I rarely see Glassdoor ratings this high.

And it’s vital, because Glassdoor is now the very first place that your prospective candidates look.

Katy Shields is VP People at VSCO, the fast-growing creative tools company.

She joined a business with 50 people, and has scaled it to over 170.

Based in Oakland California, VSCO builds creative tools, spaces and connections driven by self-expression. (You should download their amazing mobile app today.)

They’ve raised $90M from Accel, Glynn Capital, Obvious Ventures, and Goldcreast Investment.

Katy & the leadership team have created a deep sense of alignment amongst their people. Each feels a deep sense of accountability. It helps that she’s recruited a team of people she calls “collaborative, humble, and kind.” It helps that she learned the fundamentals as HR Business Partner at Google.

I wanted to know how Katy did it.

In this 20-minute conversation, she shares how you can do the same.

I 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, both consumer & enterprise technology.

In fact, Rick has been recognized a bunch of times as one of top 100 VC’s globally.

In our 20-minute conversation, he shares his wisdom about how to recruit & retain Rockstars for your fast-growing company.

How 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 executive talent network. So, Alti works with founders to craft their leadership hiring strategy & introduces them to executive-level candidates.

Prior, he was an executive recruiter with SPMB, one of the world’s largest Technology & Energy search firms.

In this 20-minute conversation, Atli reveals how he’s winning the war for talent. (And how you can do the same.)

Roy 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 employees (really) want to work. And how work in the future will look.

You 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 insuretech or challenger banks, these startups want to democratize financial services.

In this 20-min conversation, Lisa reveals how even tiny, lean, no-name companies land the best talent.

Even in the face of the giants.

And how you can do the same.

I’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 strategic HR advisor to portfolio CEO’s.

Prior, she served a similar role as Founding Talent Partner at Ignition Partners.

And she spent 9 years at Microsoft, where she built the recruiting function that scaled the company from 8,000 to 40,000 people.

Shannon knows as much as anyone I’ve met on hiring for early-stage companies. During this 20-minute conversation, I learned a ton.

You will too.

David 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-stage investments in data-driven companies.

(Coolest VC name ever … based on LA’s I-10 and I-110 highways)

Want to learn about venture capital in LA? Check out TenOneTen’s podcast here: tenoneten.net/podcast

Want to learn how David scales teams in his VC portfolio? Invest 20 minutes in this episode.

Kelsey 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.

Sunny 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 as a Section Leader in the U.S. Army’s 2nd Ranger Battalion & led a team at Microsoft

In his new book Selling Without Selling Out: How to Sell Your Business Without Selling Your Soul, Sunny offers practical advice for selling your business - or taking on an investor - without compromising what matters to you.

If you’re thinking about raising capital - or selling your business - you’d be hard-pressed to find better advice than Sunny’s in this 20-minute conversation.

You 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 companies for 15 years, with over 125 VC & angel investments. He sits on many boards as a director or observer of FourKites, Parkwhiz, ShipBob, and others.

And, somehow, he finds time to teach entrepreneurship as Professor at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

In this 20-minute conversation, Ira shares his many insights about how to successfully scale a team as your business ramps. (Even if you’re not Mid-Continent, it’s filled with practical advice.)

Few 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 leaders, and assessed 60 organizations.

Prior to Frazier, he was an Organization Practice Expert at McKinsey & Company. If that’s not enough, he also served as Commander in the US Army’s Attack Helicopter Company.

Phew!

In this 20-min conversation, Andy shares what he’s learned by evaluating the talent at countless many growth-stage companies. And the mistakes you should avoid.