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Recruit Rockstars Podcast

Recruit Rockstars is the only podcast on the people part of PE & VC portfolio companies.
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Now displaying: 2020
Dec 31, 2020

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.

Christian Busch is author of the fascinating new book The Serendipity Mindset: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck

Christian is a brilliant guy. He’s Director of NYU’s Global Economy Program where he teaches purpose-driven leadership, entrepreneurship, and (social) innovation

He’s also visiting professor at London School of Economics.

In this 20-minute conversation, Christian reveals how to change your luck in 2021.

 

Dec 28, 2020

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 the U.S. Department of Justice and 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.

Its investors include ICONIQ Capital.

Mike knows a thing or two about scaling teams:

In his former role at LinkedIn, he oversaw LinkedIn’s Global Solutions Organization. Mike led a salesforce that grew from a handful of people to more than 5,000 employees in 36 cities, generating more than $6 billion in revenue.

In this 20-minute conversation, Mike reveals what he looks for in a Rockstar and how he scales companies by putting people first.

 

Dec 27, 2020

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 for analysis.

It’s a big vision.

So, it’s backed by tens of millions in Venture Capital by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Amplify Partners.

In this 20-minute conversation, Tristan reveals how he’s scaling the team 6x this year. And how you can do the same.

Dec 23, 2020

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 you’re going to do it, you need to abide by the rules & regulations of the states & countries of your new hire.

And that can be super complex.

But it doesn’t need to be.

Job’s company Remote handles everything … Payroll, benefits, compliance when you hire internationally. (You don’t need to be an expert on Liechtenstein’s labor laws.)

Before starting Remote, Job was VP Product for GitLab a distributed company… so he’s been doing this for long before the pandemic.

His investors include Sequoia Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst

In this 20-minute conversation, Job reveals how he’s scaled his own team. And how he can help scale yours.

Even in Liechtenstein.

 

Dec 21, 2020

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.

And in this 20-minute conversation, he shares how he’s successfully scaled his team.

Dec 20, 2020

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, Evan shares the keys to leading a team across time zones. And the gotchas that can hold you back.

 

Dec 6, 2020

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 communities. His investors include Accel & Upfront Ventures.

So he knows a thing or two about building communities, scaling startups, and hiring Rockstars.

In this 20-minute conversation, we cover all three.

 

Nov 25, 2020

When Joshua Motta’s dentist was attacked by ransomware, demanding $200K to open the files, he found it was cheaper to just shut his practice & retire.

Sad.

So Joshua’s doing something about it.

He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Coalition. Based in SF, his fast-growing company now has 130 employees.

It provides Cyber & Technology Insurance (up to $15 million of coverage) with reinsurance partners Lloyd’s of London and Swiss Re Group.

And he’s onto something big.

Coalition’s investors include Felicis Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, Ribbit Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Sam Altman, and Greyhound Capital

Prior, Joshua worked at Francisco Partners & IGNIA Partners. So he understands the perspectives of both a sophisticated investor, and an entrepreneur.

And in this 20 minute conversation, Joshua shares how he’s scaled the team that may save you from Ransomware.

 

Nov 18, 2020

Few things are as painful as the home buying process. And in particular, the closing day.

Max Simkoff started States Title in 2016 after personally experiencing the friction & labor caused by title insurance.

Max Simkoff is Founder & CEO of States Title, the mortgage analytics software company focused on reducing friction & expense for several of the largest pain points across the $1.5 Trillion/year mortgage origination market.

Prior to States Title, he was Founder and CEO of Evolv, an HR predictive analytics software company that he scaled from zero to 100 employees, an eight-figure annual revenue, and 20% of the Fortune 500 as customers. Max led Evolv through its acquisition by Cornerstone.

Last month, States Title raised $123 million in in venture funding by Greenspring Associates, Fifth Wall Ventures, and Foundation Capital.

And to scale even faster, Max purchased the massive North American Title Group, cement ing a position as leader in digitizing the home buying process.

In this 20-minute conversation, Max shares how he’s scaled a Rockstar team.

Nov 16, 2020

Few industries are more competitive & commoditized than real estate.

If you can succeed in Sales there, you’ve got something.

Larry Kendall’s got something.

He is one of the founding partners of The Group, one of the nation’s largest real estate company - with 190 sales associates & 6 Colorado offices.

He’s also the author of the terrific book Ninja Selling. It’s less about selling and more about how to create value for people.

If you’re selling anything to anyone, my 20-minute conversation with Larry will help.

 

Nov 15, 2020

When creating new drugs, it’s often difficult to find enough patients for clinical trials.

And that limits the number of trials you can run.

Which slows down drug development. And costs lives.

Charles Fisher is out to change all that.

He’s CEO of Unlearn.AI

Based in San Francisco, Unlearn helps biopharma companies develop drugs more efficiently by leveraging AI to reduce the number of patients required for placebo controls in clinical trials.

In fact, Unlearn.AI enables clinical trials that are twice as fast, require fewer patients, produce better evidence about efficacy, and in which fewer patients need to be given placebos.

Last week, the company announced a major venture investment from Epic Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and the global Pharma company Eisai

Charles & his team are creating the first commercial product providing AI-derived Intelligent Control Arms to increase the statistical power of clinical trials, and accelerate study timelines in Alzheimer’s Disease.

In this 20-minute conversations, he reveals how he’s scaling the team.

 

Nov 13, 2020

Your company can’t operate at peak performance until you do.

But how?

Steven Kotler is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance.

He’s a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective.

Steven is the author of 9 bestsellers including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, and Stealing Fire. His work has been nominated for 2 Pulitzer Prizes, and translated into 40 languages.

In this 20-minute conversation, Steven reveals the keys to speeding up -and tightening up- performance at your company.

Nov 6, 2020

Industries don’t come much larger than self-storage. It’s $38 billion a year.

And disruptors don’t come much more determined than Rahul Gandhi, CEO & Co-Founder of MakeSpace.

Based in New York, it’s a convenient, simple, on-demand storage solution that takes the “self” out of “self storage.”

To create a new kind of storage company, Rahul raised $100 million in venture capital from Founders Fund, Upfront Ventures, 8VC, Lowercase Capital, 8VC, Primary Venture Partners, Winklevoss Capital, Iron Mountain, and… yes… Carmelo Anthony of Portland Trail Blazers.

MakeSpace took the struggle out of storage—and reinvented an antiquated industry in the process. They designed a hassle-free experience that allows people to store & retrieve their belongings on-demand, so they can skip the whole schlep-to-a-storage-unit thing.

In just a few years, Rahul has expanded to two dozen major cities in North America.

To support this seamless experience, he built the industry’s first fully integrated system, from back-end routing to warehouse logistics, and a consumer app complete with a digital photo inventory of stored items.

Prior, Rahul was Principal with Primary Venture Partners.

And in this 20-minute conversation, he reveals how he’s scaled the team that takes your stuff (…and brings it back!)

 

Nov 3, 2020

Sad but true. Bain & Company rejected my application to join the firm… twice.

But I’m still a fan.

They hire one Rockstar after another. And I just had the chance to meet one.

Darrell Rigby is a Partner who’s been with Bain for 40 years, and he leads the firm’s Global Innovation and Agile practices.

Forget everything you think you know about Agile.

It has the power to transform your company … but only if it’s implemented the right way.

You’re painfully aware of the huge chasm between your hope for a nimble, flexible company and the reality of silos, sluggishness, and frustrated innovation.

Today, Agile is hailed as the essential bridge across that chasm.

People say it can transform your company, catapulting you to the head of the pack.

Not so fast.

Darrell is co-author of the wonderful new book Doing Agile Right.

This clear-eyed & indispensable book provides a much needed reality check. It dispels the myths & misconceptions that have accompanied Agile’s growth — the idea that it can reshape your organization all at once, or that it should be used in every function and for all types of work.

In this 20-minute conversation, Darrell explains how Agile can put turbochargers on your company. (If you do it right.)

Nov 1, 2020

It’s been a rough year.

As the pandemic grows, so have all sorts of unhealthy behaviors… including alcohol abuse.

Fortunately, there’s Mike Russell.

Mike is Co-Founder & CEO of Monument, an online treatment platform for those looking to change their relationship with alcohol.

Designed to support sobriety or moderation, Monument plans are personalized to members’ goals, lifestyles, and preferences. Plans include access to therapist-moderated support groups, video therapy, and physician-prescribed medication.

Mike started the company, driven by his own struggle with alcohol.

And he knows what he’s doing. Mike is a member of the founding teams of Paintzen (Acquired by PPG Industries), Bombas, Zipdrug, and MyClean.

Investors love it too.

They include Lerer Hippeau, Collaborative Fund, Red Sea Ventures, NextView Ventures, Corigin Ventures, and Data Point Capital.

In this 20-minute conversation, Mike shares how he’s built a Rockstar team at Monument.

Oct 30, 2020

Jim McKelvey had trouble selling a $2,000 art piece from his glassblowing studio.

So, he co-founded the now-legendary payments firm Square with Jack Dorsey.

Jim remains on Square’s board and has started a new company, Invisibly, which powers micropayments for journalism & publishing.

He also sits on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (the only time he ever wears a tie) and started the nonprofit LaunchCode to teach people how to program.

This year, Jim published the terrific book “The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time” which details Square’s battle against Amazon to create a better payments system.

In this 20-minute conversation, Jim shares how he scaled the early team at the hypergrowth company Square and how you can do the same.

 

Oct 28, 2020

Sizing people up is hard.

It takes getting under their skin to see what makes them tick. And deciding whether they’d be a good match with your company’s unique culture.

In fact, getting it wrong with even just a few crucial hires can be a company killer.

So I tracked down an expert.

Robin Dreeke is a veteran FBI leader who just published “Sizing People Up” the outstanding box to help you predict behavior.

And when it comes to hiring, that’s what it’s all about.

The book starts with Robin nearly being obliterated by a falling tower on 9/11, and then step-by-step how to assess people’s true motivations & tendencies.

In this 20-minute conversation, Robin reveals how to cut thru the candidate’s BS when hiring.

 

Oct 27, 2020

When a leading Private Equity firm has 50 portfolio companies & 100 consolidating acquisitions, continuing to attract the best talent is crucial.

Period.

So, Boston-based Great Hill Partners added Heather Fox Ewing to the team. She’s Director of Talent & leads the firm’s executive talent network management.

Heather collaborates with the firm’s investment team to engage the next generation of CEO’s & leadership teams with whom the firm can partner.

Prior to joining Great Hill Partners, Heather was Senior Recruiter with the hypergrowth startup Drift, where she scaled the sales team by 80 people.

In this 20-minute conversation, Heather reveals how she finds, vets, and lands the best talent.

And how you can do the same.

Oct 24, 2020

Do you have a To-Do List a mile long of all the things you need to accomplish for your business?

Some days, I look at mine & feel stuck. (And hopeless.)

Because I have no idea how to prioritize it.

Can you imagine having a roadmap to help you prioritize your To-Do List and get rid of the junk that won’t add value?

I tracked down the guy that can show us how.

By his 35th birthday, Mike Michalowicz had founded & sold two multi-million dollar companies.

Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor… and proceeded to lose his entire fortune!

So he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies.

Mike is the creator of Profit First, which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit.

And his latest, arguably most impactful discovery, is his new book Fix This Next. In it, Mike details the strategy that you can use to determine what to do, in what order, to ensure healthy, fast, permanent growth (and avoid debilitating distractions).

Here’s my 20-minute conversation with Mike.

 

Oct 22, 2020

Long before he became legendary business speaker & bestselling author, Pat Lencioni was my executive coach.

It was late 90’s in Silicon Valley. I was building my first startup, leading people for the first time, and wrestling with my own demons.

He kicked my butt when I needed it most. Pat was brilliant.

(And he still is.)

As founder of The Table Group, he’s known as the pioneer of the organizational health movement. He is the author of 11 books, which have sold over 6 million copies in 30 languages.

They include The Five Dysfunctions of A Team, Death by Meeting, and my personal favorite The Five Temptations of a CEO (I re-read it every year.)

Pat’s passion is leadership, teamwork, organizational health and he advises the nation’s top CEO’s & leadership teams.

This week, Pat & his team launched a new tool to help you determine your specific type of Genius.

Everyone is a genius in their own way. Pat boiled it down to the 6 specific types.

In this 20-minute conversation, Pat reveals them & why it’s so vital to know yours and those on your team:

Here’s Pat & me.

And if you’d like to take the profile, here’s the link to www.WorkingGenius.com

 

Oct 20, 2020

Amongst other things, 2020 has been the year of Telemedicine.

And Heal.com is proof … With a twist.

The LA-based company provides house call doctors for grownups & kids. You can get an experienced physician to your door in under an hour for $99. (Or if you prefer, via your phone or computer.)

Founded by Nick Desai in 2015, Heal.com is now in network with Aetna, Anthem, Humana, and a host of others. So it’s covered.

Investors have noticed too. Nick has raised $200M from Humana, Fidelity, Bascom Ventures, Pritzker Group, Slow Ventures, March Capital Partners, and (my favorite) Lionel Richie.

In this 20-minute conversation, Nick shares how he’s built a team of 250 who bring healthcare to your front door.

 

Oct 18, 2020

Raw intelligence is one of the most highly-overrated qualities in hiring.

I’m not going to tell you that high IQ doesn’t help in business.

But without EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, to go with it - a leader is going nowhere fast.

Because EQ is how we understand ourselves and the people we work with. What’s important to them. How we motivate & inspire them. How we negotiate with them.

In short: EQ > IQ

To dig in, I sought out an expert on the topic.

Christopher Connors is a #1 bestselling author on the topic and a leadership consultant to countless CEO’s.

His new book “Emotional Intelligence For The Modern Leader” empowers leaders to use EQ to build thriving cultures & winning teams.

As a 25-year Headhunter, I prioritize EQ over IQ any day of the week. And twice on Sunday. Now more than ever, in these trying times, being a successful leader for your team demands Emotional Intelligence.

In this 20-minute conversation, Christopher reveals how to develop yours.

Oct 15, 2020

Want to empower your team to make better decisions & take greater ownership?

Tired of micromanaging & babysitting them?

Former US Navy Captain David Marquet is the author of 2 outstanding books: Leadership is Language and Turn The Ship Around!

A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, David served in the U.S. submarine force for 28 years.

After being assigned to command the nuclear-powered sub USS Santa Fe, (then ranked last in retention & operational standing) he realized the traditional leadership approach of “take control, give orders,” wouldn’t work.

So David “turned the ship around” by treating the crew as leaders, not followers, and giving control, not taking control. This approach took the Santa Fe from “worst to first” achieving the highest retention & operational standing in the Navy.

In just months!

In this 20-minute conversation, David shares how he did it. And, even if your business is not a turnaround, how you can get the most out of your team.

Oct 14, 2020

Companies have more data than they know what to do with.

Kendall Clark, Founder & CEO of Stardog, helps them do something with it.

Based in DC, his 65-person company has created an Enterprise Knowledge Graph. This platform helps you understand & interpret your data. And make more data-driven decisions.

Customers include Morgan Stanley, Bosch, Ericsson, and NASA

Stardog’s investors include Presidio Ventures, Dcode, Contour Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures, Tenfore Holdings, Boulder Ventures, Core Capital.

In this 20-minute conversation, Kendall reveals how he’s scaled the team.

Oct 11, 2020

It took me a long time to finally book this guest. And it was worth the wait.

Dr Roy Schoenberg is Co-Founder and CEO of Amwell, the transformative telemedicine company that IPO’d last month.

After serving in the Israel Defense Forces & earning his MD, Roy co-founded the company (originally American Well) with his brother in 2006.

It’s become one of the largest most important telemedicine & telehealth companies in the world

Amwell connects on-demand telehealth visits between patients in need & available providers. Once just a scrappy startup, the Amwell ecosystem has attracted 200 of the nation’s largest payers, health systems, employers, retailers and reaches 80 million Americans as a covered benefit.

Prior to Amwell, Roy was Founder of CareKey & CISO of TriZetto, following its acquisition of CareKey. Roy is the recipient of the American Telemedicine Association Industry award for leadership in the field of telemedicine.

This year has been transformative for Amwell. Usage is up 3,000% since the pandemic began. It’s convenient, intimate, and avoids costly ER visits.

On its journey, Amwell raised $800M from Allianz X, Takeda, Inventure Partners, and Google Cloud.

Then, the Coronavirus set the business on fire.

And on Sep 17, 2020, the company went public.

In this 20-minute conversation, Roy reveals how he overcame the odds & skepticism. And how he’s scaled the team to 1,000 full-time employees + 10,000 clinicians.

 

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