Lauren Stempel’s Post

After dialing back on hiring in 2023, the startup sector is now entering a hiring resurgence. Many #B2BSaaS startups are now searching for top talent to fill newly funded positions—but how do you make sure you’re finding the right fit for the role? That’s where our free Talent Toolkit comes in. We’ve compiled a comprehensive resource with 12+ step-by-step guides and templates, covering every step of the startup talent recruitment process—from building your employer brand to onboarding new hires. This free resource includes: 🌟 Job Kick-off Template: To help you identify what you’re looking for in the role and what the interview process will look like. 🌟 Hiring Scorecard Template: To help you develop a rubric for assessing potential candidates as they apply. 🌟 Job Description Template: To help you create external job postings that highlight your brand, the role, and what you’re looking for in a candidate. 🌟 Interview Preparation Deck: To help you establish a practice of meeting with your interview team to kick off the interview process. 🌟 Interview Email Templates: To help you find the right language to reach out to candidates, schedule interviews, and communicate feedback. 🌟 Interview Agenda: To help your interviewers prepare for their conversations with candidates and make sure each conversation is unique and meaningful. 🌟 Interview Debrief Agenda: To help you establish an internal debrief process and drive feedback conversations. …and more. Ready to jumpstart your talent recruitment and management? Check out our blog post to download your free Talent Toolkit: https://lnkd.in/gxQBVMCU #TalentRecruitment #Startup #StartupSuccess #Recruitment #Funding #JobSearch #TechTalent #StartupFunding #TalentToolkit

We Companyon Ventures invest at the Post-Seed/Series-A stage where it's time for the startup to evolve from founder-led everything to scaling GTM and overall operations. Which means hiring the right staff with the right functional expertise for the current stage of company maturity. Here's a guide for #SaaS startups.

I completely understand this frustration. I’m seeing more and more messages like this: “I’m tired of writing rejection emails. I won’t bore you with the hiring funnel numbers, but it feels like quality candidates are becoming an endangered species.” We frequently work with startups and understand how crucial it is to find the right people quickly and efficiently. The time of CEOs, CTOs, CPOs, and other key personnel is incredibly valuable, especially in startups where every hour counts. These people are the true drivers of the company, and their primary focus should be on strategic issues and project development, not on sifting through endless resumes and rejections. My team and I rigorously filter candidates, conduct interviews, and ask the most diverse questions to ensure that only those who truly fit the role make it to you. We take on the hiring burden so that your key players can focus on moving the company forward. We help lighten your load so you can concentrate on what really matters. After all, time is the most valuable resource, and it should be spent on achieving your main goals. #RecruitmentChallenges #StartupHiring #TalentAcquisition #TimeManagement #StrategicFocus #HiringSolutions #ExecutiveEfficiency #RecruitingSupport #QualityCandidates #BusinessGrowth

As the demand for the perfect Unicorn Seller rises, tech startups need to be prepared to identify top talent during the interview process. Our latest blog offers the insights you need to find your ideal candidate. We broke down the key questions to ask when hiring your Unicorn Seller to streamline your hiring. 👉 #Hiring #SaaSSales #InterviewQuestions #UnicornSeller

On-Demand Talent Acquisition with Keith Speres —Scale Your Startup Smarter Growing a high-impact startup takes exceptional talent. As a senior-level Talent Acquisition Specialist, I’ve partnered with high-growth startups, VC-backed companies, and fast-scaling teams to recruit and retain world-class talent across key functions like Sales, GTM, Cybersecurity, Product, Finance, Marketing, and Technology. I bring a proven track record of results, having held leadership roles at companies like N26, Omio, and Capita, where I’ve: Led and scaled Talent Acquisition teams. Developed long-term workforce planning strategies. Enhanced hiring manager advisory and candidate experience processes. Why Work With Me? Tailored Solutions for Startups: I specialize in dynamic environments, offering on-demand, freelance, or permanent solutions to fit your immediate and long-term hiring goals. Deep Industry Expertise: With a passion for Web3, Blockchain, AI, and DEI, I understand how to find talent that thrives in cutting-edge industries and contributes to your mission. Holistic Talent Strategy: I go beyond recruiting to advise on employer branding, workforce forecasting, and metrics tracking—helping you optimize your hiring process at every stage. Proven Leadership: As a former Talent Lead at N26 and Senior Talent Manager at Omio, I’ve collaborated with executive teams, mentored hiring leaders, and driven exceptional outcomes across global teams. Let’s Build Your Team Together The competition for top talent is fierce, but with my expertise, you’ll attract high-performing candidates who align with your culture and vision. Are you available for a quick chat this week? Let’s discuss how I can help you achieve your goals. Together, we can ensure your team is equipped to achieve the extraordinary. Looking forward to working with you to build a team that drives your startup’s success.

The single biggest recruiting mistake I see first-time founders, hiring managers, and even recruiters make is waiting until the offer stage to “sell” or “close”. Don’t wait until you make an offer to start closing someone. It doesn’t feel genuine, and candidates won’t like it. In fact, after you’ve made an offer is the absolute worst time to start “selling” a candidate:  - As soon as the convo shifts to numbers, it starts to become all about negotiation.  - For better or worse, many candidates become fixated on comp and get tunnel vision.  - Folks start to hold their cards closer to their chest and it becomes more challenging have a heart to heart about the other motivations that may matter most.  - Trying to close too hard at this stage comes across as “sales-y” and doesn’t feel good. Welcome to Startup Hiring 101 part 19 (link in comments 👇 ), which is all about Selling & Closing. There’s so much to cover that this is just the first blog post of two on the topic. Part 19 covers best practices for closing at the top of the funnel, closing throughout the interview process, how to understand your candidate’s motivations, example discovery questions to ask, and more. Check out the full blog post for more, but to get the juices going, here are some best practices for “selling” / “closing” that I’ve learned, which is ultimately about providing a great candidate experience:  ✅‎ “selling” / “closing” doesn’t mean “pitching”. It means genuinely understanding your candidate’s motivations to see if you genuinely have an exciting opportunity for them.  ✅ ‎Start closing early.  ✅ ‎Start by asking good discovery Qs (just like sales!) during your very first convo and throughout the interview process.    ✅ Aim to learn something new about your candidate in every single convo.    ‎✅ Run a tight process with a fast turnaround time.     ✅ Always have a next step in mind headed into each convo with your candidate and ideally align on it live before ending your convo.  ✅ Give your candidate a sense of what it feels like to be part of your team. Things like lunch with the team, joining a standup, or even joining for All Hands can be a great way to do this as a small startup.  ✅ Get creative & involve your whole team. Investors & advisors too.  ✅ ‎Don’t just extend an offer when you’re ready… make sure your candidate is ready! The 1-10 Q is a great tactic here. Stay tuned for blog post #2 on Selling & Closing next week, which will cover the offer stage and beyond. In the meantime, what’s your favorite tip for selling/closing/candidate experience before making an offer?

We helped a founder reduce the number of interviews needed to make a great hire—from over 50 to just 6. This helped his team stay focused on building their product, fundraising, and talking to customers Here are the biggest recruiting mistakes we see from founders and other hiring managers 👉 ❌ Not having a clear enough picture of their ideal candidate "Top tier engineers who have built great products" is not a clear enough picture You might understand what that means, but no one else on your team does ✅ Provide profiles of example candidates you would love to hire and explain what stands out about them ❌ Assuming that they need a massive pipeline of candidates to make a great hire This is usually caused by reactive hiring or posting job ads online and expecting the perfect candidate to apply ✅ The solution is having an outbound recruitment partner (internal or external) who on the same with you about #1 ❌ Non-technical founders "selling" their startup from a business standpoint when speaking with engineers "Our velocity is better than any of the other startups from our YC batch..." "We have a great pipeline of customers!" These things are ok to share, but they're not going to get engineers excited ✅ Focus on the problem you're solving, how you're solving it, and the potential for impact

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness One of the hardest challenges startups face when hiring tech talent is walking the tightrope between interviewing effectively and ensuring the candidate is a good fit both technically and culturally — aligned with your company's mission and values. At the same time, you must interview efficiently. Startups that have too many interview stages, take too long between rounds, or struggle to make decisions often lose out to companies that move faster. The irony? These two challenges are polar opposites. The only way to balance them with confidence is by having a structured hiring process. Ask yourself: ➡️ What are the non-negotiables for a candidate to secure an interview? ➡️ What are we assessing in each stage, and how will we assess it? By planning ahead, you can confidently streamline to two (maybe three) interview stages, ensuring the candidate fits your criteria. This is how the best startups secure top talent. Not only is this more efficient, but it’s also the fairest approach, providing a better candidate experience. #startups #hiring #techrecruitment #candidateexperience #scaling

The deadliest hiring sin? Using the interview process to validate what good looks like.  Why? 🔹 It wastes everyone's time 🔹 It creates an icky candidate experience 🔹 It's messy, is a poor reflection of our leadership, and turns top talent off 🔹 It increases the odds of 7-figure mishires How can we run an effective hiring process OR make a confident decision if we're not clear about what good looks like? The short answer? We can't. The answers lie within our businesses. We just have to take the time to listen and understand first. Remember, if we're not clear, nobody and nothing else around us can be. To the founder I talked to yesterday... A tip of the hat to you, kind sir. He looped me in as he was creating his job description and scorecard. It was clear he was being intentional. It was clear he cared. It was clear he wanted to learn. He was honest about what the gaps were, why he needed to hire, the work for the role, and what success (and failure) will look like... and he had his own data to back it up. I'm beyond giddy to help him hire his first VP of Sales! He's already on track to defy the turnover odds. It's okay if you don't have all of the answers. Especially for GTM roles where there are 50 shades of gray. Be like him and ask for help. Your future self, business, and customers will thank you for it. My hotline is on if you need it ☎️ #founders #hiring #startups #BuildWithATP

🌟 𝐀 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦" 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭! 🌟 To our incredible panellists Emily Bates Anton Boner Gemma Shambler Pietro Mattei Vinny Marino, your expertise and insights were invaluable. You gave our audience actionable strategies for finding great talent, building inclusive teams, and navigating the complexities of hiring for startups. 🎯 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭: - 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Understand business needs, tailor processes to roles, and move quickly to avoid losing candidates. - 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Focus on the company stage and needs, seek complementary skills for co-founders/executives. - 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐢𝐚𝐬: Use structured interviews, diverse panels, and data-driven decisions to reduce bias and improve hiring. - 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬: Build long-term relationships with communities and candidates through engagement and value-add activities. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬: 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: - 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲: Streamline your hiring process by limiting it to 3-4 stages. This keeps top candidates engaged and reduces the chance of losing them to other offers. - 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Clearly outline what your business needs for each role before starting the hiring process, so you can target the right candidates. 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: - 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬: Assess your current business stage (e.g., early-stage startups need versatile, adaptable talent) and adjust your expectations to find candidates who can grow with you. 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐢𝐚𝐬: - Standardize Interviews: Implement structured interviews with consistent questions for all candidates. This simple change makes your hiring process more objective and reduces unconscious bias. - Diversify Panels: Ensure that your interview panels include people with different perspectives and backgrounds. 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬: - Engage with Communities: Start participating in industry meetups, webinars, or local events. Even with a small budget, this helps you build relationships with potential hires early. To all the founders and guests who attended, thank you for your thoughtful questions and engagement! I hope you left with practical tips to help build your dream teams and drive your businesses forward. 🚀 We’ll be sharing more insights from the event soon, so stay tuned! If you want to dive deeper into any of the topics we discussed, don’t hesitate to reach out to our panellists directly for more personalised advice - they will be very happy to help. Many thanks!