It’s been a whole year of invaluable conversations with some of the brightest minds in the startup community. At The Gradience, a podcast by Build Talent, we’ve had the opportunity to speak with founders, talent partners, venture partners, visionaries and experts of all different backgrounds, and we’re incredibly grateful for their contributions.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Andrei Papancea, CEO and Chief Product Officer at NLX. NLX is a conversational artificial intelligence platform that creates automated, personalized, and multimodal customer self-service experiences without coding. Andrei is an adjunct professor at the University of Colombia, where he shares his knowledge of AI engineering, cloud computing, and big data use.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Aamir Virani, Advisor, Explorer, and President of VSHAD Holdings. He is a co-founder of Dropcam, a company that established home monitoring cameras and cloud video analysis and which was later acquired by Google Nest and rebranded as Nest Cam and the Nest Aware service. Before that, he was a software engineer at PowerReviews and the Lead Software engineer at Xobni. He was also a member of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship, 2021 and an angel and venture investor.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Tim Tully, Partner at Menlo Ventures, a VC firm that provides funds for seed, early-stage, and growth companies. Before that, he was the SVP & CTO of Splunk, a leader in the software development industry that provides a data platform for security and observability. He has also worked as a technical advisor at Camino, OpenGov Inc, and Alpine.AI.

Today we have a special episode. Recently, we have reached our twentieth episode milestone, a huge win for Build Talent. We’ve talked with fantastic business founders and experts who shared their brilliant tips, wisdom, and insights about the art and science of hiring exceptional leaders.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Robin Choy, Co-founder & CEO at HireSweet and Host at A-Players Podcast - Build teams of top performers. Hiresweet's talent acquisition team searches and assesses top tech talent so companies don't have to. Every Monday, they showcase a selection of ~800 software engineers (and growing) open to opportunities.

Paula Judge, VP Talent at Accel, joins us this week to explore this topic. Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, CrowdStrike, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshWorks, Jet, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, UiPath, and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Martin Siniawski, Co-Founder & CEO at Podcast App, a team of podcast fanatics with more than 20 years of combined experience in the audio space. It is a minimalist podcast player enhanced with cutting-edge technology that leverages machine learning to build customized podcast playlists for users based on their interests and tastes.

As a founder, your company's overall success in the market is adversely impacted if you do not release products fast enough. Joining us this week to explore this topic is Jennifer Smith, Co-Founder of Scribe, a company with a mission to unleash know-how across teams, organizations, and communities. Scribe was founded in 2019 to provide an easier, more effective way to share what you know.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Jeff Winter, VP of Talent Acquisition at Chime, a financial technology company founded on the premise that basic banking services should be helpful, easy, and free. Chime partners with regional banks to design members' first financial products. This creates a more competitive market with better, lower-cost options for everyday Americans who are not served well by traditional banks. We help drive innovation, inclusion, and access across the industry.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Amanda Daering, CEO of Newance, a company that builds technology and ops teams for startups and VCs. Its mission is to be the best spot in the world for brilliant people to find and succeed at solving interesting problems. Its Talent Advisors are paired with a hands-on subject matter Experts-in-Residence with years of experience in engineering, UX, and product. This unique approach helps our team to focus on what matters most - finding and engaging the right candidates at the right time.

In this episode of The Gradience Podcast, Nigel is joined by Jay Fulcher, Operating Partner at Cheyenne Ventures. He is a three times CEO, author, board member, advisor, and entrepreneur. Previously CEO at TriNet Zenefits, where he led an impressive turnaround. Before that, he was CEO at Ooyala, an online video company that brought in the personalized Cloud TV era. Before that, he was CEO of Agile Software, an enterprise software company pioneering product lifecycle management. He is also the author of the five-time bestseller: "People Operations: Automate HR, Design a Great Employee Experience, and Unleash Your Workforce".

Since it enables limitless dissemination at very little cost, the internet has upended almost every major sector predicated on distribution routes. At least half of the founders' time should be spent on recruitment to develop the best possible workforce. Joining us this week to explore this topic is Chandan Lodha, Co-founder of CoinTracker, a company with the mission to increase the world's financial freedom and prosperity.

Creating blueprints or playbooks for founders is one of VCs' numerous responsibilities regarding talent. Operationalizing assists you learn how to support several companies simultaneously. Therefore, rather than spending five to ten hours with a founder, you spend thirty to sixty minutes with a playbook or blueprint. Finding and hiring the most qualified candidates for a position does not adhere to a "one size fits all" model. Early-stage businesses need VCs that can rapidly examine their existing conditions and key obstacles and then use this knowledge to develop a strategy that matches their specific needs.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Kevin Novak, Managing Partner & Founder at Rackhouse Venture Capital, an early-stage VC fund that backs data founders, regardless of sector or geography. Before that, he was an angel investor at Jigsaw Venture; an early-stage venture fund focused on founders and firms that sit at the intersection of AI and ML and the real world. Before that, he was at Renegade Partners, a VC firm that helps founders navigate the pivotal phase of their development. And before this, he was head of data science at Uber during their early days.

Many founders speak to specific actions that enabled the growth of their companies in their respective industries. Some tips might apply in all sectors, while others are specific to certain industries. Here, Riley Ennis of Freenome shares actionable steps that have worked for him in healthcare.

In this episode of The Gradience Podcast, Nigel is joined by Gia Scinto, Partner at Launch Search Partners and Growth Advisor/Expert at Y Combinator. If you’re interested in the strategies for a successful recruitment process, the fundamentals of onboarding diverse talents, or generally building portfolios that could plug into the recruitment space, tune in to this episode of The Gradience Podcast

While being a solo founder is all well and good, having a team of co-founders with your projected team culture, a wide range of skill sets, and experiences you do not possess is even much better. Adding to the team is a delicate process as your choices can push your startup in the direction you envisioned or cripple it.

In an industry where there are a thousand and one search firms, choosing the right executive search partner for your startup might be a challenge. Considering many of these search firms don’t even have the expertise or qualifications to hire top talents, recruiting might pose an even bigger challenge as a wrong partnership might result in the loss of time, energy, resources, and even potential finalists. Consequently, having the know-how for the right firm tops the list of to-dos when searching for executives.

The crypto industry is rapidly expanding as interest in the ethos and space increases. As such, the demand for crypto talent in crypto-inclined startups is also increasing and getting competitive. Founders are painfully aware of this and the fact that the early stage of a company is its most delicate. Therefore, to deliver on the company’s goals, an early team has to function appropriately and synergize. In achieving this, professionals with the right skillset need to be recruited

Any company’s greatest asset is the employees. They represent the company as ambassadors, determine the public’s perception of the business, are handlers of intangible assets, and are the biggest contributors to an organization’s worth. As such, recruiters and hiring managers need to bring people into the fold, develop a strong recruitment strategy and raise the bar during the process. Candidates should be carefully selected to ensure that additions to the team are people of high quality who are skilled, self-aware, have a growth mindset, and share the organizational culture, among others.

As an early-stage founder, going through the recruitment process on your own might prove to be a bigger challenge than envisioned. How do you select competent executives who also understand and integrate your company culture? How do you recruit top talents in a highly competitive and demanding market? This is where search firms and recruiters come in.

Building a business as a solo founder can be quite challenging due to its peculiarities and hassles. But hiring a dream team can significantly take the burden off a founder if done right.

In a way, the “job opportunity is the product, and the customer is the candidate who's buying it.” You have a “buyer persona” before recruitment begins, and your candidate is your customer throughout your hiring process. How then do you scope for and sell to your ideal candidate? Corresponding organizational culture and values.

New entrepreneurs face many challenges at the start of their founding careers. Some of these challenges range from getting adequate resources, budgeting, market demand, and a fool-proof work process, to mention a few. But one of the first major challenges faced by startups is employee hiring and management. A company and its values are made up of its workers; “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” As such, it is imperative to have one’s recruitment process figured out as it can make or mar the organization, its culture, and work output. The burning question now is, “How?”