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 isn’t the right person with the right skills to scale the business? (Odds are, they’re not)

How do we get the Founder into their “zone of genius”?

When & how should a Founder be “promoted” to Chairman, and a new CEO appointed?

If it doesn’t happen, when & how should a VC & Board member make this very difficult decision?

How do you separate the Founder (and their identity) from the business, which needs to have its own life & legs.

While Mark Zuckerberg Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk went from Founder to CEO to Mega Industry Changer, that type of tenure is rare.

(You can safely assume that you are none of those people.)

So for you, the day will come when your business outgrows you. Your skills. Your passions. Or both.

And then what?

David is uniquely qualified to address this topic.

Many startups …including those birthed by Techstars… go thru this transition. He’s sat on the Boards of countless companies who have successfully gone thru a transition from Founder to a new CEO.

And last month, David - and Techstars Co-Founders David Brown, Brad Feld, Jared Polis - recruited a new CEO to lead Techstars next phase of growth.

After evaluating 350 candidates, they selected Maëlle Gavet, an outstanding global business leader.

She’ll build on Techstars’ heritage, which is pretty remarkable to consider:

- Over 2,300 startups funded & launched
- 85% of which have been acquired or are still active
- Funding 500 companies per year
- 8,000 mentors advise the 3 month program in 35 cities in 16 countries
- The average company raises $1M
- They’ve raised over $11B in total
- Cumulative market valuation a $32B

In this 20-minute conversation, David gets vulnerable & no-BS about how to make the most challenging people decision in the life of a company:

When to Step Aside.

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, Fifty Years, Trustbridge Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Alumni Ventures Group, Lowercase Capital, Y Combinator

Varsha says she spends 50% of her time on the people part of NURX.

Prior to Nurx, Varsha served as COO of Clover Health where she brought operational leadership to the health insurance startup.

Plus she served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Operations, managing the company’s market expansion & host growth globally. She was also Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Eve.com, the online cosmetics company.

In this 20-minute conversation, Varsha reveals how she designed the organization & puts a Rockstar in each seat.

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.

In this 20-minute conversation, Mark reveals how a top VC thinks about hiring, and how he ensures that each portfolio company puts a Rockstar in every seat.

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 Health Management platform offers solutions for care management & advocacy that help organizations forge more meaningful connections with their members.

Jacob holds degrees in Neurobiology & Epidemiology from Harvard University and Physiology from University of Oxford.

He’s partnered with high-profile investors including: Threshold, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Formation 8, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Waterline Ventures, Azimuth Ventures, and Tim Draper.

In this 20-minute conversation, Jacob reveals how he’s built the Rockstar team at Wellframe.

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 statistical metropolitan areas in all 50 U.S. states.

So, no more haggling on price.

Since its consumer launch in 2013, TaskEasy has performed over 1 million tasks in 12,000 US cities & established a network of 10,000 screened and rated contractors.

Clearly, they’re onto something big. Investors include Camber Creek, Moderne Ventures, River Cities Capital, Grotech Ventures, Access Ventures.

Ken was named the prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst Young, so he knows a thing or two about scaling.

In this 20-minute conversation, he shares how he’s built an 80-person Rockstar team.

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 choosing between a bevy of seemingly-identical brands.

Morgan Hirsh is Founder & CEO.

And he’s onto something big, because he recently closed an expansion capital round from L Catterton, the largest & most global consumer-focused private equity firm with $20B under management.

Other investors include: Listen, Day One Ventures, Yes VC, Investo, and KF Ventures.

In this 20-minute conversation, Morgan reveals how he’s built the team.

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’s building a Rockstar team at M1, where the mission is to empower people to improve their financial well-being.

The company is backed by top-notch investors Coatue, Left Lane Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Chaifetz Group, Jump Capital, 50 South Capital and Chicago Ventures.

In this 20-minute conversation, Maria reveals how M1 is building the team that builds financial independence.

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 years earning degrees in Neuroscience & working as a AI Engineer and Applied Neuroscientist before starting TransitScreen.

Clearly, he’s on to something. Investors include TIMIA Capital, 1776 Ventures, Moderne Ventures, and Carbon Ventures

In this 20-minute conversation, Matt shares how to get your employees safety & smartly to your office, and how to build a Rockstar team once they arrive.

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 Need To Do About It

They co-lead The Center for Generational Kinetics, where they advise hundreds of Venture Capital firms, Private Equity Firms, startups, and other companies on how to tap into Gen Z.

In this 20-minute conversation, Denise & Jason reveal what’s most important to Gen Z, how to recruit them, and most important - how to keep them.