Linear Academy | Hiring Has Flywheel Effects Too — We Co-Hosted a Recruitment Workshop with Amazon Web Services

线性资本线性资本·May 18, 2023·6·0

In March, Linear Academy — the entrepreneurial learning platform run by Linear Capital — partnered with AWS to host an in-person workshop with a Beijing-Shanghai video link, sharing Amazon's hiring insights with founders and teams from Linear Capital's portfolio companies.

In March, Linear Academy — the entrepreneurship and learning platform under Linear Capital — co-hosted an offline workshop with Amazon Web Services (AWS), connecting Beijing and Shanghai via livestream. The event brought together founders and teams from Linear Capital's portfolio companies to share Amazon's hiring insights.

At the event, Xin Luo from AWS's Digital Innovation team and Tianfei Dong from AWS's recruiting team first shared Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles (attached at the end of this article) and its 10 hiring tenets. According to the AWS team, Amazon's hiring approach also emphasizes a "flywheel effect" — the various modules involved in recruiting interact organically, like interlocking gears driving each other forward. It takes considerable effort to get the gears moving from a standstill, but once in motion, well-meshed gears spin faster and faster.

What sets this flywheel in motion are the 10 hiring tenets, shaped by the leadership principles: 1) Hiring standards: Would this candidate be better than 50% of current employees in similar roles? Does this candidate have the long-term potential to meaningfully impact Amazon's growth? 2) Leadership allocation. 3) Bar raisers. 4) Candidate experience. 5) Legal and ethical compliance. 6) Objective interviewing. 7) Behavioral interviewing, measuring candidates across the dimensions of background, task, action, and results. 8) Assessment. 9) Feedback. 10) Hiring decision.

Following the Amazon experience sharing, the AWS team designed exercises for the startup teams attending the workshop, giving Linear Capital's portfolio companies hands-on exposure to how these hiring tenets and principles work in practice and why they matter. Additionally, Zishu Zhao, HR Director at Sensors Data — a Linear Capital portfolio company — shared how Sensors Data's hiring approach evolved as the company grew from an early-stage startup to a recognized player in data intelligence and analytics. Over 80 team members from Linear Capital's portfolio companies attended the workshop, and we received considerable feedback that participants found both sessions valuable for understanding and learning Amazon's flywheel theory and hiring practices.

We will continue hosting related events in the future — stay tuned!

Appendix: Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles:

  1. Customer Obsession.

  2. Ownership.

  3. Invent and Simplify.

  4. Are Right, A Lot.

  5. Learn and Be Curious.

  6. Hire and Develop the Best.

  7. Insist on the Highest Standards.

  8. Think Big.

  9. Bias for Action.

  10. Frugality.

  11. Earn Trust.

  12. Dive Deep.

  13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit.

  14. Deliver Results.

  15. Strive to be Earth's Best Employer.

  16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility.

About Linear Capital

We are currently hiring for our investment team, with multiple positions open. For details, please click here.

Linear Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on "frontier technology + industry" — frontier technologies such as data intelligence, digital new infrastructure, next-generation robotics, and new technological transformations in traditional sectors (including biotech, materials, energy, and more), applied across vertical industries to dramatically improve operational efficiency, solve critical pain points, and enable industrial upgrading. We capture outsized returns through substantial value creation at the industry level. The firm currently manages ten funds with approximately $2 billion in total assets under management.

We primarily lead angel to Series A rounds, with typical initial investments of $3–8 million or RMB equivalent.

Our early-stage investments include Horizon Robotics, Kujiale, Sensors Data, Tezign, Rokid, Guandata, Agile Robots, and over 120 other entrepreneurial teams. The combined valuation of Linear Capital's portfolio companies is approximately $20 billion.

In the near term, Linear Capital is working to become the premier Data Intelligence Technology Fund, with a long-term vision of building the most influential Frontier Technology Application Fund.