Hooked on the Perfect Talent Storm - Issue 9
When you are in the eye of the storm, you are often not aware of the whiplash around you. - Hugh Bonneville
Right now, incredible leaders are getting restless, poking their heads up, opting to take recruiting calls, and moving from “happy in their job” to “listening for opportunities” ... and we’re having the conversations to prove it.
What’s Going On?
That voice in your head is lying to you, telling you it’s okay to put off laying important groundwork for the leadership role(s) you plan to hire 6-12 months from now. Your competitors should be strategically targeting top talent they want for their companies tomorrow, but they’re not. They should be investing time to reach out and connect, have conversations with, seek advice from, and cultivate relationships with superstar talent on their wishlist, but they’re distracted. With everyone asleep at the wheel (for now), it’s precisely the right time for you to be waving your hands saying, “Let’s have coffee.”
What’s really going on? We are experiencing a relatively quiet market not seen in years. Big tech isn’t vacuuming up everyone in sight for once. But a storm’s a brewin’! In fact, we are in the eye of the hurricane right now. The best people are stuck in companies that are not in high growth mode, unable to raise funding, and are preserving cash. Creating a market where otherwise happy people get nervous and start to imagine a future elsewhere.
Why Does it Matter?
Now is the time for you to get ahead of the most significant talent migration we’ll have seen in years. We wager this hurricane will hit land by Q3. The last decade of the talent acquisition frenzy has momentarily paused, pushing everyone to reset. But just like any cycle, this opportunity, too, shall pass. And our outreach with leaders is validating it. We’ve recently spoken to more than 60 product and engineering leaders who we thought were happy and committed to their roles. But we discovered that roughly 50% of them are either looking, in the process of leaving, unhappy at their company, or have already left to start one themselves. The clock is ticking.
What Do Others Think?
"Connecting with high quality talent is always my priority, but especially right now, I am on it. This market sets the perfect stage to connect and stay top of mind. To me, it's about investing in long term relationships, not short-term, transactional ones. This means I’m regularly connecting with great people even if I don't have a role today or they are not looking to move. You never know when someone’s situation or your own will change. These conversations always lead to new insights, a new advisor, a great hire, or feedback loop that can help us build better." - Christopher Aberger, CoFounder at Numbers Station
What we think:
If you don’t have FOMO, you should! Because if you aren’t doing what Chris is doing, you most definitely ARE missing out. The talent, you thought impossible to get, is listening. But only for a fleeting moment. They want to hear from you but they are keeping a low profile. It’s up to you to make the first move. There is no greater feeling than the one that comes with landing that heavy hitter who will take your startup to the next level, elevate your entire team, and change the course of your business. There is a thrill in the hunt - embrace it. Every connection you make can yield value and lead to better outcomes. Besides, we don’t fully know when the winds will change at big tech (which, let’s face it, always has resources) or the broader macro economic environment. This is a critical moment that you and your startup can’t afford to miss.
What do YOU think?
Take Action
Founders - Be strategic and savvy in how you connect with leaders. Treat these connections as long term investments; like gold. Here are a few ideas to break the ice:
Set a goal to have a minimum of two coffee chats a week, but during this next six months of this perfect storm, up it to five per week. It will be the best $25 you’ve ever spent.
Ask your VCs for a list of the top ten leaders you should connect with, and do it now. Ask those people to refer you to the best product, engineering, or GTM leaders they know and so on and so forth.
Ask top talent for advice & expertise. “I see you’ve done this, help me learn.”
Ask top talent for startup feedback. “I am building this, here’s my idea, will you watch my demo, test my product, I’m adopting this… Push me to think differently.”
Ask top talent for role creation advice. Pick their brains on what great looks like and why (based on stage), dos and don’ts of hiring for their role, how founders partnered with them, what was critical for success.
Ask top talent to be an Advisor. “You know your stuff. Be my partner.” Sometimes an advisor’s involvement will become something more.
Develop a nurture campaign for top leaders you’ve connected with. This isn’t a Hubspot production; just a quarterly update featuring your latest product releases, big business updates (ie: big partnerships and how that will increase velocity, leadership hiring announcements and why they matter, funding updates, links to latest blogs about problems the team is solving, launching of a website, etc.) Make it casual, informative, and lightweight.
Tools, Events, Insights
Insights —> Always Be Hiring - an early stage talent playbook for founders
Hey! Entrepreneurs —> Take the Leap!
Aspiring for Intelligence —> The COGS in the Machine
Investment News —> The Archway to Modern Banking