Who we hire to explore the deep sea
What makes one company different from the rest? Pretty simple actually. It’s the people and resources those organized humans have access to. Who they are, what they’re doing, and how they think + interact together. That’s it. Particularly in the technology space where most of the tools and infrastructure utilized are largely accessible and cheap (free in many cases now). Which means, it’s all people. It’s the whole optimization that significantly increases your chances of winning, and similarly directly affects your personal happiness.
We’ve thought a lot about the type of person we want to be around, who’ll also give us the highest chances of success.
O.G.P. — Only Good People.
Too often we hear about the “no asshole” policy. But actually, that’s the negative way to say you really just want good humans. So instead of highlighting the negative, we’re choosing to emphasize the positive. With 3 simple letters: O. G. P.
We’re changing the narrative. And we’re encouraging others to copy this. High-quality human beings. It sounds simple, but it’s actually a complex thing to put a finger on. I’ve heard it said as the people that just “get it”. The ones that seem to understand that life is a complex, chaotic place, and we’re all lucky enough to be able to operate in it. These humans are often naturally enjoyed by others. They’re often kind. They’re often real + genuine and don’t use facades to be something they’re not. They’re almost always self-aware. These people usually bring you up, and not down. They’re rare, but they exist in all walks of life from any background and upbringing.
The beautiful thing about them is you know exactly who they are in your life despite it being quite difficult to quantify exactly why. This is an underlying quality we want to find and build into our team values from the very beginning. We hope OGP supersedes everything else but the next level down, we expect to value and search for the following:
Passionately mission-centric.
We want people who deeply care about putting their names down in history on fully mapping the ocean. Who care about showing the world a part of the Earth we currently know very little about. People that want to be a part of the largest exploration mission that has ever been conducted on Earth. We want to see the spark and know it motivates you intrinsically.
Humbly talented.
You can’t achieve feats of humanity without talent. But we’re not just looking for the smartest people. We’re looking for confident, but humble, ultra-achievers. You bring everyone else up with you — you quickly realize when you’re wrong, and you do it without an ego.
Empathy-heavy individuals.
We are heading into uncharted territory (literally). People will make mistakes and we’re encouraging that. Finding people that can quickly and without hesitation, put themselves in other's shoes is hard. But we’re trying to keep a particularly sharp lookout for them. Amongst the tribulations of trying to do something humans haven’t done before — we think it’s paramount we build this quality into the team early and pervasively.
Calculated risk-takers and modern explorers.
We’re solving an unsolved problem. We need people that aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo, who know they will fail because the solutions have never been done before. We’re building technology to help us uncover secrets about the planet — we need the people that are willing to charge bravely past the current understanding of what’s possible. While often renegades, they tend to have the mentality and fearlessness required to drive through thick walls.
