Groq is an AI solutions company offering the world’s first Language Processing Unit™, part of its synchronous software and hardware ecosystem built for ultra-fast inference at scale. We sat down with Mark Heaps, Head of Brand & Creative at Groq, to learn more about the company, its culture, and how they are finding the right talent to grow their organization.
What is one of your favorite core values at your company? Can you share an example of how this comes to life?
When growing a startup, you typically recruit people who have experience at large institutions. and with them comes the gravity of their past experiences – how things were done at their megacorp, their old processes, proprietary tools, etc. Along with that are your own beliefs about what will make you successful.
Our CEO, Jonathan Ross, has always driven the value of defying gravity, which means that when you join Groq, you bring the value of your experience but don’t prescribe it as the only method of how to be successful. I’ve always found defying gravity to be one of our greatest values because it levels the playing field for people to have a discussion about the best way of doing something versus the most familiar way of doing something.
How is your work contributing to Groq’s goals/mission?
I am the Head of Brand & Creative, which doesn’t sound like a very technical department or technical role in a predominantly engineering populated organization. However, one of the things that the Brand Team has to do is translate what our technology is, its applicability, and how it creates business impact.
The greatest value of this work is what we call, “making it real.” We have to take the engineers’ brilliant work, which often isn’t tangible, and make it real for customers through demos, webinars, use cases, documentation, and standing it up at events and customer meetings. Not only do we try to make the technology real in customers’ eyes, but also real in what they feel about Groq after they’ve engaged with us. Brand is what people feel about you when you’re not in the room.
What do you view as some of the challenges to increasing diversity in the tech industry?
First and foremost, we need to attract more diversity into this space at the education level. This is being done with STEM programs in various schools and colleges, but we don’t do enough to serve all communities at all class levels. We see these programs predominantly in well-funded, mid to higher income earning areas, but we need to also serve the lower income demographics across the country.
Second, we have to make space for diversity in the workplace. One of the things that we’re very passionate about at Groq is enabling a safe space for diverse employees to engage with one another through community activities. For example, we have a group called Women at Groq. There are many Groqsters involved with that group, women and beyond, to foster community, provide mentorship, and share ideas on how to improve diversity at Groq. This really has to always be part of the landscape and the recruiting efforts. If you’re not talking about it, you’re not improving it.
What are you and your team most looking for when hiring?
We have a unique process that’s honed into how growth can add value to the person while making sure that they align with what we’re trying to accomplish at Groq. We have a novel recruiting process that considers a number of dimensions. We’ve been told by candidates that it’s like nothing else they have experienced – starting with how we write job descriptions through how we conduct interviews and hiring committees.
I’ll give you an example. One category is the culture interview, which our CEO developed. In the culture interview, we tell people about some of the axioms and core values at Groq and get their opinion of the values. Our goal is not to disqualify a candidate, but to make them think about whether they would like to contribute to such a culture. At Groq, it’s never just the job or the task – you are part of something bigger and you’re contributing to both your team’s culture and Groq’s corporate culture. So we’re looking for people who complement the culture overall.
We also assess how candidates want to grow in their careers and what Groq can do to help with their growth. We hire people who are both specialized in their field and have broad applicability. Groq is a small company after all – we roll up our sleeves and do the work.
How should candidates be thinking about what company to work for?
This is an important one. When looking for jobs or thinking about how to climb the ladder, a lot of people focus on title, rank, or salary. Those are all very logical, but it is just as important to consider the value that the company adds to you outside of that class and rank.
For example, one of our core axioms is Team – we’re committed to building teams that intellectually stimulate and challenge each other. When evaluating a company, consider whether it is going to give you the opportunity to surround yourself with people that help you grow, or the right amount of autonomy (are you empowered to make decisions?). Some people really like having rigid systems and order in their working day to day. Other folks really want to know that they can exercise their innovative mind and creative thinking, getting outside of the box. So you can ask yourself when you’re thinking about a company to work at – what is the global versus local maxima? The global maxima is the mission – what are we trying to accomplish; what problem are we trying to solve? The local maxima is the empowerment that you have to go after that problem uniquely as an individual.
At Groq, we focus on talent density. We want to make sure that every person coming in is a recognized talent. At other companies, you might be a cog in a very large engine, a throughput device versus someone who is seen as an individual. I think it’s important to ask yourself what matters to you and what level of empowerment you are seeking.
What’s next for your team/organization this year and what excites you?
Groq has a novel technology that is exceptional at performing tasks related to AI workloads. What’s really exciting for us right now is we’re seeing the explosion of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, and Groq happens to have a technology that is exceptional in this space. My team has seen a huge growth in the number of events and other activities that we are working on to get the brand out there. Four years ago, we were wondering what our technology might ultimately be capable of and now we’re actually getting out into the world and truly demonstrating it. That’s really exciting.