Matt Oberhardt of a16z discusses final-stage decision-making in startup executive hiring.
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Oberhardt: Proprietary candidate databases held by executive search firms are now irrelevant
“Access is ubiquitous now, so that's not the game anymore. You used to hire a search firm back in the day because they had a database. Yeah, the database, that's now irrelevant.”
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Matt Oberhardt: LinkedIn cannot fix a flawed internal hiring process
“LinkedIn is still no substitute for having a really strong internal process to manage candidates and really create a great employer brand out in the marketplace. You know, if you've sourced, let's say, 15 or 20 candidates for a position on your own, and you've…”
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Oberhardt: Founders must be the first point of contact in executive hiring
“For an executive search, CEO of founder being really the first point of contact with the company. So that the executive has an opportunity to start developing that personal rapport and relationship with the CEO right out of the gate. And if you're able to star…”
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Oberhardt: Candidates performing well in interviews often fail game-planning sessions
“We've had a number of situations where candidates who've performed very well during the interview process have then gone into that game planning discussion and just fallen flat.”
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Oberhardt: Startups should source network and search firms in parallel
“I think what happens sometimes is that you fall into a trap, you know, where you think you have to do things in a serial way rather than in parallel. And, you know, if you do things serial, it's like, Hey, I'll go through my network. And then if that doesn't w…”
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Oberhardt: Test if big-company executives will do tasks from ten years ago
“We often ask the question, you know, when there's an executive who's making that type of transition or wants to make that transition, it's like, okay, think back to what you were doing seven or 10 years ago. Are you comfortable doing that on a day-to-day basis…”