Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Oberhardt: Early executive missteps can permanently destroy founder trust

Matt Oberhardt · a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right · Jan 2, 2019 · at 18:41

Matt Oberhardt of a16z's Executive Talent team discusses the critical importance of the first few months for new executive hires establishing trust with founders.

0:00 / 0:24exact quote · 24.5s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“A lot of times what happens is someone, you know, makes, if they have a misstep early on, you know, that those first couple months are so critical to establishing that trust and credibility in the relationship between the entrepreneur and the new hire at the executive level, and if missteps happen, regardless of why they happen, that, that trust and credibility might be damaged to the point it's not repairable no matter what else the individual who's the new hire does to try to, you know, make up for that.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Matt Oberhardt

Insight
Oberhardt: Founders must own executive hiring decisions, not rely on consensus
“Towards the end too, is the founder has to own the decision. You know, you can't have a situation where, you know, you're trying to make a decision based on consensus.”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 7:06 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 13:54 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
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…”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:54 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
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…”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:57 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 8:49 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
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…”
Matt Oberhardt Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 10:42 a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,000 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.