautiful), that really made me feel that DevRev would be an amazing company for me. I also joined DevRev’s discord server.
Test
I received an automated mail for a test on the CodeSignal platform. The test had some MCQs about basic algorithms and data structures, and some programming questions. I felt that the programming questions were fairly simple algorithmically, but had slightly complex implementations. That is to say, there could be very complicated ways to implement the solutions, but if you think and plan stuff before starting (which is what I did), you could come up with really simple and beautiful code. I mention this because by looking at the problems, it would seem that anyone with a fairly decent programming experience would be able to solve them, but maybe DevRev looks at your implementations to decide whether or not to proceed with your application.
Screening
After the test, I was called for an initial screening round. This was the most fun interview I’d ever had till then. It was a mix of behavioural questions, coding problems, debugging problems, math questions and logic puzzles. The interviewer was extremely helpful and fun to talk to. When I was given a math problem, I came up with an intuitive answer almost immediately, but was stuck trying to prove that my intuition was correct, and the interviewer helped me in that. I had also read most of the logical puzzles in my childhood, so I answered them almost immediately too. The coding and debugging problems were new and interesting, but easy.
Technical Interview #1
Next, I had the first technical interview. the questions were easy/moderate. But for some reason, I was unable to solve a simple problem related to linked lists. The interviewer gave me tons of hints (and even drew on a whiteboard to explain), and only then was I able to solve it. At the end, I felt that the interview went bad (particularly because I felt that the linked list problem was an easy one, and I think I should have solved it without needing any hints at all). But somehow, I was selected for future rounds. In fact, in a later interview, Manoj Agarwal (the founder) told me that this interviewer gave me the most positive review.
you.io
When building a company, it is very important to choose people who are not only technically strong, but also a good culture fit for the company. DevRev has a questionnaire which they call you.io, in which they ask the candidates about themselves and their opinions on certain topics. It took me a long time to fill the form (and I also had to ask for a deadline extension because I was travelling back to IITK campus during that time). A friend of mine had his application rejected one day after he filled his you.io form, so clearly it is a very important step in DevRev’s application.
Cultural Interview #1
This was my first every cultural/HR interview, and I think I did very poorly. Most of the questions were about teamwork in my past projects. I didn’t enjoy this interview, particularly because the entire theme of this 1 hr interview was “teamwork”, which made it monotonous and boring. Somehow, I also passed this interview. But I’d strongly suggest DevRev to expand the scope of this interview to other topics as well.
Technical Interview #2
Next, I had the second technical interview. It began with a few questions about my past projects. Then I was asked to design some technology that I had mentioned in my resume. I was not really prepared for a system design interview, but I tried to do the best I could. I just listed the expectations from the technology, the functionalities that will fulfull those expectations, the data structures that I would use, and the algorithms/implementaion of the functionalities. The interviewer seemed satisfied with that. Then I was asked to solve and implement a simple coding problem. Overall, I felt that the interview went good.
Cultural Interview #2
Then I had a second cultural interview. This interview was more like a conversation. The interviewer was just trying to get to know me better. There were very few random questions. Most questions were just “why” extensions to my previous responses - which actually made me think. I am very bad at HR interviews, but I enjoyed this one, and felt that it went rather well.
Founder Interview
Finally, I had an interview with the founder, Manoj Agarwal. He gave me a brief feedback of all my interviews, and let me ask questions about DevRev. We discussed about IITK, entrepeneurship, and of course, DevRev. He asked me very few questions, and it almost seemed like he wasn’t evaluating me at all, but just talking to me. Talking to him was just like talking to any other IITK senior. In the end, I gained some insights about what all things a founder has to worry about, how a company is built, how to care for employees, etc. I liked that fact that he said that I could ask to schedule a call if I needed to talk to him, anytime, and for any reason whatsoever (I did ask him once to schedule a call to discuss a few things, and he was very happy to oblige).
Offer
Finally, I received a call from DevRev with the offer. The offer was pretty lucrative, both in cash and stock components. I had a few questions, so I called the recruiter to clarify my doubts. I got a feeling that recruiter was annoyed that I actually read and analysed the terms in the offer letter instead of signing it straight away. At one point, I was told “Don’t you trust us?” when I asked a very valid question about a condition in the offer letter. This behaviour seemed strikingly different from my opinion of DevRev’s culture, and I was left a little disappointed and skeptical.
I had a fun time interviewing with DevRev, and was very excited to have received an offer. I will not be joining DevRev right now, but I intend to closely monitor its progress, and hope that it grows into a really great company.