Recruiting Hacks: Best Practices in Recruiting High Performers

© 2012 David Teten. More at ffvc.com and teten.com

Recruiting Hacks: Best Practices in Recruiting High Performers

http://flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/2898797929/sizes/o/

David Teten, Partner, ff Venture Capital ffvc.com // @ffvc teten.com // @dteten

October 23, 2012


Don’t Take Notes!

Download these slides and get more free resources at:

teten.com/recruiting


•  Founder Institute

•  Dreamit Ventures

•  ff Venture Capital portfolio companies

Selected Past Audiences for this Presentation

Intro Source Interview Hire Next Steps


Manage

•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps



Manage

ff Venture Capital (ffvc.com) •  Early-stage technology venture capital fund based in New York •  Founded 1999, with over 160 investments in 55 companies •  Focus on early stage web-based services companies with disruptive models, including

SaaS, video gaming, digital media, social, mobile and VoIP •  First investments typically $75-$400K at valuations of <$5m pre-money •  50% of fund reserved for follow-on investments •  Prominent investments include: Cornerstone OnDemand (IPO); Quigo Technologies (sold

to AOL for reported $340m); Klout, Voxy, 500px •  Four partners: John Frankel (21 years Goldman Sachs);

David Teten; Alex Katz (CFO); (Michael Yavonditte, CEO, YieldMo, Venture Partner)



Manage

ff Venture Capital Recruiting Platform (ffvc.com/careers/) •  Through our portfolio company, TheResumator, we promote open positions at our portfolio

companies on our jobs page. •  We assist our portfolio companies in talent acquisition:

•  Sourcing •  Recruiting •  Hiring •  Onboarding



Manage

David Teten (teten.com) •  Partner, ff Venture Capital, early-stage technology venture capital fund •  Founder and Chairman, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York •  Founder and Chairman, Navon Partners, research and analytics focused on private

companies •  Managing Director, Evalueserve, through September 2008. 2,500-person finance-focused

research and analytics firm. •  Founder and CEO, Circle of Experts (investment research firm), sold to Evalueserve •  Founder and CEO, Teten Executive Recruiting, sold to Accolo, #42 on 2007 Inc. 500 •  Founder and CEO, GoldNames, domain name investment bank, based in Israel •  Technology/Defense Investment Banking, Bear Stearns (#1 group at Bear investment

banking by revenues) •  Lead author, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and

Closing Deals Online (TheVirtualHandshake.com) •  Harvard MBA 1998, Yale BA, both with honors.



Manage

Why should I care about social media for recruiting?

• Because 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology. (Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2008)

• 2/3 of global internet population visit social networks (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)

• Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity—ahead of personal email.

(Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)

• Visitors spend 5 million minutes per day on Facebook. (Facebook)

http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-is-social-media-2005829 . http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreejithk2000/2385193167/sizes/l/



Manage

But I don’t use social media, and neither do (some of) my targets!

•  The reality: you and your target employees are in the matrix whether you like it or not. •  Your candidates search for you on Google before doing business with you. •  You are already a member of gated online communities, which you may or may not be fully leveraging: your alumni network, your local “Moms” or “Dads” mailing list, your church/synagogue/mosque

You can accelerate your sales process by leveraging potential candidates’ digital footprints. These help you to source leads, filter them, and then run a better educated sales process.

http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-is-social-media-2005829 . http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreejithk2000/2385193167/sizes/l/

Character – Competence – Relevance – Strength – Information – Number – Diversity


Intro Source Interview Hire Next Steps Manage

•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps




A, B… S – Always Be Sourcing!

Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross

Source: http://www.onlygoodmovies.com/blog/thoughts-on-film/glengarry-glen-ross-my-favorite-movie-scenes/




Social media allows you to convert cold calls to warm calls.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23439761@N03/3258313816/sizes/l/




= D * ∑ (Chn*Con *Rn* Sn*In)

Ch = Character Co = Your Firm’s Competence R = Relevance of the contact S = Strength of your relationship I = Information N = Number of people D = Diversity

N

n=1 David Teten and Scott Allen, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online (www.TheVirtualHandshake.com)

Corporate Network Valuation Formula




•  Boardex •  Identified (ff company) •  Klout (ff company) •  Saleforce •  Data.com •  Pipl •  TalentBin •  ZoomInfo

Leading Providers of Biography Analysis Data

Biography analysis software allows you to search by common affinity and more effective subsequent outreach.




•  Passion! •  People you know •  Functional skills •  People with something to prove

–  Failed entrepreneurs –  People from a less prestigious

background

Your best hires are people who think and act like entrepreneurs (within reason). A batting average of .666 is stellar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleverclaire1983/1377913882/




•  Pretty on paper •  Mercenaries

instead of missionaries

•  Poor time management

•  Not team players

Your worst hires usually look great.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23905174@N00/2438005410/




•  Groups.Yahoo.com

•  Groups.Google.com

•  LinkedIn

•  Ning

•  Xing

Online Community Platforms

Almost everyone prefers to interact online behind some barriers.




•  Automatic gating:

•  Geekli.st

•  Stack Overflow

•  Vetted gating:

•  Some Meetups (highly technical ones)

Sample Gated Communities for Engineers

Developers/Engineers prefer to interact online behind barriers to non-technical people and recruiters.




•  IERGOnline.com

•  Executive-Forum.org

•  INMobile.org

•  Sermo.com

•  Some LinkedIn groups

Sample Gated Communities for Senior Executives

Senior executives prefer to interact online behind barriers to lower-level personnel, just as they do in traditional networks.




Look for people who want to buy what you’re selling.

•  Startups that shut down

•  TechCrunch Deadpool

•  Traditional VC news sources –  Mashable

–  TechCrunch

–  Topix.net/VC

–  VentureWire

–  VCBuzz




Hacks for recruiting hackers in NY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/techshownetwork/2946211873/

•  Classes (General Assembly, NYHacker.org, Flatiron School, Hackathons, HackerLeague.com)

•  Ex-residents, e.g. If they went to school in NY, try to bring them back

•  Your current hackers: referral programs

•  Allow remote workers

•  Find hackers by hobbies

•  GitHub

•  Personal Projects




Psychology of Recruiting Hackers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/techshownetwork/2946209857/sizes/s/

•  “Try not to immediately pitch your idea to every programmer you meet. Get to know developers as people first, and understand what kinds of projects interest them. Working with a developer on a project of any scope is a team effort, so you'll want to establish mutual respect and rapport before you begin.” – Evan Korth, NYU

•  Source hackers through technology used and challenges faced. They often care more about the tech you use than specific industry pain points.

•  Entrepreneurs are trying to solve this problem. Examples:

–  Githire.com

–  developerauction.com

–  whitetruffle.com

–  TalentBin.com




Find one, find them all.

•  Always be sourcing

•  Your close network

•  Keep them informed using social media

•  Employee networks

•  Set up an internal referral program

Friends




Find one, find them all.

•  LinkedIn references

•  Github comments

•  Facebook likes

Friends of a Friend




Meeting people face-to-face is very powerful…if you can do it efficiently.




The more media you use, the greater the Strength of your relationship.

http://flickr.com/photos/re-ality/41676755/sizes/o/

•  Phone

•  Email

•  Instant messaging

•  Internet telephony (Skype)

• Web conferencing

•  SMS

•  Twitter




Effective recruiters are data hounds.

Tools for Assimilating Data into Your CRM System

Data source Selected technology for inserting data into CRM Business Cards

ScanBizCards, Cardscan, IRIScan, Neatco, Plustek

Emails Contact Capture, eGrabber, Gwabbit

Cloud Plaxo, LinkedIn

CRM Salesforce, Act




Use an applicant tracking system to reduce your email deluge.

TheResumator.com (ff company)




•  Your employees •  Contingency •  Retained

•  Find the already-successful, not the to-be-successful

•  Internal recruiters •  Recruiting process outsourcers (e.g., Accolo*)

If you value your time above ~$100/hour (seriously), hire a recruiter.

* I’m on the Advisory Board http://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/2962194797/




New York Intern Sources

http://flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/1134148114/

Business Schools •  Columbia Business School Small Business Consulting

Program •  NYU Entrepreneurs Exchange Club •  InsiteNY.org •  Levin Institute JumpStart Colleges: HackNY, Turing Fellows, Student Special

Interest Groups Job Boards: UrbanInterns.com, Insidestartups.org Offshore: iimafii.org




Expand your horizons by the smallest amount possible. Look for people who are close to your target, but not exactly there.

•  By industry •  By geography •  By personal

characteristics

http://flickr.com/photos/extranoise/169187125/sizes/l/



•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps



•  Go through every career move: when, why, who, what, how

•  What are you proud of? •  What were your failures? •  Why did you leave? •  What will your last manager

say when we contact him? •  Why are you here today?

Topgrade your people.



•  Ignore the irrelevant •  Don’t check their references; check yours (“off-list references”) •  Close the deal •  Meet the

spouse/partner, if possible

Interview hard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27620885@N02/2654393745/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/27620885@N02/2654393745/



•  Host •  Technical •  Project manager

(non-technical) •  Lunch •  HR •  Technical #2 •  Host

Coordinate interviews.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adjourned/3068866048/



•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps



•  Open book management •  “Hire the best, pay the best” •  Speed wins •  Let them choose in which

currency they want payment –  Title –  Stock –  Cash –  Responsibility

Compensation is not just cash.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/412424747/



Who to hire – Garage: < $100k funding

Business / Product / Sales /

Marketing

Engineer Engineer

Position Equity Salary Engineer 3 - 10% ~$50k VP 3 - 10% ~$50k CEO 10 - 20% ~$50k

2 engineers + business person

Updated from estimates in Aaron Patzer, Mint.com CEO, Founder Institute Presentation, July 2008



Who to hire – Seed: < $1.0m funding

Business / Sales / Marketing

Product / Design / UI Dir / VP / Eng

Engineer Engineer Engineer Position Equity Salary Engineer 0.5 - 3% ~$100 - $175k VP 1 - 3 % ~$80 - $125k CEO 5 - 15% ~$80k - $150K

4 engineers + product + business person




Who to hire – Funded: $1.0m + funding

CEO

Sales / Marketing / PR Dir / VP / Eng

QA / Test Engineer x 4 Tech Ops / IT / Servers

Product / Design / UI HR / Finance

Position Equity Salary Engineer 0.2 - 1% ~$100 - $175k VP 1 - 2% ~$80 - 125k CEO 4 - 7% ~$100 - 150k

10 – 12 people, $4.0m in Series A funding scenario




Position Mean Salary

Management – CEO $92,000 Management – CTO $82,500 Engineer – VP/Dir/Lead $118,000 Engineer – Senior $103,500 Engineer $71,000 Other – VP/Dir $114,500 Other $50,500 Intern $20,500

Real Numbers from ffVC Companies

ffVC portfolio companies



More Compensation Data

•  CompStudy tech industry compensation study –  compstudy.com

•  2011 ExpertCEO Salary Survey –  expertceo.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/files/

ExpertCEO_February_2011_Salary_Survey.pdf (pages 3-4) •  GlassDoor.com •  Payscale.com •  Salary.com


Source Interview Hire Next Steps Manage Intro

•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps



•  Each employee writes down 3-5 “SMART” goals

•  Specific •  Measureable •  Attainable •  Responsibility •  Time-bound

Measure what you manage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chailey/138654755/ . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria



•  Ad hoc feedback against goals regularly –  As SOON as you see something wrong, don’t wait

Feedback

•  Regular detailed reviews (2x per year or more) –  Employee writes down

progress against goals –  You write back your input –  You sit down and discuss

Source: http://lethain.com/feedback-loops-in-software-development/



•  Offer chance to improve •  Exit interviews=Learning

Fire fast, but fairly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/betsyweber/2492339715/



•  Introduction

•  Source

•  Interview

•  Hire

•  Manage

•  Next Steps



Any questions ?

Slides at teten.com/recruiting

More resources at ffvc.com and teten.com

Sign up for updates at Teten.com and Twitter @dteten



•  Ryan Armbrust, Associate, ff Venture Capital •  Matt Joyce, Intern, ff Venture Capital •  Manjul Shah, CEO, Like.com •  Aaron Patzer, CEO, Mint.com •  Jed Chen, SmithStreetSolutions,

for help in research and graphics •  Darren X. Luo, Singapore

Acknowledgments to…


Appendix: Slides from Singapore Founder Institute Launch

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90664717@N00/380336885/sizes/z/in/photostream/


Universities: •  NUS Business School Career Services: http://bit.ly/9GOqAb •  NUS Career Services Center: www.nus.edu.sg/osa/career/employer/index.html •  NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) www.overseas.nus.edu.sg/

 The ilead Program: www.nus.edu.sg/nec/ee/ilead/index.html  NOC Alumni: www.nocalumni.org/site/index.php

•  NTU Business School: www.nbs.ntu.edu.sg/careerservices/index.asp •  NTU Career Services Center: www.nbs.ntu.edu.sg/careerservices/index.asp •  SMU: www.smu.edu.sg/students/career_services/for_employer/recruit.asp •  Singapore Institute of Management: www.sim.edu.sg

Intern Sources in Singapore

Darren Luo (NUS), http://flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/1134148114/

Polytechnics •  Singapore Polytechnic: http://bit.ly/aPGxwu

•  Entrepreneurship IAP: www.sp.edu.sg/wps/portal/vp-spws/spws.i.entrepreneurshipinsp.itp •  Temasek Polytechnic: www.tp.edu.sg/home/global/glo_sip.htm •  Ngee Ann Polytechnic: www.np.edu.sg/ss/internship/Pages/local.aspx •  Nanyang Polytechnic: www.nyp.edu.sg/aboutNYP/job_opportunities_for_employers.html •  Republic Polytechnic: www.rp.sg/iep/employer/

© 2012 David Teten. More at ffvc.com and teten.com Darren Luo (NUS), http://flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/1134148114/

•  jobs.triplepoint.asia/jobs

•  www.singapore-interns.com

•  singaporeinternship.com

•  originsingapore.com

•  internsg.com

•  IIM Ahmedabad Forum for Industry

Interaction `

Intern Sources in Singapore