Recruit Rockstars Podcast

There’s nothing like a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic to instill stress, uncertainty, and fear into people’s lives. And that includes your employees. Jan Bruce is out to change that. She’s CEO of meQuilibrium. Based in Boston, meQuilibrium gives your employees online stress management solutions & measurements. Which has a major impact on your business. Previously, she was Managing Director & Publisher at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. And she’s onto something big. Her backers include Chrysalis Ventures, HLM Venture Partners, Safeguard Scientifics, Crimson Seed Capital, Eastward Capital Partners. In this 20-minute conversation, Jan reveals what this past year has taught us about mental health & how she’s putting a Rockstar in every seat of her company.

Car insurance isn’t exciting. Unless you’re the Silicon Valley company turning this enormous industry on its head. That’s Jerry. Thanks to machine learning, Jerry finds its customers the best, customized quotes from more than 50 insurance carriers in 45 seconds. For free. The typical customer saves $800 a year on car insurance. And now its evolving into a mobile-first car ownership “super app,” aiming to save customers time & money on all their car expenses. I wanted to find out how they’re scaling the team. So I tracked down John Spottiswood, Chief Operating Officer of Jerry. John knows how to build a Rockstar team because he’s been a part of some of the valley’s biggest success stories. He led business development for Lending Club, Earnin, and GoodHire. Led a division of QuinStreet. Even served as President of Match.com Clearly, Jerry is onto something big. The company has raised $130M in VC from: Y Combinator, SV Angel, Bow Capital, FundersClub, Goodwater Capital, Kamerra, Liquid2 Ventures, Oriza Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Park West Asset Management. In this 20-minute conversation, John shares how he’s putting a Rockstar in every seat at Jerry.

After a successful career with Wayfair building its B2B division, Joel Stevenson had a random chance meeting with the team at another Boston-based company, Yesware. (He points out that their names rhyme, but have little else in common.) Industry-leading Yesware makes tools to help salespeople build better relationships with their prospects & customers. This all-in-one sales productivity toolkit includes email, phone, video, and meeting scheduling. He was hooked. Joel joined Yesware as head of Sales & Marketing. And was later appointed to Chief Executive Officer, succeeding one of its Co-Founders. He now leads the 100-person team, which he describes as “clever & friendly.” And he’s able to drill into specifically what that means. Clearly, he’s onto something big. Yesware has raised over $40M from top investors like Battery Ventures, Foundry Group, Golden Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Shea Ventures, GV, and Techstars. In this 20-minute conversation, Joel delves into what it’s like to be named CEO and how he’s scaling the team that helps salespeople scale their business.    

M&A is on fire. Which means not just combining companies, but merging cultures. And there’s where so many deals fall apart or fail to live up to expectations. (Some research shows that 75% of M&A deals bomb.) And it’s often because the team was too busy making sure the technology was compatible or figuring out how to streamline the sales organization or merge brands. Nobody bothered to figure out if the 2 teams were aligned in the first place. Such a shame. So, I found an expert to guide us on doing it properly. Sloan Gaon is CEO of PulsePoint, the leading global authority in programmatic health advertising, recently acquired by WebMD parent company Internet Brands. Prior, he was CEO of DotMenu, acquired by GrubHub. And he led M&A at Miva, acquired by Adknowledge. He’s forgotten more about M&A than most will ever know. So, he knows how to assess teams for compatibility. In this 20-minute conversation, he reveals how to do it (and potentially avoid a huge M&A mistake)  

  Based in Chicago, Akuna Capital is an innovative derivatives-based trading firm. With a team of over 400, the firm continues to scale rapidly. Akuna’s core competency is providing liquidity as an options market-maker – meaning they provide competitive quotes that they are willing to both buy & sell. Doing this successfully requires that they design & implement their own low latency technologies, trading strategies, and mathematical models. I wanted to learn about the people part of the business. Evan Demchick is Partner at Akuna, where he leads Junior Traders during their inaugural 2 years with the firm. He also oversees trader recruitment, and runs courses for traders & developers. In this 20-minute interview, Evan reveals how he finds, onboards, and develops the talent at this fast-growing firm.

During his years leading the residential lending division of a major bank, Patrick Boyaggi closed over $11B in residential mortgages. Yet, he knew there had to be a better way. Did you know that …depending on the mortgage they select… consumers can spend an extra $30,000 over the life of their loan? So he started & is CEO of Own Up This Boston-based fintech business is on fire. Own Up has changed the way that consumers shop for & secure a mortgage. The service includes a marketplace of lenders who have agreed to charge below-market prices. So consumers save a ton on their mortgage. Clearly, Patrick is onto something. He’s raised $25 million from Link Ventures, Listen, Techstars Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and Brand Foundry Ventures. In this 20-minute interview, Patrick reveals how he’s scaled the 120-person team that’s turning mortgages upside-down.

If you’re like most people, you think that printing things on paper has gone the way of the Dodo Bird. You’re be wrong. Combined, we still print over one Trillion pages in the US annually. Sure it’s declining a bit each year, but that remains a lot of used toner cartridges. Not to mention hassle. When Jonathan Treble learned the magnitude of the problem, he saw an opportunity... And started PrintWithMe, the Chicago-based & fast-growing company, on a mission to make printing convenient for everyone. He & his team have built a distributed network of 2,000 printer kiosks in coffee houses, apartment buildings, and college dorms. That’s more than the FedEx Offices in the US. And a whole lot easier. By the time you pay an Uber to take you to & from the FedEx Office or UPS Store - not to mention forking out a buck a page - that printed lease agreement costs a small fortune. Jonathan is onto something big. He’s raised venture capital from Network Ventures, Great North Venture, New Stack Ventures, and M25. In this episode, he reveals how he’s scaled & led a distributed team to build this distributed network.  

I just interviewed one of the top Growth Capital investors around. Todd Cozzens is Managing Partner of Transformation Capital, with 30+ years of experience in the digital health industry that includes founding, operating, building, investing in and exiting innovative companies.  He has a rare history of creating value both as an operator & as an investor. As investor, he's served on the Boards of leading companies PatientPop, LetsGetChecked, Sword Health, PatientPing, and Health Catalyst.   Previously, Todd co-led digital health investing at Sequoia Capital, where he helped build several breakthrough companies like AirStrip, MedExpress, ZirMed, SCIO Health Analytics, and Natera.   Prior to investing, Todd was a Founder & CEO of Marquette Medical (acquired by GE) and Picis (acquired by UnitedHealth Group)   Todd was a member of the US Sailing Team for three Olympiads, reaching a No. 2 worldwide ranking and winning several North American & European championships, two Bacardi Cups and a gold medal in the Pan American Games. Safe to say, Todd knows a thing or two about why, how, and when it's vital to make the difficult decisions around your team. The questions then is: Will you?

Being on an Olympic team is a life-changing event. From what I’ve heard (You don’t wanna see me on those Rings) But there’s one thing even better. More gratifying… And that’s coaching an Olympic team to victory. Seeing those under your charge go on to achieve unthinkable things. Break records. And change history. It’s breathtaking. Not to mention hearing your name on MSNBC at 3:30am in the morning US time. To do that, you’ve got to commit. To practice. (Actually, to perfect practice.) And to putting a Rockstar in every spot on your team. Easier said than done. So, my job is to seek out those who have done it. To figure out how. And to make sure you know how to replicate their success. (And to avoid their occasional bellyflops.) I just had the chance to interview a business Olympian, who’s built & led successful teams in both large companies and small. In multiple geographies. And numerous industries. Gian Fulgoni is a champion in the measurement of consumer behavior & the effectiveness of advertising and promotion programs in TV, print, and online. He co-founded comScore in 1999 & helped grow it to become a global leader in cross-platform measurement. Previously, he led Information Resources, Inc (IRI) through a period of dramatic growth, from $2 million in annual revenue in to $500 million annually in 1998 and a market value of $1.4 Billion along the way. And he’s still on the field. As Chairman of PetMeds, the publicly-held largest pet pharmacy. And Executive Chairman of VC-backed Varcode. Plus, Gian is a Venture Partner at 4490 Ventures. And he serves on the Board of Directors of Prophet, the brand consultancy. No wonder he’s been twice named Illinois Entrepreneur of the Year. In this 20-minute conversation, Gian reveals how he put a Rockstar in every seat of his teams. And how he gets the most out of them.  

Just had a chance to interview Jon Stross. He’s President & Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software, the smart recruiting SaaS platform used by over 4,000 companies including Cisco, Airbnb, and Time Inc. He’s also Co-author of the new bestselling book Talent Makers, which reveals how talent-savvy companies find, land, and keep the best talent. Prior, Jon was GM International at BabyCenter (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), the leading destination on the Internet for new & expectant parents. Jon also led Product at enterprise performance management software company Merced Systems (acquired by NICE for $170MM.) Clearly, Greenhouse are onto something big. He’s raised over $100M in VC from Frontline Ventures, Riverwood Capital, Benchmark, Lumia Capital, Thrive Capital, Social Capital, Resolute Ventures, Felicis Ventures. In this 20-minute conversation, Jon reveals how a company that helps companies hire hires (very meta!) We also talk thru the Hiring Maturity curve, and how to propel your business to the next phase.