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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: November, 2020
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.

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