Ilya Rekhter: How I recruited Megawatt’s founding team

Hey, want to build a startup with me? You’ll be commuting to a site with a burned-down warehouse. Oh, by the way, it doesn’t have running water, heating or air-conditioning. Not convinced? Well, you haven’t heard the best part: We’re dealing with shipping delays, so we won’t generate revenue for months and can’t pay you! Please, please, don’t all line up at once.

Great pitch, right? In my last column, I reflected on the why behind Megawatt and how our Bitcoin mining company is now helping reenergize a rural Indiana community. In this installment, I’ll shift the focus to how we recruited Megawatt’s team, and more specifically, where I was able to find people crazy enough to join me on this startup adventure.

Back in 2017, I hosted a monthly Bitcoin meetup at my former startup’s office. We had 10, 15 and 12 people attend each of the first three months—not much to write home about. Then the price of Bitcoin shot up, and the floodgates opened. Seventy people came to the next meetup—I definitely didn’t order enough pizza!

The Bitcoin price peaked at the turn of that year, and so did the meetup’s attendance. We had our lowest turnout the following two months, and the meetup was officially dead by March 2018.

I felt naive for believing that we were building a community, when it seemed that most people attended only when Bitcoin’s price was going up.

Needless to say, I was skeptical when my friend Arniel was raving about a new Indy Bitcoin meetup in 2021. I passed on his first few invites before finally attending the January 2022 meetup at Union Jack’s in Broad Ripple.

At this point, Bitcoin’s price had gone down three consecutive months, so I assumed I would be walking into an empty bar. At least I’d get a free Guinness out of the deal.

I sifted through a few dozen people before I found Arniel—it was a packed house! I grabbed a seat at his table, introduced myself to everyone and began listening to the conversation.

My preconceived notions about meetups were immediately thrown out the window. Price was rarely, if ever, mentioned. Instead, the conversation revolved around topics like monetary policy, international remittance and UTXO management. UTX-what? I had a lot to learn.

At one point, someone asked what I did for work. Like most founders, I had a one-line pitch locked and loaded to describe my startup: “Well, I’m building a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company.”

A few questions immediately flew my way: Why Indiana? What’s the energy source? And what was my plan for treasury management? I had been asked the first two questions dozens of times, so I had answers ready off the cuff. The question about treasury management, however, was a new one for me. I hadn’t really thought about it and, worse yet, had no plan for this important facet of the business.

The conversation shifted back to other topics, and before I knew it, the meetup was coming to an end. I exchanged contact info with the people at my table and headed home.

The next day, I received a message from an unknown number: “Hi Ilya, this is Dean from last night’s Bitcoin meetup. I really enjoyed talking with you and wanted to learn a bit more about the mining operation you are starting up and see if I can offer help in any way.” This was the guy who had stumped me with the treasury management question—I had to meet him!

Dean and I hit it off over our next few meetings. I learned that he was an actuary, which explained why he was curious about treasury management, and that he was interested in working in the Bitcoin world full time. Valuable skill set? Check. Cultural fit? Check. Awesome person? Check, check. Most companies pay recruiting firms and interview hundreds of candidates to find one person with those traits, and all I had to do was attend my local Bitcoin meetup!

Dean agreed to join Megawatt full time shortly thereafter, which got me thinking: Was this a one-time anomaly, or could the meetup be a bedrock for recruiting amazing Bitcoiners?

With Dean’s help, we attended subsequent meetups as stealth recruiters. I shared my hiring philosophy: We’ll design the company around the talents of the people who join us, so let’s prioritize finding great people over recruiting a specific skill set.

Our approach paid off, as we successfully recruited Wayne, a skilled Bitcoin mining facility operator, and Patrick, an experienced software engineer. With our founding team in place, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work!

In my next column, I’ll delve into the journey of finding our first customers and how we scaled up to more than 1,000 miners. Stay tuned!•

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Rekhter is co-founder and CEO of Megawatt.