Recruit Rockstars Podcast
246 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsRecruit Rockstars is the only podcast on the people part of PE & VC portfolio companies.
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Episodes
Recruit Rockstars 316: Top VC Shares the #1 Most Important Thing
February 27, 2020 17:18 - 19 minutes - 19.3 MBI just met a VC. During our conversation, he said “The lifeblood of any great company is great people. Being able to recruit & retain them is the most important thing.” Notice that he didn’t say it’s important. He called it the MOST important. And he should know. He’s Rick Heitzmann, Partner at Firstmark in New York. With $2 billion under management, Firstmark has invested in companies that you know… StubHub, Riot Games, Shopify, Pinterest. Over 100 portfolio companies in total, bo...
Recruit Rockstars 315: How to Hire in Silicon Valley (Ground Zero of The War for Talent)
February 24, 2020 11:22 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MBHow does a legendary Silicon Valley VC fund land the best talent? I wanted to find out. So I just met with Atli Thorkelsson. He’s Director of Executive Talent at Redpoint Ventures, with $4.8 Billion under management. Since 1999, they’ve invested in over 500 portfolio companies, leading to 150 IPO’s & acquisitions. Such as Netflix, Stripe, Twilio, and Zendesk. Atli’s seen the huge impact on early-stage companies when the Founder spends sufficient time on hiring. He manages Redpoint’s ...
Recruit Rockstars 314: Leading VC Reveals How Your Employees Want to Work
February 20, 2020 04:59 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MBRoy Bahat has seen the future. The future of work. Because he’s head of Bloomberg Beta, the $200M Venture Capital fund based in SF and NYC. Backed by Bloomberg, Beta invests in startups that are changing the future of work. Making it more productive & humane. And it’s working. With 25 roaring portfolio companies such as Slack, MasterClass, and Codecademy. Formerly, Roy was President IGN Entertainment, the leading games maker. In this 20-minute conversation, he reveals how your em...
Recruit Rockstars 313: How To Compete With Google & Facebook & Apple For The Best Talent
February 18, 2020 18:22 - 20 minutes - 19.2 MBYou may not realize it. But you’re competing for the best talent with the best companies in the world. Yet, it IS possible. Because you can offer things that Google & Facebook & Apple can’t. Lisa Mikkelsen is Head of Global Human Capital at Flourish Ventures. As a spinout from Omidyar Network, Flourish makes VC investments in early-stage financial services companies. In fact, they’ve funded 50 companies that are focused on financial inclusion & financial health globally. Whether ...
Recruit Rockstars 312: How the Leading VC in Pacific NW Grabs the Best Talent
February 13, 2020 15:21 - 23 minutes - 22.2 MBI’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Just interviewed Shannon Anderson. She is Director of Talent with the legendary VC firm Madrona Venture Group. Based in Seattle, Madrona specializes in seed, startup, and Series A deals. They’ve made over 300 investments in 110 companies since its inception. In this role, Shannon is the center of Madrona’s talent network, identifying rising stars for their portfolio companies & the Pacific NW startup ecosystem. She also serves as the...
Recruit Rockstars 311: 3-Time Founder Turns VC
February 10, 2020 17:28 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MBDavid Waxman didn’t start a company. He started three. And not just any companies. After graduating with a masters degree from MIT’s Media Lab in 1995, David Co-Founded Firefly (acquired by Microsoft), PeoplePC (acquired by Earthlink), and Spot Runner (changed the way online advertising is created, planned, bought, sold.) Impressive. And then, David decided to switch sides and become a Venture Capitalist. Now he’s Managing Partner of LA-based TenOneTen Ventures, making early-stag...
Recruit Rockstars 310: How Growth-Stage Consumer Business Find & Land Talent
February 09, 2020 00:34 - 18 minutes - 17.6 MBKelsey Lawrie is VP Talent Operations at ’87 ’87 was born out of Chicago-based Sterling Partners, the multi-billion Private Equity fund founded in 1987. It invests in & incubates direct-to-consumer businesses. Kelsey was well-prepared for the task. She previously served as Director of Talent Acquisition at hypergrowth Truck Club, acquired by Nordstrom. In this 20-minute conversation, Kelsey reveals the promise - and the pitfalls - of talent management in consumer-facing businesses.
Recruit Rockstars 209: Selling Without Selling Out (Sell Your Business Without Selling Your Soul)
February 06, 2020 12:41 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBSunny Vanderbeck knows a thing or two about selling companies. Sunny is Managing Partner of Satori Capital, a very different kind of Private Equity firm, based in Dallas. In his work as an investor, he draws from a wealth of entrepreneurial experience, having led his business, Data Return, to a $3 Billion market cap & becoming one of the youngest CEO’s of a NASDAQ company. He’s had the rare opportunity of selling his business twice, buying it back in between. Prior, Sunny has served ...
Recruit Rockstars 308: Venture Capital Gems of the Mid-Continent
February 05, 2020 02:06 - 24 minutes - 23 MBYou probably know about Silicon Valley startups. And Manhattan’s tech chops. But have you seen the new companies that are cooking up in the Midwest? Or, as Ira Weiss, Partner of Hyde Park Venture Partners, calls it: “Mid-Continent.” And he should know. HPVP invests exclusively in early-stage tech companies in the (previously-considered) flyover states. If you’re raising a first or second round of capital, this fund is likely on your radar. Ira has been investing in private compan...
Recruit Rockstars 307: After 125 Combat Missions in Baghdad, He Makes Hiring Look Easy
February 02, 2020 04:47 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBFew talent experts are as impressive than Andy Caine of Frazier Healthcare Partners, the $4.2 billion growth & venture capital investor in over 170 companies. Andy works closely with Frazier’s Growth Buyout portfolio companies. There, he focuses on pre-investment organizational due diligence, talent assessment & development, and post-acquisition management. He’s become an expert in helping PE backed companies scale. In total, Andy has conducted over 250 talent evaluations, coached 200 le...
Recruit Rockstars 306: How Smart PE’s Get Their Hands on the Top Talent
January 28, 2020 23:13 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBThe smartest Private Equity investors have added whip-smart heads of Talent to their in-house teams. Because investing is one thing… But attracting Rockstar teams to do something with that funding is another. Here’s Exhibit A. Based in Palo Alto (ground zero of the talent war), Kelly Carlson is Head of Talent with Symphony Technology Group. She leads the firm’s talent efforts & works with STG’s portfolio company CEOs & leadership teams to crush the number. And she’s well-qualified to...
Recruit Rockstars 305: The Yummiest VC Portfolio Company I’ve Seen
January 21, 2020 13:57 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MB…And you think that your business is complex? Meet Luke Saunders, CEO & Founder of Farmer’s Fridge. His ambitious venture combines custom hardware, software, food prep, distribution, and wirelessly-gathered data analytics. (You could say he’s bitten off alot.) Based in Chicago, Farmer’s Fridge makes fresh meals in their kitchens & fills their Fridges with wholesome, delicious salads, bowls, and snacks. Luke founded Farmer’s Fridge in 2013. And he’s dining with some heavy-hitters... ...
Recruit Rockstars 304: Private Equity & Talent...How It Really Works
January 18, 2020 17:43 - 20 minutes - 19 MBI just had to good fortune to interview Emily Azevedo. She’s Vice President of Talent of the prominent growth capital firm Mainsail Partners. Based in San Francisco, Mainsail leads majority control investments in EBITDA-positive software & tech-enabled services. Emily joined the firm & works with Mainsail’s portfolio companies on their talent needs, including executive leadership, recruiting, compensation, and assessment. Prior, she mastered her craft at (my alma mater) Heidrick & S...
Recruit Rockstars 303: How to Manage Hypergrowth (You should be so lucky.)
January 16, 2020 17:07 - 24 minutes - 23 MBHere’s the CEO of one of the fastest-growing food companies I’ve ever seen! Mike Pytlinski is CEO of Nutridried, makers of Moon Cheese. I love this snack! (And it’s super healthy.) You’ve likely seen it at checkout in every Starbucks. I tracked down Mike to understand how he’s scaling the business & the team. He was well-prepared for this hypergrowth. Prior to Moon Cheese, Mike was VP Marketing at Palermo’s Pizza, where he tripled the business. He developed his CPG & leadership chops...
Recruit Rockstars 302: If The Recruiting Search Isn’t Retained or Contingency, What is it?
January 14, 2020 18:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBTime is everything in recruiting. (You can’t fill the seat fast enough.) Yet, most recruiters don’t charge on a time-based basis. They’re either contingency or retained. Why is that, anyway? I had to find out. So I just interviewed Peggy Shell, CEO of Creative Alignments, based in Boulder. She came up with the super-cool concept of “Time-based recruiting” And growth companies seem to love it. In this 20-min conversation, she explains how she went from math teacher to headhunter...
Recruit Rockstars 301: It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work
January 11, 2020 15:06 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBI’m confident enough to admit that I’m a fanboy of Jason Fried. He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Chicago-based Basecamp. They make the original & leading project management tool. And I was humbled to interview him for Recruit Rockstars Podcast. Because Jason is one of my favorite thinkers on the subjects of work, hiring, and culture (Warning: Some of his views are highly unorthodox. But they work.) Jason co-founded Basecamp 20 years ago. He leads a team of 50 employees (in 30 cities!) Remark...
Recruit Rockstars 300: Marcus Buckingham Reveals the Lies About Work
January 08, 2020 16:50 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBFor the milestone 300th episode of Recruit Rockstars Podcast, I wanted to bring you a milestone guest. I mean … Milestone With months of persistence, I finally persuaded Marcus Buckingham to join us. You know Marcus, the bestselling author, is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on Talent. He’s a renowned thought leader on unlocking the strengths & increasing your team’s performance. His books include “First, Break All the Rules” & “Now, Discover Your Strengths.” I was ...
Recruit Rockstars 299: How A Leading PE-Backed CEO Scaled His Team
January 06, 2020 19:47 - 27 minutes - 25.7 MBImagine running a company. With employees who handle dangerous chemicals. And being required to keep track of 15 million (!) different files to describe how to handle each chemical. Sounds like an opportunity for SaaS to streamline things? Glenn Trout is CEO of VelocityEHS, the leading SaaS platform serving the employee health & safety category. (He’s a fellow alum from Kellogg.) EHS regulatory reporting requirements are rigorous. Glenn realized that tracking all this info with pap...
Recruit Rockstars 298: How This Early-Stage VC Spots Talent
December 20, 2019 16:14 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBBased in Menlo Park, Unusual Ventures invests in Seed & Series A startups. Their focus in enterprise & consumer tech. Unusual has an ‘unusual’ secret weapon. His name is Jon Volk, and he’s Director of Talent at Unusual. He spots talent for the fund & their portfolio companies. He’s uniquely qualified, as a former recruiter at Google, Amazon, and AppDynamics. Venture Capital is all about pattern recognition, even when it comes to hiring. Fortunately, I persuaded Jon to invest 20 minut...
Recruit Rockstars 297: How This CEO Successfully Took Maternity Leave
December 19, 2019 13:44 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBDid you know that $300 of supplies are wasted & thrown away during a typical surgery? Not to mention the occasional instrument that’s accidentally left inside the body cavity :-O Not anymore. Jennifer Fried is CEO & Co-Founder of Chicago-based ExplORer Surgical. They’ve created workflow management software for the operating room. Which helps docs & nurses avoid mistakes, achieve better clinical outcomes, save lives, save money on wasted supplies, and avoid patient lawsuits. She’s r...
Recruit Rockstars 296: Are You Open, Honest, Direct?
December 17, 2019 14:46 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBThink you're open, honest, and direct with your team? If you're like most leaders, you could do better. Far better. So I sought out an expert on the topic of giving feedback. And I found him. Aaron Levy heads Raise The Bar Consulting. He's also author of the fascinating new book "Open, Honest, and Direct." It has an average of 5-star reviews on Amazon for a reason. He's one of the best thinkers I've met on the topic of unlocking your team's potential. Invest 20 minutes with Aar...
Recruit Rockstars 295: He Teaches Recruiters How To Recruit
December 12, 2019 22:26 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBDavid Patterson is known as ‘The SAP Recruiter.’ That’s The with a capital T. That’s what he does. That’s all he does. And he’s exceptional at it. As Founder & Managing Director of The Kineta Group, David’s cracked the code on how to entice the most-talented SAP developers to make a career move. He helps CIOs & IT heads build their teams. And everything he’s learned is relevant if you’re hiring non-SAP tech folks too. Plus, he’s the most sought-after trainer in the recruitment world....
Recruit Rockstars 294: Recruiting Sucks (But it doesn’t have to)
December 10, 2019 13:53 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBSteve Lowisz is an authority on talent, personal development, and business leadership. And the author of the fascinating new book, Recruiting Sucks (But It Doesn’t Have To) Best known as Founder & CEO of Qualigence, Steve is a successful 5-time entrepreneur. With experience advising start-ups, PE-backed, and Fortune 500 companies, Steve has a valuable perspective. And a no-BS approach, which I especially appreciate. He’s been named Michigan Small Business Person of the Year, E&Y Entr...
Recruit Rockstars 293: Legendary CEO Reveals How to Build a Legendary Culture
December 08, 2019 16:23 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBI’ve been looking forward to this interview for ages. It’s with a business icon & one of my personal heroes. Horst Schultze may not be a household name. But you know what he’s accomplished. A leader in the hotel world, Horst’s teachings & vision reshaped the concepts of service & hospitality across many industries. As Founding President & COO of The Ritz Carlton Company, he scaled the $2 billion operation worldwide. It was under his leadership that Ritz Carlton was awarded the prestigi...
Recruit Rockstars 292: Blitzscaling Your Team
December 03, 2019 12:57 - 24 minutes - 23 MBI just had the privilege of interviewing Chris Yeh. Along with Reid Hoffman, he’s the co-author of Blitzscaling, the book that explains how to build world-changing companies like Amazon, Alibaba & Airbnb in record time. A writer, investor, and entrepreneur, Chris has had a ringside seat in the world of startups & scaleups since 1995. And Amazon named Blitzscaling one of their top 20 business & leadership books last year. Which is why I was so excited to spend time with Chris. What is...
Recruit Rockstars 291: How To Have Your Industry's Best Job Descriptions
December 01, 2019 19:59 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBI have bad news. If you’re trying to hire top-performers, your company’s written job descriptions probably aren’t getting the job done. They may be keeping away the best candidates in droves. Job descriptions have been around for hundreds of years and most still … stink. So I tracked down an expert … a CEO who’s devoted his full-time to mastering the job description. He’s Rob Kelly at Ongig. Their main focus is helping growth companies recruit thru the best job descriptions in their ...
Recruit Rockstars 290: How a VC-Backed CEO Cooked Up a Winning Culture
November 26, 2019 23:25 - 15 minutes - 14.7 MBDid you know that most kitchens are unprofitable? Nick Anastasiades is out to change that. He’s Co-Founder & CEO of 2ndKitchen. Based in Chicago, the company links any business to restaurants in their area so they can use their kitchen to serve food. As an on-demand service, 2ndKitchen pools the demand in a local neighborhood. And it’s catching on. Big time. Since completing the Techstars program, the business has been doubling every 3 months. Not to mention, attracting big-time VC...
Recruit Rockstars 289: How a Hypergrowth CEO Interviews & Assesses Candidates
November 21, 2019 21:11 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBEvery wonder how you see ads online that are so targeted to your desires, it’s like they read your mind? Well, Target Data makes it possible. This 40-person Chicago-based performance marketing agency leverages data, technology, & content to provide “hypertargeting” for advertisers. Ross Shelleman is its CEO & Co-Founder. In this 20 minute conversation, he shares his interview process, how he assesses candidates, and some of the challenges he’s overcome in scaling the business.
Recruit Rockstars 288: Keep The Passion As You Scale
November 19, 2019 17:45 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBJett McCandless is Founder/CEO of Project 44, the most comprehensive global supply chain visibility platform. If you buy anything, you’re touched by P44. Because it’s used by manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and everyone in the supply chain to know what products will arrive where & when. By any measure, it’s one of Chicago’s fastest-growing companies. Along the way, he’s raised over $100M in capital from Sapphire Ventures, OpenView Venture Partners, Emergence Capital, Insight Vent...
Recruit Rockstars 287: How To Build a Distributed Culture
November 04, 2019 22:16 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBHow do PE-backed firms successfully execute a rollup strategy? Here's one that's doing it. Marquee Dental Partners, based in Nashville, has done 14 acquisitions so far. And somehow, I convinced CEO Fred Ward to reveal how it's done. Marquee is backed by leading healthcare PE fund Chicago Pacific Founders. One particular challenge is how to integrate culture in a roll up, particularly when the locations & employees are distributed. Here's how.
Recruit Rockstars 286: Building One Culture (In Many Time Zones)
September 05, 2019 18:17 - 21 minutes - 50.2 MBThink it’s challenging to build a remarkable company culture? Try doing it across 12 offices. And 300 people. That’s what David Rodnitzky has done. Headquartered in Silicon Valley (but often at 32,000 feet), he’s CEO of 3Q Digital, the fast-growing marketing services agency. In this 20-minute conversation, David reveals how he’s done it. Mistakes he’s made along the way. And how you can get the most out of your people - no matter where they may be.
Recruit Rockstars 285: Maximize Employee Performance With Minimal Hassle
August 29, 2019 16:07 - 22 minutes - 52.5 MBJessica Carrol has some very progressive ideas on performance management. Based in LA, she’s VP People at Signal Sciences which protects websites & apps by blocking malicious traffic. Previously, she was in HR at Red Bull, Shopzilla, and Magento. Along the way, she’s learned a ton of best practices about giving feedback to your employees, coaching them, and developing them. In this 20 minute conversation, Jessica shares what she’s learned.
Recruit Rockstars 284: How to Scale a CBD Company
August 13, 2019 12:55 - 21 minutes - 50.4 MBUnless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that CBD is the hottest thing in health & wellness. One of the pioneering companies is Sera Labs, based in Southern California. CEO Nancy Duitch recently raised $5 million in growth capital from ToroVerde, the Canadian-based Cannabis private equity fund. Sera makes products for CBD-based products for health, wellness, and beauty. They’ve even created Sera Pets (to relax Fido.) In this 20-minute conversation, Nancy reveals how she’s bui...
Recruit Rockstars 283: Building The Team That’s Building API Heaven
August 08, 2019 20:58 - 22 minutes - 52.6 MBIf your team develops software, you know that building API’s are the key to pretty much everything. But they get cluttered & messy. So Adam Leventhal decided to do something about it. Now, he’s Co-Founder and CEO of Transposit, one of SF’s fastest-growing tech companies. Adam was Chief Technology Officer of Delphix, and spent time in venture capital. Then he saw an opportunity create Transposit. In fact, they recently raised $12 million from top venture capital firms Sutter Hill Ventur...
Strong Suit 282: Lighting Up The Cannabis Job Market
July 31, 2019 21:55 - 20 minutes - 47.6 MBFour years ago, Karson Humiston had a vision. And now she’s Founder & CEO of Denver-based Vangst. It’s the recruiting platform created exclusively for the cannabis industry. Unless you’ve been under a rock (or leaf), you know that the cannabis field has created 300,000 new jobs in the past couple of years. And research projects that’ll triple again shortly. So she built Vangst to connect industry workers & employers. In the process, she was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. And V...
Strong Suit 281: Combining Fulltime & Parttime Employees
July 24, 2019 16:40 - 17 minutes - 41.3 MBCan an old dog learn new tricks? Erick Eidus is betting they can. He's CEO of PupPod, which he founded 4 years ago. Based in Kirkland Washington, they've created a smartphone-connected puzzle toy for dogs. When dogs interact with it, they earn food rewards from a bluetooth-connected dispenser Previously, Erick was with Microsoft and Motorola. Now he's raised outside funding to scale PupPod. In this episode, Erick shares how he's built a virtual team of employees, some part-time &...
Strong Suit 280: How To Master Your Next Career Move
July 09, 2019 14:34 - 22 minutes - 52.6 MBYour next professional transition could make or break your career. Are you prepared? My guest is Michael Watkins, author of Master Your Next Move. He also wrote the international bestseller The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Better. Michael is Professor of Leadership & Organizational Change at IMD Business School. Transitions into new roles are the most challenging times in the professional lives of leaders. Early missteps can create bad first imp...
Strong Suit 279: Talent Lessons From A Legendary Silicon Valley CEO
June 13, 2019 12:55 - 19 minutes - 45.6 MBScaling a hypergrowth Silicon Valley is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Or in Evan Kaplan’s case, 3 times in a lifetime. And I was curious to learn how he does it. Evan is a Silicon Valley legend. A three-time CEO, who’s currently leading Influx Data. With 130 employees, Influx Data has created a platform for handling the massive amounts of data that are created by the IOT internet of things. (Think about your self-driving Tesla that throws off hundreds of millions of points of data...
Strong Suit 278: Changed Your Business Model? Change Your Talent Strategy.
June 05, 2019 15:38 - 18 minutes - 42.1 MBChange is constant these days. But when you change your business model, how does your recruiting strategy need to change? Russell Jones found out. He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Cargo Chief, based in Palo Alto CA. Cargo Chief initially started as a rapidly growing tech-enabled freight brokerage. But then other third-party logistics firms said his technology was better than anything they could find. So, Cargo Chief sold its Chicago brokerage business and is now exclusively licensing its t...
Strong Suit Podcast 277: How to Build A Remote Team (Without The Heartburn)
May 31, 2019 01:51 - 25 minutes - 57.5 MBThinking about building a remote or virtual team? Thejo Kote can help. He’s Founder & CEO of Airbase. Based in San Francisco, Airbase is on a mission to simplify spend management. It’s the first all-in-one spend management platform that replaces multiple systems & gives finance teams unparalleled visibility into every dollar spent. Airbase recently raised $9M in venture capital from First Round Capital & Maynard Webb. Prior, Thejo was Founder & CEO of Automatic, which was acquired by...
Strong Suit 276: Recruiting Isn’t Rocket Science. (Except In This Case.)
May 23, 2019 14:22 - 22 minutes - 52.3 MBYou think you have your hands full with hiring? Sales Reps? Financial Analyst? Try hiring actual rocket scientists & data experts. That’s what David Godwin and his leadership team have to do. He’s CEO and Co-Founder of Slingshot Aerospace, which has built the next generation of signal-processing AI. That allows companies & governments to use earth observation data, which remains the world’s largest untapped data source. Cool stuff. And above my pay grade. So I learned a ton about h...
Strong Suit 275: Secrets From a Retained Executive Recruiter
May 09, 2019 16:43 - 16 minutes - 37.5 MB25 years in executive search will teach you a thing or two about hiring. And in today’s podcast episode, Bernie Layton teaches us about how to do it the right way. Based in Chicago, Bernie is Managing Director of Stanton Chase, one of the world’s largest & finest retained search firms. He’s successfully performed more than 750 searches for CEO’s, Presidents, SVP’s, and the like. And he’s done it in a wide range of industries - consumer, consulting, financial, engineering. So no matte...
Strong Suit 274: How a SF Tech Legend Learned How To Hire
May 06, 2019 02:04 - 25 minutes - 57.5 MBIf you work in tech in San Francisco…and even if you don’t…you know Auren Hoffman. He’s been starting - and growing - and selling companies since his junior year at UC Berkeley. This master networker cofounded Rapleaf, which was acquired by TowerData. He then led the middleware-provider LiveRamp which was acquired by Acxiom for $300M. Auren is now CEO of SafeGraph, which builds geospatial truth sets. Not to mention, he’s an angel investor in over 70 tech companies. So Auren knows a t...
Strong Suit 273: How To Win The Hearts & Minds Of Your Employees
April 16, 2019 13:16 - 23 minutes - 54.1 MBDo you remember the Blue Shirts? This army of well-trained, huge-smiling, sales staff at Best Buy built the company to what it is today. Yes, they’ve been Amazon-ed a bit, but still they survive. The Blue Shirts are why. When everything else (huge product assortment, low prices, easy returns) are commoditized, only service will save you. And Best Buy’s sales staff serve. Bigtime. But how does Best Buy energize that 100,000-person army? Enter Jennifer Rock & Michael Voss. These two ...
Strong Suit 272: How To Land The Candidates You Really, Really Want
April 09, 2019 16:01 - 24 minutes - 55.5 MBIf you don’t know the name Abakar Saidov, you soon will. Because he may have cracked the code on how to build a relationship with the candidates you want to hire. For years, I’ve said that “just in time hiring” stinks. By the time you realize you need to hire someone, and then start, you’re already too late. You need to dig your well before your thirsty. In hiring, that means you need to build relationships with candidates ahead of time. That’s where Abakar comes in. He’s CEO and C...
Strong Suit 271: How To Hire The Best Software Developers
April 05, 2019 17:59 - 25 minutes - 58.3 MBThere’s potentially no harder hiring task these days than landing Rockstar software developers. So, I wanted to find an expert at it. Someone who has a dramatically different approach. I found him. Based in London, Hung Lee is CEO of Workshape, the matching service for tech talent. It’s software that helps you recruit software engineers by focusing on specific areas of interest. Which results in a high-signal, zero-noise talent marketplace Hung is also creator & curator of Recruiting...
Strong Suit 269: To Keep Your Best Employees, Prepare Them To Leave
March 13, 2019 13:28 - 22 minutes - 51.4 MBLet’s get real. For your business to succeed, you need a team of happy & productive employees. Which means you need to keep your best people. Otherwise, you’ll always be scrambling to get new ones onto your leaky ship. But how can you keep your best people when we’re at 3.7% unemployment? And when 90,000 headhunters like me are calling them every day? Here’s the irony: To keep them, you need to help them advance their career. That’s right… You have to do everything in your power to...
Strong Suit 268: How He Built It From 1 Employee to 4,500 (And Fixed My Ankle)
March 08, 2019 14:47 - 25 minutes - 57.4 MBIn 1991, Mark Kaufman started as a physical therapist. 28 years later, he’s built Athletico into the dominant force in physical therapy. Based in Chicago, Athletico now has 400 Midwestern locations with 4,500 employees. And importantly, Mark had the forethought in 2011 to have a third-party start measuring outcomes… something not often done in the field. Recently, BDT Capital Partners made a significant long-term growth equity investment in the company. In this 20-minute conversation...
Strong Suit 266: How To Master The ‘WOW!’Job Interview
March 05, 2019 23:56 - 25 minutes - 58.5 MBRachel Ohlsson is a Rockstar who recruits Rockstars. Easier said than done. As Manager of Talent for Chicago-based Oak Street Health, the fast-growing group of primary care centers for adults on Medicare in medically-underserved communities, Rachel’s learned one of the keys: The ‘WOW!’ interview. Rockstar candidates who aren’t impressed by the way you interview them aren’t likely to say Yes. In this 20-minute conversation, Rachel reveals everything she knows about the WOW! intervie...
Strong Suit 265: VC Brad Feld Builds a Healthy Relationship & a Healthy Business
February 13, 2019 14:15 - 37 minutes - 86.1 MBHappy Valentine’s Day! Can you build a durable company & a successful relationship at the same time? Some days, it seems like an unlikely balancing act. One of the nation’s leading venture capitalists, and my dear friend Brad Feld, knows that you can. And in this bonus V-Day episode of Strong Suit Podcast, Brad shows us the way. Brad has been an early stage investor & entrepreneur for 30 years. Prior to co-founding Boulder-based Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital...