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Recruit Rockstars Podcast

246 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 24 ratings

Recruit Rockstars is the only podcast on the people part of PE & VC portfolio companies.

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Episodes

How a Real VC Really Hires (Recruit Rockstars 418)

September 03, 2021 19:04 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MB

Venture Capital is booming. Everywhere. …Yes, even in Iowa. With $80M assets under management, Des Moines-based Next Level Ventures originally invested in early-stage Midwestern agriculture & B2B data companies. Building on their success, they recently broadened their focus to Fintech companies nationally. Which means a ton of hiring. I wanted to find out how they do it So I spoke with Scott Hoekman, Partner at Next Level. Scott has helped birth 26 companies so far. With a typica...

She’s Building The Team That’s Building Your Team’s Mental Health (Recruit Rockstars 417)

August 31, 2021 20:51 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MB

There’s nothing like a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic to instill stress, uncertainty, and fear into people’s lives. And that includes your employees. Jan Bruce is out to change that. She’s CEO of meQuilibrium. Based in Boston, meQuilibrium gives your employees online stress management solutions & measurements. Which has a major impact on your business. Previously, she was Managing Director & Publisher at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. And she’s onto something big. Her backers...

Have You Met Jerry? (Recruit Rockstars 416)

August 26, 2021 13:55 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MB

Car insurance isn’t exciting. Unless you’re the Silicon Valley company turning this enormous industry on its head. That’s Jerry. Thanks to machine learning, Jerry finds its customers the best, customized quotes from more than 50 insurance carriers in 45 seconds. For free. The typical customer saves $800 a year on car insurance. And now its evolving into a mobile-first car ownership “super app,” aiming to save customers time & money on all their car expenses. I wanted to find out ...

When You’re Promoted to CEO (Recruit Rockstars 415)

August 23, 2021 23:51 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MB

After a successful career with Wayfair building its B2B division, Joel Stevenson had a random chance meeting with the team at another Boston-based company, Yesware. (He points out that their names rhyme, but have little else in common.) Industry-leading Yesware makes tools to help salespeople build better relationships with their prospects & customers. This all-in-one sales productivity toolkit includes email, phone, video, and meeting scheduling. He was hooked. Joel joined Yesware a...

3-Exit CEO Predicts if Cultures Will Mesh (Recruit Rockstars 414)

August 19, 2021 14:46 - 16 minutes - 15.8 MB

M&A is on fire. Which means not just combining companies, but merging cultures. And there’s where so many deals fall apart or fail to live up to expectations. (Some research shows that 75% of M&A deals bomb.) And it’s often because the team was too busy making sure the technology was compatible or figuring out how to streamline the sales organization or merge brands. Nobody bothered to figure out if the 2 teams were aligned in the first place. Such a shame. So, I found an expert ...

Trading Up on Talent (Recruit Rockstars 413)

August 18, 2021 19:03 - 14 minutes - 13.9 MB

  Based in Chicago, Akuna Capital is an innovative derivatives-based trading firm. With a team of over 400, the firm continues to scale rapidly. Akuna’s core competency is providing liquidity as an options market-maker – meaning they provide competitive quotes that they are willing to both buy & sell. Doing this successfully requires that they design & implement their own low latency technologies, trading strategies, and mathematical models. I wanted to learn about the people part of...

Building the Team That’s Turning Mortgages Upside-Down (Recruit Rockstars 412)

August 17, 2021 19:51 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MB

During his years leading the residential lending division of a major bank, Patrick Boyaggi closed over $11B in residential mortgages. Yet, he knew there had to be a better way. Did you know that …depending on the mortgage they select… consumers can spend an extra $30,000 over the life of their loan? So he started & is CEO of Own Up This Boston-based fintech business is on fire. Own Up has changed the way that consumers shop for & secure a mortgage. The service includes a marketplac...

Scaling a Business Against the Grain (Recruit Rockstars 411)

August 13, 2021 15:20 - 26 minutes - 15.6 MB

If you’re like most people, you think that printing things on paper has gone the way of the Dodo Bird. You’re be wrong. Combined, we still print over one Trillion pages in the US annually. Sure it’s declining a bit each year, but that remains a lot of used toner cartridges. Not to mention hassle. When Jonathan Treble learned the magnitude of the problem, he saw an opportunity... And started PrintWithMe, the Chicago-based & fast-growing company, on a mission to make printing conveni...

How & Why to Say Goodbye to Rockstar Employees (Recruit Rockstars 410)

August 01, 2021 12:18 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MB

I just interviewed one of the top Growth Capital investors around. Todd Cozzens is Managing Partner of Transformation Capital, with 30+ years of experience in the digital health industry that includes founding, operating, building, investing in and exiting innovative companies.  He has a rare history of creating value both as an operator & as an investor. As investor, he's served on the Boards of leading companies PatientPop, LetsGetChecked, Sword Health, PatientPing, and Health Catal...

How to Build a Team That Grabs the Gold Medal (Recruit Rockstars 409)

July 26, 2021 13:37 - 20 minutes - 19.4 MB

Being on an Olympic team is a life-changing event. From what I’ve heard (You don’t wanna see me on those Rings) But there’s one thing even better. More gratifying… And that’s coaching an Olympic team to victory. Seeing those under your charge go on to achieve unthinkable things. Break records. And change history. It’s breathtaking. Not to mention hearing your name on MSNBC at 3:30am in the morning US time. To do that, you’ve got to commit. To practice. (Actually, to perfect p...

How a Talent-Savvy VC-Backed Company -Actually- Hires (Recruit Rockstars 408)

July 16, 2021 02:49 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MB

Just had a chance to interview Jon Stross. He’s President & Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software, the smart recruiting SaaS platform used by over 4,000 companies including Cisco, Airbnb, and Time Inc. He’s also Co-author of the new bestselling book Talent Makers, which reveals how talent-savvy companies find, land, and keep the best talent. Prior, Jon was GM International at BabyCenter (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), the leading destination on the Internet for new & expectant parents. ...

Hiring Secrets of a Top Growth Equity Investor (Recruit Rockstars 407)

June 29, 2021 17:32 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MB

Scaling a company from $5M revenues to $50M to $250M isn’t just about a great product. In fact, that’s the easy part. Scaling a great team, which enables the business to scale, is far more difficult. So I sought out an expert to find out how it’s done. Carter Griffin is General Partner of Updata Partners, the growth equity firm with $1 Billion in committed capital. He & team have invested in over 60 B2B software growth-stage companies. In short, he knows how to pour fuel on the fir...

Raise the Venture Capital. Lose the Weight (Recruit Rockstars 406)

June 26, 2021 20:34 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MB

Obesity is America’s #1 underlying health issue. Because it causes or increases the likelihood of over 100 other health conditions. Now, Isabelle Kenyon is out to change the way the world treats weight. She’s Founder & CEO of Calibrate, the VC-backed medical metabolic health company. It’s creating a new category by improving metabolic health to drive long-term, sustainable weight loss with a program designed by world leaders in obesity & nutrition science. This is the first direct-...

How a VC-Backed CEO Sleeps 9 Hours (Recruit Rockstars 405)

June 24, 2021 13:04 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MB

Food. Activity. Sleep. If you’re not doing all 3 properly, you’re far less likely to scale your business successfully. In fact, we’re getting less sleep than ever. And, with today’s understandable stressors, the quality of our sleep has suffered. But I tracked down a Venture-backed CEO who sleeps like a baby. Nine hours a night. He’s Matteo Franceschetti, Co-Founder & CEO of Eight Sleep Based in NY, Eight Sleep developed a proprietary technology called the Pod that enhances sleep p...

From real estate to real Venture Capital (Recruit Rockstars 404)

June 15, 2021 18:30 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MB

8 years ago, Casey Berman worked in real estate when he had an “A-Ha” moment. He began searching for tech companies to help automate the real estate workflow. There weren’t many. So Casey formed Camber Creek, a venture capital firm providing strategic value & capital to technology companies focused on the real estate market. Camber Creek eats its own cooking. The firm uses PropTech and Real Estate Tech products before making the investment decision. Fast forward to today. .. The fi...

How PE-Backed CEO Rolled Up 9 Companies (Recruit Rockstars 403)

June 07, 2021 11:59 - 18 minutes - 17 MB

Shawn Boom, CEO of Vanco, is crystal clear about the companies’s “Why” - Serve those who enrich communities Based near Minneapolis, Vanco delivers online payment processing solutions & software that enables churches, schools, and nonprofit to operate more efficiently. In short, they can accept electronic payments from students, parents, patrons, and churchgoers. More than 40,000 churches, nonprofits, and schools now trust Vanco to simplify administrative processes, organize events, and s...

This VC says “The team is the #1 factor” (Recruit Rockstars 402)

June 04, 2021 00:41 - 21 minutes - 19.9 MB

Based in Silicon Valley, Rashmi Gopinath is General Partner at B Capital Group, the global VC firm that specializes in equity investing in growth-stage companies that have achieved traction with customers. With a focus in horizontal enterprise software (cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, devops, database SaaS for F500), she’s invested in and/or served on the Boards of: Synack, Yalo, Labelbox, Clari, Phenom People. Prior, Rashmi served at Intel Capital and M12, Microsoft’s venture fund....

How To Beat Silicon Valley In The War For Talent (Recruit Rockstars 401)

June 02, 2021 01:40 - 20 minutes - 22.9 MB

How can you beat Silicon Valley in the war for talent? (…or if you’re in Silicon Valley, how can you compete for talent with Apple, Tesla, Google, and Facebook?) A few years back, a group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists upped & moved to Columbus Ohio to invest in (under-invested) Midwest companies. They named the firm Drive Capital. And Robert Hatta is its Partner responsible for talent across their 50+ portfolio companies. You know the companies they’ve funded… Root Insuranc...

Great Leaders Know When Its Time to Step Aside (Recruit Rockstars 400)

May 25, 2021 22:20 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MB

You only turn 400 once. So for this special 400th episode of Recruit Rockstars Podcast, I knew you were counting on me to land a very special guest. I think I bagged the elephant. David Cohen is Co-Founder (and now Chief Instigator) of the legendary Techstars venture accelerator. It’s birthed over 2,300 startups. (You know their names: SendGrid, Outreach, SalesLoft…) And for 20-minutes, we discussed a very delicate, sensitive, personal subject: Stepping Aside. What if the Founder...

How She Built the Leading Women’s Telehealth Platform (Recruit Rockstars 399)

May 16, 2021 15:50 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MB

Treating 300,000 patients per month, NURX has rapidly become the leading Telehealth platform with a female focus. CEO Varsha Rao has led NURX to deliver remote treatment of specific conditions: Contraception, treatment for Acne & Migraine, testing for HPV & STI. To do it, she’s scaled of doctors who evaluate each patient & pharmacists who prescribe appropriate medication. Investors seem to like it too. NURX has partnered with Wittington Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Union Square Ventures...

How Upfront VC Mark Suster Hires (Recruit Rockstars 398)

May 14, 2021 13:58 - 35 minutes - 33.3 MB

You may not know Mark Suster, Managing Partner at LA-based Upfront venture capital firm. But you know the companies in which he’s invested (…early!) They include Bevy, thredUP, Bird, ChowNow, GOAT, and MakeSpace. VC’s come & go. Mark came & stayed. And he has the track record to prove it. Prior to co-founding Upfront in 2007, Mark was Founder & CEO of 2 successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was acquired by Salesforce.com where he became VP Products. I...

Harvard & Oxford Scientist Turns Capitalist (Recruit Rockstars 397)

May 13, 2021 12:39 - 18 minutes - 17 MB

I rarely meet a tech entrepreneur whose background is firmly grounded in science. Jacob Sattelmair is a public health scientist turned technologist. He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Wellframe, which works at the intersection of healthcare, technology, data analytics, and consumer engagement. Based in Boston, Wellframe has reimagined healthcare relationships through a new approach that uses high-tech to deliver the high-touch support that people need - when and where they need it. Its Digital...

Software Company Growing Like a Weed (Recruit Rockstars 396)

May 11, 2021 14:53 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MB

Spring is here…. …Which means lawn care. (Blech!) Ken Davis set out to change that. He’s CEO of TaskEasy, based in Salt Lake City. TaskEasy simplifies life by connecting people & technology to provide hassle-free yard care. They bring convenience & relief to homeowners, renters, and businesses and empower local landscaping entrepreneurs with robust software. What’s super-cool is TaskEasy’s patent-pending formula to establish fair market pricing for yard care services in statist...

Private Equity + Paper Towels = Profits (Recruit Rockstars 395)

May 10, 2021 14:56 - 19 minutes - 18.5 MB

I’ve long been fascinated by unique business models. And here’s one. NYC-based Public Goods is a one stop shop for healthy, sustainable, everyday essentials you can trust. They sell products in personal care (shampoo), household goods (cleaners), grocery (cereal). Uniquely, Public Goods has a $59/year membership model which allows them to smooth revenue & offer high quality products at a great value. And everything they sell is branded Public Goods. Imagine: no more spending time cho...

How Fintech Hires the Best (Recruit Rockstars 394)

May 07, 2021 14:50 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MB

New consumer investment platforms are all the rage. As are women leaders in fintech. This episode puts it all together. Maria Selvaggio is VP People at M1 Finance, one of the nation’s fastest growing money management platforms. Over 500,000 now use M1’s Finance Super App to invest, borrow, and spend. With a total of $4 billion in client assets, clearly M1 is on to something big. Based in Chicago, Maria got her talent management chops at Grubhub, Tempus, Groupon, and Google. Now she...

Smart Team Makes Software That Make Cities Smarter (Recruit Rockstars 393)

May 06, 2021 17:00 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MB

As businesses reopen, you should be thinking about your employees’ commutes. For their benefit, and yours. Not to mention your city’s. TransitScreen makes software that makes cities smarter and more sustainable. It provides live transportation information to real estate owners & employers internationally, helping people make more informed, more sustainable choices. I tracked down CEO & CO-Founder Matt Caywood to see how he built this impressive team. Matt is wicked smart. He spent ye...

How To Recruit Generation Z (Recruit Rockstars 392)

May 01, 2021 16:43 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MB

The up & comers in Generation Z (Gen Z) are now aged 5 to 25. And you’ll soon be hiring them. But they’re unlike any people who came before them. In fact, they have little in common with Gen X, Millennials, or Baby Boomers. So it’s time to learn how to recruit them & what’s most important to them. To do that, I sought out an expert. I found two. Based in Austin, Denise Villa & Jason Dorsey are the authors of Zconomy: How Gen Z Will Change The Future of Business - And What You Nee...

Marines —> McKinsey —> VC-Backed Startup (Recruit Rockstars 391)

April 18, 2021 16:13 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MB

Frank Furman was destined to lead. First, as an Infantry Officer in the US Marine Corps. Then as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company And now, he’s Chief Operating Officer of the VC-backed & fast-growing PadSplit. PadSplit is disrupting the affordable housing industry by creating safe, attractive, and respectable co-living environments. One room at a time, often for workforce housing. Unlike AirBnB, this is long-term rentals Based in Atlanta, PadSplit has 1,200 bedrooms listed...

Already a Startup Virtuoso. He’s 25. (Recruit Rockstars 390)

April 16, 2021 12:29 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MB

Nothing inspires me more than a brilliant young company founder with a huge vision. Such as Sam Walder. He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Chicago-based Trala. And he intends to make world-class music education accessible to everyone. Eventually, Trala plans to expand its app to help people learn all instruments in the symphony orchestra. And they’re starting with violin. Why? It’s hard. Nail the violin, and you can use tech to teach virtually any instrument. Trala’s app features video tut...

This VC Doesn’t Just Invest. She Connects. (Recruit Rockstars 389)

March 23, 2021 22:47 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MB

In this overheated market, it’s become relatively easy to land a Venture Capital investor. But finding one who adds real value post-investment remains tricky. I found one. Constance Freedman is Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures, an early stage investment fund which invests in technology companies in real estate, mortgage, finance, insurance and home services. Based in Chicago, she’s invested in over 90 companies including Better, Bento for Business, Hippo, Homesnap, Porch, and Tas...

How DocSend’s Founder Learned to Hire…and Fire (Recruit Rockstars 388)

March 05, 2021 22:39 - 23 minutes - 22.2 MB

After spending time at Facebook and Dropbox, Russ Heddleston saw the need for a secure document sharing platform. So he created the SaaS platform DocSend, where he’s now CEO. Based in Silicon Valley, DocSend now has 15,000 customers & 60 employees. Plus, talented investors like DCM Ventures, August Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Uncork Capital (You may never send an attachment again.) Russ says “A Rockstar at one place might not be a Rockstar someplace else” I couldn’t ha...

The master class on how MasterClass hires (Recruit Rockstars 387)

January 29, 2021 19:33 - 26 minutes - 24.7 MB

If you’re like me, you’re always out to pick up a new skill. So, you’ve likely heard of MasterClass, one of the fastest-growing VC-backed companies around. With over 100 high-quality online courses, MasterClass teaches you something new every day. The instructors are anything but ordinary. MasterClass includes: Annie Leibovitz’s course on photography Serena Williams’ course on tennis Carlos Santana’s course on guitar Steve Martin’s course on comedy writing And they add a new one e...

In a New York State of VC (Recruit Rockstars 386)

January 25, 2021 21:55 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MB

In case you missed it, Venture Capital is booming everywhere… not just in Silicon Valley. New York is one of those places. And Primary VC is one of those firms. So I wanted to find out how they’re doing it. Gina Yocom is Director of Talent at Primary VC, where she’s focused on building & engaging the firm’s network. Gina is a connector at heart. She’s mastered how to built relationships & opportunities that accelerate growth of Primary’s 50 portfolio companies. No surprise. She’s s...

How He Leads 50 Employees in 28 States (Recruit Rockstars 385)

January 21, 2021 17:13 - 20 minutes - 19.6 MB

Think your company has embraced being remote or virtual? Meet John Jahnke, CEO of Tackle.io Based in Buffalo NY, John leads a team of 50 employees located in 28 states. Tackle.io has created a Cloud Marketplace Platform that enables software companies to sell via the cloud. The Platform makes it easy to list software on AWS, Azure, and GCP… with zero engineering resources. So, John’s team allows companies to focus on goto market & selling vs integration. Customers include Pagerduty, ...

What Poker Teaches Us About Hiring (Recruit Rockstars 384)

January 17, 2021 23:30 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MB

How do you make your hiring decisions? If you’re like most people, you probably make a pro & con list, spend a ton of time obsessing about hires that didn’t work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seek other people’s opinions, and wind up going with your gut. Hiring is far too important to do it this way. So I sought out a guru on decision-making. For 20 years, Annie Duke was one of the world’s top poker players. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her fir...

Entrepreneur Builds an Actual Ironman (Recruit Rockstars 383)

January 14, 2021 12:56 - 21 minutes - 20 MB

Love the movie Ironman? Or your childhood tv show The Six Million Dollar Man? Well, I recently met an entrepreneur who’s building a futuristic technology by recruiting a genius team. And his story inspired me. Coincident with founding his previous company, Drew Perkins developed cataracts in his eyes. He underwent cataract surgery to implant advanced Intraocular Lenses (IOLs) in both eyes, essentially giving him bionic eyes. While his new bionic eyes gave him perfect vision near & ...

Recruit Rockstars 382: How to Lead Without Authority

January 12, 2021 13:57 - 17 minutes - 16.5 MB

You don’t become a leader just because of your job title or your location on the org chart. (And even if you do have the Chief title, you shouldn’t rely on it to show your people the way.) This reality is more important than ever, because work happens in networks. So, I wanted to find the authority on this topic. Keith Ferrazzi is the bestselling author of Never Eat Alone, the authoritative guide on how to build your network His newest book is Leading Without Authority Keith was th...

Recruit Rockstars 381: Started 12 companies → Acquired 35 more

January 09, 2021 18:37 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MB

Start a company. Raise funding. Purchase an add-on company. Go public or sell it. These are no small feat. But fruitless, unless you also build a Rockstar team. That’s where Will Herman comes in. Along with Raj Bhargava, he’s co-author of the fabulous book “The Startup Playbook” Collectively, Will & Raj have: ...Started 12 software companies ...Raised over $500M from investors ...Acquired 35 companies ...Taken 3 companies public ...Sold 6 companies ...And made Billions fo...

Recruit Rockstars 380: Grow Your Company Faster by Experimenting More

January 06, 2021 20:09 - 21 minutes - 20 MB

Small experiments often lead to ginormous breakthroughs for your business. Including revenue increases. So, why do most of us get stuck in a rut? I wanted to find the answer. So, I tracked down an expert… Stefan Thomke is an authority on Innovation. He’s the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business at Harvard Business School. And he’s worked with countless firms on innovation in product, process, technology, customer experience, and org design. And he’s written an outstanding ...

Recruit Rockstars 379: Ready to Ride the Gazelle?

January 05, 2021 16:16 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MB

CEO’s often ask my favorite book. Right near the top of the list is “Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t” by Verne Harnish. Verne is Founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 14,000 members worldwide, and teaches the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT. Verne’s company, Gazelles Inc, shows mid-market companies globally how to build & execute their strategic plan. So, what’s a Gazelle? It’s a business that has increased revenue...

Recruit Rockstars 378: From Car Wash to VC-Backed CEO

January 03, 2021 15:00 - 19 minutes - 18.4 MB

Great tech startup ideas can come from anywhere. This one came from the waiting room of a high-end car wash. Following a successful career in sales with med device maker Medtronic, Brent Oakley started Prime Car Wash, now with 5 locations. In the process, he discovered how setting the right mood creates an exceptional customer experience that keeps customers coming back. So, he co-founded Vibenomics, the marketing tech software company that provides location-based businesses with an ...

Recruit Rockstars 377: How a Chicago Attorney Founded a VC-Backed Rocketship

January 02, 2021 17:58 - 20 minutes - 19.6 MB

You don’t find many attorneys running VC-backed tech startups. But here’s one. Jacob Babcock is Founder & CEO of NuCurrent, which recently raised another $11M. With over 100 patents, NuCurrent is the leading developer of high-efficiency wireless power solutions. They work closely with electronic device OEMs & integrators to determine the best implementation of wireless power for their product. Jacob’s timing couldn’t be better, as wireless is all the rage. With a team of 40 & growi...

Recruit Rockstars 376: Unicorn Founder Shares His 2021 Talent Strategy

January 01, 2021 18:02 - 21 minutes - 20.5 MB

Even if you don’t live in his hometown of Chicago, you should know Chris Gladwin. Because he’s a 6-time Founder… including at least one Unicorn. Chris is CEO & Co-Founder of Ocient, which has created the leading high-performance database & analytics platform for the world’s largest datasets. Ocient’s database handles datasets in the petabyte to exabyte range. It’s designed to hold quadrillions of rows of data, ingress at speeds of billions of rows per second, and compute results at rat...

Recruit Rockstars 375: How to Change Your Luck in 2021

December 31, 2020 16:12 - 21 minutes - 20.2 MB

Your luck is about to change. And after 2020, we could all use some of that. But it doesn’t just happen… You need to make it happen. Even the most successful business leaders will tell you that luck & serendipity played a huge role in their ride. Warren Buffett famously said that much of his success is due to winning the lottery of being born in the United States at the right time in its evolution. So how do you change your luck? I wanted to find the answers from an expert. Christi...

Recruit Rockstars 374: The Nicest VC-Backed Tech CEO?

December 28, 2020 13:25 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MB

Humble. Soft-spoken. Not your typical tech CEO. That’s Mike Gamson, CEO of Relativity and one of Chicago’s most seasoned tech executives & investors. Relativity’s software helps users organize data, discover the truth, and act on it. Its e-discovery platform is used by thousands of organizations to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance projects. Relativity has over 180,000 users in 40 countries including ...

Recruit Rockstars Podcast Episode 373: How He’s Scaling the Team 6x in One Year

December 27, 2020 15:38 - 16 minutes - 15.7 MB

Talk about a rocketship… Fishtown Analytics, named for Philly’s hip namesake neighborhood, started this year with 16 employees. Next year, it’ll have over 100. I wanted to find out how CEO Tristan Handy is doing it. He Co-Founded Fishtown, which created the open-source data engineering platform named dbt (“data build tool”) that’s used by thousands of data analysts & engineers. dbt enables the modern analytics workflow by organizing, cleansing, and aggregating data so that it’s ready f...

Recruit Rockstars 372: He Raised $35M VC so that You Can Hire Remotely

December 23, 2020 17:20 - 20 minutes - 19.6 MB

Here’s the perfectly-named & ideally-timed company of 2020: Remote. Its CEO & Co-Founder, Job van der Voort, is based in Portugal. And he just raised $35M in Venture Capital so that You can hire the best people remotely in just an hour… Even across the globe. The pandemic has been rough on the work world. But the silver lining: you’re no longer limited to hiring the best people in your town. Now you can hire the best from the world. This opens up a new chapter in hiring. But if y...

Recruit Rockstars 371: His Software Might be the Most Important You’ll Ever Own

December 21, 2020 16:35 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MB

Hopefully you haven’t had to deal with it. I’m talking about employee ethics breaches. Not fun. But unfortunately, one day you will. So I tracked down J Rollins, CEO & Founder of Ethix360, to take a look. Based in Charlotte NC, its software manages employee ethics issues, breaches, and compliance. Clients include global leaders in insurance, package delivery, retail, tech, and energy. J is a veteran CEO who’s worked in startups & large companies alike. He’s an expert on the topic. ...

Recruit Rockstars 370: The Joy of Leading a Distributed Team

December 20, 2020 22:58 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MB

During 2020, the majority of companies began working remotely or virtually. But Evan Walden, CEO of Getro, was one step ahead. Because he’s been doing it since before we’d heard the word Covid. Based in NYC, but with a widely distributed team, Getro help companies & talent do work that matters. They match the two together, by creating talent networks for VC firms, PE firms, and Accelerators. Getro itself successfully completed the Techstars program. In this 20-minute conversation, Ev...

Recruit Rockstars 369: Startups Needn’t be a Grind

December 06, 2020 20:17 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MB

Startup Grind is the legendary community of 600 Chapters in 125 countries that educates, inspires, and connects entrepreneurs. Since 2012, it has hosted 10,000 events for over 250,000 entrepreneurs. And I just had the chance to interview its Founder Derek Andersen, based in Silicon Valley. He’s spent the past 10 years building communities. Derek is also co-founder & CEO of Bevy, the Customer-to-Customer SaaS platform that helps Salesforce, Atlassian, and Slack scale their event commu...