Anne Nicholson Juceam

**In-person SWE roles at top NYC startups** Things are heating up at July, and we’re on the hunt for a fresh face to join our new office and take the last open desk (for now)! As a company, we’ve always kept things lean, operating with a “hire slow” philosophy to make sure we only bring on absolute KILLERS — and every one of them have been found through LinkedIn. If you’re looking for a new opportunity and want to play at the highest level, I would challenge you to apply. What we're looking for: 1️⃣ Side project junkies (people who love to build) 2️⃣ People who obsess over the details 3️⃣ Founder mentality 4️⃣ Those that love to hustle and want to level-up in all areas If not with us, a few of my good friends are also on the hunt for similar candidates. Daniel Andrews (Playground), Benjamin Döpfner (Vesto), Avante Price (Posh), Keyan K. (222), and Steven Schwartz (Whop), are also on the prowl for talented NYC based engineers that fit the above description. Comment your email down below and someone from our team will reach out with more information about the role! If you don't want your current employer to see you're interested in joining the dark side, DM me! I hope to chat soon 😉 #nyc #startups #growth

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I was interviewed by Stephanie Vozza on behalf of Fast Company regarding the hiring trends we’re seeing right now in the market. There’s definitely a delta between junior white collar talent readiness vs available opportunities. Young humans, who may be struggling to find the jobs and companies they want to work for, should also consider any work they can to gain experience and income whilst the market bounces back to hire more junior white collar roles. The article is here: https://lnkd.in/gg_KfHHb

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Automation and AI are great when they create value on their own or add enormous value to the recruiters and hiring managers so that they can scale and close deals like never before. Hirefly enables both.

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Big News: Peloton Interactive now does rental! 👀 Here's why I think it's a super smart play: One of the biggest issues Peloton faces? High price, high commitment product ($1,000s up front + monthly membership) And selling this in a notoriously fickle, flakey market (gym memberships and diet books go unused All. The. Time) Committing to owning a Peloton bike is a BIG decision for most people. However: 💡 Bringing in a rental option significantly increases the "conversion pool" of people who are willing to become a customer. Now, they're able to service three different types of customer: 1/ Those who are 100% committed and KNOW they'll use the product all the time. These people will still buy from new. 2/ Those who are committed, but are on the fence with regards to price. These people will still buy refurbished for a discount. 3/ Those who've heard of Peloton and like the idea, but are worried it'll just be another failed fitness attempt along with the unused diet books and gym memberships. Until recently, the only options for that third group were: 😤 Suck it up and pay 😭 Don't buy at all I'd guess that A LOT of people chose the latter. But now? Instead, you can: Rent a bike. Cancel anytime. Get the membership included. Buy your bike at any point. It's effectively a paid "try before you buy" that opens up a whole new world of customers for Peloton. Plus, they can now position themselves against a gym membership in a much stronger way. Why join a gym when you can get the equipment and classes in the convenience of your own home for a similar price? Overall, a super exciting move from Peloton. Seeing brands like this shift towards usage-based billing is incredibly validating of our vision for Supercycle 😎 P.S. I have thoughts on how Peloton has gone about pricing their offer. Would this be a useful separate post? Let me know in the comments. 

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We struggled to hire engineers for our first startup in college. As non-tech founders, finding the right talent was: - saturated - not transparent - a daunting experience We went through: → Various directories → Google searches → Friends’ recommendations Unfortunately, we got burned. We lost money, time, and energy. Determined to solve this problem, we moved to Berlin to test our hypothesis: “Are we the only ones struggling to hire tech talent, or is this a common problem?” Turns out, it’s a widespread issue. That’s how we built our company– to help others avoid the same pitfalls. 👍 if you’ve been there ♻️ repost to help others learn

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A few months ago someone told me they would never consider 'a fractional COO because it's basically a lazy VP Ops' 😂 I really appreciated the honesty! But let me clarify a few things: 1️⃣ A Fractional COO is 𝒏𝒐𝒕 for everyone. For example, if you have a very aligned, organized, and strategic founding team, or if your founding team has worked together successfully in the past. You may not need a COO as you are able to replicate what you did in the past to drive performance. 2️⃣ A Fractional COO is 𝒏𝒐𝒕 a COO or a VP Ops. For the most part, we don't work day-to-day in the business. We don't own responsibilities fully end-to-end (for the most part). We come in to solve a specific problem. For example, you just raised a big round and your investors want you to scale at the speed of light. A fractional COO may come in to design your hiring plan, implement a new tech stack, and map out more efficient workflows. 3️⃣ The title COO is very vague. It can mean so many different things, and that's the same with a fractional COO. Some focus more on optimizing your financials, others on structuring your GTM. For me, 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. 4️⃣ The engagements vary as well. As mentioned above, we generally don't work in the business day-to-day, but sometimes that happens. We can be full-time, part-time, or project-based. Sometimes that changes over time as well. Many fractionals I know end up building very strong relationships with teams and join them full-time. But mostly, we're more than happy to hire our replacement and end the engagement. For some people, it's not ideal that the role of a fractional COO is so unstructured, but for others, that is exactly what they need. When you have a team full of people with defined roles and responsibilities, in times of growth it's ideal to have someone who can move around, be flexible, and slot in wherever is needed. I hope this helps clarify this a bit, and if you're interested in learning more about hiring a fractional COO, shoot me a DM 📩

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This was me getting schooled by one of the most respected TA leaders on the planet - from a $50B+ company - a few weeks back. 📚 But in the best possible way. 😁 I'd finished walking through BrightHire at a high level and they offered some friendly feedback: "I'm sure you've given this a lot of thought, but..." Uh oh, where was this going? "... when you hear Interview Intelligence platform, I don't know, it doesn't do justice to the whole thing... this is equity, consistency, structure, quality, speed." She nailed it. We're known for "interview intelligence" and AI interview notes, but the most common reaction I get from demos is: "Wow, this is SO much broader." Last Friday it happened again. I was again speaking with one of the sharpest TA leaders around from a >$20B company - he hadn't seen the platform in 6 months. His reaction was similar: "Wow, I’m not usually at a loss for words - this is really impressive. I can’t believe how much you’ve built - this isn’t a product, it’s a platform. This solves a range of problems and use cases." My takeaways: 1) Hugely proud of the amazing BrightHire team and what we've built! 2) We need to 2x down on how we convey our value to the market Being a buyer is hard - you have limited time to understand solutions - and often everything in a category can seem the same from the outside. That means it's on us to step up our game. 👊 Also, we are not the same as everyone else. 🚀

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Really interesting perspective on how a GTM systems team can drive business success.

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Happy Monday! Lightci is proud to partner with some of the most innovative VC-backed startups, helping them hire strong talent and select their founding teams. Click the link below (see comments) to apply directly. If your startup requires expert help in sourcing additional talent or carefully selecting your founding team, feel free to send me a DM let’s chat! #foundingteam #founder #lightci

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I have done a lot of advising and really enjoyed each of the founders I've worked with in past advisor roles. So the following has never happened in those past relationships but.... 👇 I think it's shady for any arrangement to be pitched where it's like: "come be an advisor for my company and in return I'll give you stock in my company BUT your company has to purchase our product / service as part of that." If your company already is a client? Fine. If the client relationship happens later and no pressure / explicit requirement (eg. someone else is making those decisions i.e. no conflict of interest)? Also fine. It could also be shady in the reverse i.e. someone pitches a founder to be an advisor but pressures them to give the product / service to their company for free. IMO, the advising relationship should remove as much potential conflict as possible for it to be mutually valuable 👀

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Exactly this !! Such a good post from Satish. There are no binary, fake choices between founder mode vs manager mode. There is just good vs bad leadership. And there is context, importance and scale of the topic / company. Every good leader at every place I’ve worked at, can zoom into details of “pixels, code, metrics” and can zoom out to the “customers, why, where should we play, how to win” etc They know when to let a process be vs when to hack it and be a catalyst. I’m not a founder, not in the successful founder at scale sense … albeit I’ve partnered with Shruti Kierti Tiwari to build and start two products from ground up (music tech, edtech). But I’d safely say that all of us use both modes— founder and manager every day. It’s just something you do. The mental model is spot on though. A good leader at any company, treats their area with full accountability, and extreme ownership like a founder does. The buck stops with them. They don’t hide under fake career ladders, promotions, circumstances etc A bad leader works to get a quick promotion, knows how to fail upwards, hides under process, knows to subtly re-frame a loss as a win and still survive despite their area getting no results. Shreyas talks about some of these good vs bad leader styles in impact vs optics focus.

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I recently listened to Zach Perret, founder of Plaid, on the 20VC podcast discussing his evolution in recruiting. His mindset shift resonated with me. Here are three key takeaways: ▶ Be yourself and do it. Cold emails and genuine curiosity unlock unrecruitable people. People love to talk about things they're passionate about. ▶ Embrace the hunt. The best founders love to compete for talent. They understand the value each person can bring and don't like losing. This skill will also translate into founder-led sales. ▶ Hire for "Spike". This is essential when building an early team. I often think of it as the shape of a "T"—someone with deep expertise in one area but is open and curious to learn and contribute in other areas outside their core strength.

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Growth-stage DTC brands know that scaling is a financial tug-of-war — every department is pulling for its share of the (budgetary) pie 🥧 In our most recent expert guide, Matt Weiler, founder of Second Star Ventures and interim CEO of Wells Group of New York, shares five tactical tips on strategic cross-functional finance: 1️⃣ Decide between tangible growth and buzz Balance investments in short-term ROI with hard-to-quantify activities. Collaborating across teams to align on needs will help you measure intangible results and focus on net profits per initiative. 2️⃣ Assess your decision risk Evaluate each business decision by mapping out assumptions for probability and measurability. Then consider how easily it can be reversed if it fails, and * only * proceed if the cost of failure is manageable. 3️⃣ Prepare for success just as you plan for failure Whip your ops into shape before you action on strategy. That way, when growth occurs, you can deliver what you promised your customers. For example, a successful product launch can still fail if you don’t have enough stock to meet demand. 4️⃣ Pay back your CAC quickly Tracking your LTV, CAC, and payback periods helps you monitor customer growth at all times. If you can’t pay back your CAC quickly, you can’t drive near-term ROI, making it tougher to increase LTV. 5️⃣ Use Drivepoint for cross-functional strategic finance Drivepoint enables you to easily create and compare financial scenarios, build accurate forecasts in minutes, and sync sales, accounting, and marketing data across all sales channels — for a holistic understanding of your business. Want to learn more? Matt breaks it down here: https://lnkd.in/gXc-f_5x

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Hiring fresh talent? Our newest RocketGuide is a must read! Check out expert tips from Matt Hoffman Julia Daniel and Sarah Levine on how to create a welcoming, effective (and enjoyable!) onboarding experience for new hires. Plus, it includes a checklist template that I designed, so give it a 👀 and download a copy for yourself! 🚀

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2 Challenges: Running NYC Marathon: Mental preparedness & ability to run 26.2 miles Leaving law for a nonlegal job: Mental preparedness Conclusion: Moving to a nonlegal job is a lot easier. Let ex judicata be your training partner. We'll be with you every step of the way.

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Now that I’m a pre-seed founder with no income, I’ve downgraded my commute from Uber to the MTA Bus. It’s humbling but also taught me a lot so I decided to share the biggest lessons I’ve learned from eating this humble pie. 🌟**What Taking the Bus in NYC Taught Me About Enterprise Sales**🌟 Ah, the New York City bus. A beacon of efficiency and comfort. No delays, always on time, and the perfect place to learn about enterprise sales! 🚌💼 1. **Patience is a Virtue:** Just like waiting for that elusive client decision, waiting for the bus teaches you that time is just a construct. Why rush when you can enjoy the scenic view of the same block for 20 minutes? ⏳ 2. **Building Relationships:** Every bus ride is a networking opportunity. Whether it’s the person sharing their life story with you or the one falling asleep on your shoulder, these encounters are invaluable for honing your people skills. 🤝 3. **Handling Rejection:** When the bus doors close right in your face, it’s just like losing a deal you were certain you’d win. Brush it off, wait for the next one, and hope for a better outcome. 🚪❌ 4. **Strategic Planning:** Navigating the bus system requires a level of strategic thinking akin to planning a multi-million dollar sales pitch. One wrong move and you end up in Staten Island. 🗺️ 5. **Optimism:** The sheer optimism of believing the bus will come on time, despite all evidence to the contrary, mirrors the unwavering belief in closing that impossible deal. 🌈 So next time you're frustrated with your sales pipeline, just hop on a bus. It's basically a masterclass in enterprise sales. 🚍📈 #SalesLessons #EnterpriseSales #NYCBus #LinkedInInfluencer #TotallySeriousPost

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Sharing some insights/trends we are seeing in the first half of 2024: - The majority of startups HQ’d in NYC & SF founded in the last two years are hiring most if not all of their employees in the office (at least 3 days a week) - Less than 5% of those are mandating 5 days a week in office. - Most top candidates are optimizing for hybrid with remote up to 3 days a week - Compensation across the board for early-stage startups has remained relatively flat since 2023 - For startups located outside of core major tech hubs, there is more openness and even preference for remote to tap into broader markets and compete for top talent The overview is that local talent and teams are making a comeback and salaries are not rising as drastically as they have in the past 5 years. Make sure to choose your next move based on fit, impact, passion, upside, growth, and not purely on comp. #startups #venture #VC #seed #Engineering #Hiring

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Time to swab the deck. 23andMe went from $6 billion to less than zero after three years as a public company. Anne Wojcicki is now hoping to take DNA-testing company private so she'll have time to possibly right the ship, free from the scrutiny brought on by public or activist shareholders. Barnes & Noble, Dell Computers, Panera Bread, Burger King and H.J. Heinz...those are some notable companies that have gone private in past years. Most were struggling companies when they went private, and a few including Dell and Burger King eventually went public again (Panera will soon join them later this year). 23andMe plans to join that group. While it's way too early to tell whether the company will go public again further down the line, one thing is clear - Anne Wojcicki wants to stay in control. How did 23andMe fail the spit test? The beginning of the end of its stock price began after a data breach last year exposed personal information from nearly 7 million customers’ profiles, which has the company facing more than 30 lawsuits. But, even before then, 23andMe's biggest problem was its inability to turn a profit. And it hasn't been able to expand beyond its one-trick pony consumer DNA kits, which have been in decline since 2019. While it's been evolving the business and marketing away from ancestry and focusing more on health, 23andMe has continued to bleed money with revenue plunging 33% in the fiscal third quarter, falling from $67 million to $45 million compared to the same period last year. This decline was accompanied by a significant widening of its net loss, which ballooned to $278 million from $92 million in the prior year's third quarter. Going private does have some advantages including not having to deal with costly and time-consuming regulatory, financial reporting, corporate governance and disclosure requirements. That may allow 23andMe the flexibility and time to shift from a company that just provides genetic tests to a more comprehensive health care company https://lnkd.in/g6YXcWSj #23andme #biotech #dna #healthcare #stockmarket #investments #ancestry

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How aligned are your rewards and talent acquisition teams? 🤔 I sat down with Joe Bast, VP of People at Crisp, to discuss his approach to enabling great collaboration between rewards and TA teams. It was a fun conversation, and we touched on some really important points: ▶️ Building alignment with a clear comp philosophy that includes which roles the business needs to invest in ▶️ Creating a blameless feedback loop between hiring teams and compensation to ensure continuous learning ▶️ Establishing trust as a total rewards leader with each of your key stakeholders in recruiting and around the company Check out the link to the full conversation in the comments below!

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