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Ian Siegel

Co-Founder and CEO, ZipRecruiter · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveauthor

Ian Siegel co-founded the employment marketplace ZipRecruiter in 2010, bootstrapping the business before taking venture backing and leading its 2021 public debut on the New York Stock Exchange. He is also the author of the job-search book Get Hired Now! and previously held leadership roles at CitySearch, Stamps.com, and Rent.com.

22statements → 4claims → 1claims resolved → 4.1/5average certainty → 2.19/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 2 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 1 assertion · 2 opinions · 12 insights · 2 disclosures · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ian argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
ZipRecruiter will reach billions in revenue within a couple of years
“Now we are like, we do high hundreds of millions and we'll next couple of years, we will be in the billions probably.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 12:43 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
none yet certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

265 words/min while actually speaking · 0.5 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Ian Siegel: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 30 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.0/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 7,939 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Ian Siegel is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 1.5/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2.5/10
setup questions received 70%

Everything Ian Siegel said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Siegel: Every CEO Should Take Their Company Public
“Honestly, I strongly recommend going public to every CEO and no one told me I should go public. They all try to talk me out of it.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 40:38 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Data excels at optimizing products but fails at innovation
“It is very easy to use data to optimize an existing product. It is very difficult to use data to innovate and build new product.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 12:56 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Ian Siegel: New hire management leashes should depend on damage radius
“If you're in a position where a lot of people's jobs got harder or morale is going to go down because you're not doing your job, then very short leash. But if you're in a position where we're mentoring and training you, you're just working on a single feature …”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 19:45 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Niche Domain Specialists Are 100Xers, Not Just 10Xers
“I love pointy people. Show me like someone who went super deep and became an expert at some niche area of business. I will hire that person 10 times out of 10. I don't want Michael Jordan. I want Dennis Rodman. I want someone with an elite skill at a single th…”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 21:26 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Launching version 1.0 products requires rare courage
“I give a recurring speech about version one point O's and version one point O's are the only thing in life that actually take courage because you're effectively putting something out there that's never existed before. It's always deeply flawed. Everyone can lo…”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 6:35 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Opinion
Siegel: Modern product marketing is derivative and lacks bold claims
“We are bereft of version one point O is because the most common forms of marketing that you see are all derivative of each other. So people put testimonials up there or they put up like a single feature story, but nobody makes bold claims. Nobody puts out comm…”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 6:57 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Prediction Didn’t hold up
ZipRecruiter will reach billions in revenue within a couple of years
“Now we are like, we do high hundreds of millions and we'll next couple of years, we will be in the billions probably.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 12:43 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Ian Siegel: Inability to Explain Work Simply Indicates Lack of Understanding
“It's something that I've tried to actually invest a lot of time in with the employees at ZipRecruiter, so I make everybody tell the story of the work that they're doing in a way that a layperson could understand, because I feel like if you can't explain it to …”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 4:53 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Siegel: ZipRecruiter will be known for product excellence within two years
“I don't want our brand to be famous for being a big advertiser. I want our brand to be famous for having an awesome product, and I think that's where we're going to be over the next couple years.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 10:10 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Ian Siegel: Most companies only ever get famous for one thing
“I think it's critically important to be famous for something. And my argument is most companies only get famous for one thing.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 15:16 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Siegel: ZipRecruiter intervenes if new hires lack momentum after one month
“If you're in your job for a month and there is no momentum, we will intervene. We will not allow you to fail four months at ZipRecruiter when you join.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 18:17 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
ZipRecruiter's First Media Buyer Saved $1M on Day One
“Literally the first day he saved us a million dollars because they had not been running the ads. They said he made us a million dollars in a day. That time we were a company that was doing less than a hundred million in revenue a year when we hired him.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 20:52 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Common Sense and Perspective Are the Only Key Executive Traits
“The two great gifts that I look for in directors and above only two things I really look for common sense and perspective. That's it. Common sense and perspective.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 24:15 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Good leadership and parenting require suppressing initial emotional reactions
“Once you have children, the art of being a good parent and the art of being a good leader are the same, which is the ability to suppress your natural first reaction to think about the outcome you want to create.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 25:36 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Managers should speak last in meetings to avoid stifling discussion
“I think that as managers, there's simple rules you can apply, like, speak last. Let everybody get their words out, because once you start speaking, the conversation's over.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 27:09 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
What-if
Siegel: Early values-based hiring would have yielded a better, more diverse team
“I think we would have been a better, more united team. Ironically, a more diverse team had we instituted those values sooner in our recruiting process, like literally talked about them in our job ads, literally made them part of the interview process, which we…”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 30:15 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Youthful founder overconfidence is both a superpower and a weakness
“That is both your superpower and your greatest weakness, which is like, you can believe you can do anything. You think all your success is because of you. You think you're some unique animal.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 30:48 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Siegel: Scaling companies inevitably gravitate toward hiring senior talent
“All companies end up gravitating to is the more senior people they can possibly hire over time.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 37:59 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
What-if
Siegel: ZipRecruiter Should Have Raised Venture Capital Sooner
“When people say, what do you wish you'd done differently? I wish I'd raised that money sooner, knowing now, like, how much further we could have pushed our advantage had we had a larger war chest back then.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 42:16 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Insight
Ian Siegel: Good leadership and parenting require suppressing initial emotional reactions
“Once you have children, the art of being a good parent and the art of being a good leader are the same, which is simply the ability to suppress your natural first reaction to think about the outcome you want to create.”
Ian Siegel May 4, 2022 ▶ 23:04 20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harley Finkelstein on What Great Fatherhood Really Means, Deena Shakir on How Kids Make You a Better Investor and Anne Wojcicki on How Children Change Your Approach to R
Disclosure
Siegel: Dissatisfied with the memorability of ZipRecruiter's commercials
“What's the last commercial you saw that you remember is a question that I ask our team internally all the time, because I am still dissatisfied with the level of memorability in the commercials that we produce.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 7:58 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an
Disclosure
Siegel: ZipRecruiter Received Unsolicited Venture Capital Term Sheets Pre-Product
“Because we actually had term sheets when we were pre-product, like unsolicited term sheets were dropped on us.”
Ian Siegel May 20, 2022 ▶ 40:57 20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, Why Pointy People are Always 100xers, How To Tell Great Stories Today & How Leaders Must Determine What To Delegate vs What To Control with Ian Siegel, Co-Founder an

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: The Job of the CEO is Do As Little As Possible; How To Hire, What Questions To Ask, May 20, 2022 31m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Ian Siegel was played rather than Ian taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harl May 4, 2022 3m clip played
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