Remote AF

We were recently joined by Ami Kumordzi, Founder and CEO of Sika Health, a payment technology reimagining health payments. Their technology allows people to take charge of how payments are allocated from their FSA/HSA accounts. Maren and Ami discuss challenges and opportunities in healthcare, thoughtful talent acquisition, active candidates, and what makes startups work. Follow their career page for opportunities: https://jobs.lever.co/SikaHealthSee more: https://blog.avratalent.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are joined on the podcast by Jacob Rios. He is currently Co-founder & CEO of JobSage, an employer review site focused specifically on company culture. Jacob is a native Texan and has worked in product management and tech for almost two decades.  Maren and Jacob discuss the importance of transparent company culture and understanding what it's really like to work at a company from the very beginning.  To learn more, you can connect with Jacob on LinkedIn or visit the JobSage website at www.jobsage.com.See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sana Hafeez joins Maren on the podcast to discuss trends in recruiting and hiring, the value of strong people functions within startups, and the candidate experience. Sana is the Head of People at Unlearn.ai. Previously, she worked as a people consultant for OneDigital, which is one of the largest HR consulting firms in the US, and has been working with venture-backed technology startups for a decade building people and talent functions from the ground up. You can learn more about Sana and Unlearn visit www.unlearn.ai or connecting with her on LinkedIn.See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Hoffman, Partner and Head of Talent at venture capital firm M13, joins us on the podcast to talk about his approach to supporting the talent needs of their portfolio companies.  Maren and Matt discuss what differentiates M13 from other VCs, the importance of looking at people operations holistically, verification of credentials, and much more.   You can learn more about M13 on their website at www.m13.com.  You can connect with Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter.See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Evin McMullen, co-founder and CEO of Disco.xyz, joins Maren on the podcast to discuss the implications that Web3 could have on the future of work such as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), verification of credentials and qualifications, and self-sovereignty over our data and work.   Head over to www.disco.xyz and share your email address to connect with Evin and her team and help them test out their product. Welcome to the disco-verse! See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maren is joined on the podcast by Matthew Le Merle of Blockchain Coinvestors.  Matthew is passionate about what he calls the Fifth Era, a future digital world.  He and Maren discuss his vision of how digitalization and decentralization can and will impact the world of capital formation, marketing, and the future of work. You can find more information about Matthew, his books, and his speaking engagements at www.matthewlemerle.com and you can learn more about his fund of funds, Blockchain Coinvestors, at www.blockchaincoinvestors.com   See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We sat down with Nicholas Strange, who is the founder and CEO at Crypto Talent a recruiting an HR consultancy agency that works specifically with Web3 companies.  We talked about all things technical recruiting such as the current market, recruiting practices, compensation, and equity.  Nicholas shared his advice for job seekers interested in joining companies in the crypto and Web3 space. You can learn more about Crypto Talent on LinkedIn, Twitter (@talentcrypto), and Discord.  See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maren Kate welcomes John Paller, founder of Opolis, a decentralized employment organization that offers employment payroll and shared services for independent workers. John was also an early adopter of Etherium and is the Founder and Executive Steward of ETHDenver. John shares his journey from accountant to entrepreneur. He and Maren discuss recruiting practices, current & historical employment structures, the future of work, smart contracts, and much more. You can find John and Opolis on Twitter @PallerJohn and @opolis. Visit www.opolis.co to find links to their Discord server and to see their off-white paper and token economics paper. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We sat down with Marcus Sawyerr, founder and CEO of EQ Community, which is a private group cultivating connections, community, and careers for multicultural professionals interested in tech. Marcus is also an active startup advisor, drawing on his deep experience in both technology and recruiting from roles at companies such as Adecco, Microsoft, and CareerBuilder.  We discussed his founder's journey, the power of diversity within your company, the competencies and traits of great employees, company culture, and much more.   You can learn more about EQ Community at www.eq.community and you can learn more about Marcus on LinkedIn. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join our conversation with Ronit Avni, Founder and CEO of Localized. Localized is a talent tech platform that connects employers and industry experts to the 100M students and recent graduates in emerging markets whose schools don't have robust alumni networks or career services infrastructure.  Ronit and Maren discuss remote work, global hiring, startups, and venture capital.  You can learn more about Localize at www.localized.world.  Connect with Ronit online on LinkedIn and Twitter. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nik Kalyani, an entrepreneur and crypto enthusiast, joined Maren on the podcast to discuss his most recent startup, Decentology, and other projects that he's launching, TryCrypto and Nifty Dreams.  Nik has acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience launching five startups. Listen in as Nik and Maren discuss how DAOs could transform the way that we earn and collaborate on projects, DAOs as a launchpad for individuals to break into Web3 work, and the future of crypto. You can find Nik on LinkedIn and on Twitter @techbubble. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're joined on the podcast by Jonathan Tamblyn, Head of Talent at Gemini.  Jonathan shares his journey from studying philosophy and art history to a career in talent at one of the leading crypto native fintech platforms.  Hear about how he's developed the talent function at Gemini with a focus on transparency, structure, and attribute and value-based interview methods.  Maren and Jonathan discuss the challenges facing fintech recruiters. Jonathan shares his advice for technical and non-technical professionals wanting to break into the web3 and crypto space.   You can find Jonathan on LinkedIn and at www.gemini.com.  See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maren sits down with Mike Mangini, Partner and Head of Talent at Signalfire, to learn more about his journey from start-up founder to an executive recruiter and founder coach.  Mike shares the many ways that venture capital firms can add value for the founders of their portfolio companies. Maren and Mike speculate about the impact of web3 on the future landscape of recruiting and how advances in technology will shape the individual's ability to discover meaningful work in ways they would not have been able to in the past. You can find Mike on LInkedin or at www.signalfire.com. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join our conversation with Carolyn Carpeneti of Allraise as she shares her insights into building a board that is rich in diversity and includes executives from different cultural and functional backgrounds in an effort to better represent the people that your organizations and employees serve.  Carolyn talks about her journey from software sales to VP of Talent at a leading VC firm and what drew her to executive search.  Carolyn and Maren discuss the professional experience and qualifications that can lead to board readiness. You can find Carolyn on LinkedIn and at www.allraise.org.   See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us as we talk with Andy Cabasso of Postaga about effective cold outreach strategies that can be used in recruiting and digital marketing.  Andy talks with Maren about the importance of personalization in cold outreach.  Andy shares his experiences and best practices for recruiting and onboarding new employees for remote-first companies. You can find Andy on Twitter @AndyCabasso or on LinkedIn. You can also join the Facebook group Grow Together SEO or visit his website at www.postaga.com.   See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join our conversation with Atli Thorkelsson from Redpoint Ventures. He shares his journey from analyst to Director of Talent Networks at a leading VC firm. Atli discusses the structure of executive search. He describes his approach to executive search not as a recruiting function but as a connecting function. He shares his concerns about how remote work could impact early-career skill development, which could affect the talent pool long into the future. Atli and Maren discuss opportunities that founders and professionals may have to address this issue. You can connect with Atli Thorkelsson on LinkedIn or by email at Atli@Redpoint.com. Check out the show notes for more links and information about this conversation. See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Just about everything that we do in life we do as a community." Join today's guest, Malinda Coler, who is the Co-Founder and CEO at LessonsUp, as she talks about building communities, connecting companies with diverse talent, and helping job seekers stand out to recruiters and decision-makers in a competitive job market.  You can learn more about Malinda's company LessonsUp at www.lessonsup.com. You can contact Malinda at Malinda@lessonsup.com or find her on social: LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See more: https://blog.avratalent.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"People are trading their time for not just money; but for something purposeful". Join today's guest, Mike Del Ponte, who is the Co-Founder of Studio.  Mike has been an advisor for several multi-million-dollar companies including Solugen and Wilder World. Mike shares his journey to building a robust network and becoming a serial entrepreneur. He advises on the importance of authenticity and purpose in branding for early-stage startups and candidates within a competitive job market. You can find Mike's company at www.joinstudio.com or at Studio HQ on all the social networks.  Mike can be found @Mikedelponte on all the social networks. Connect w/ Avra: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avra-talent/mycompany/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not all remote companies are created equally. What are the ingredients for a strong and impactful company culture? How can you codify such a culture in a remote environment, to continually inspire and empower your employees? Join today's guest, Darcy Boles, a thought leader in remote work, as she talks about how to establish intrinsic & extrinsic motivation in a remote company, how to create a remote tech stack that is designed for collaboration, and shares her favorite tips and tricks for founders looking to create an inclusive and robust remote workspace.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can talent professionals create an inclusive candidate experience that delights applicants, regardless of the outcome? Join today's guest, Tianna Johnson, who is the Head of Talent at Notion, as she talks about how to create a holistic hiring process, how to navigate startup-based risk around the talent operations field, and shares her favorite tips and tricks; for both talent professionals and the candidates who are applying.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What makes a high performance culture? Today’s guest, Braden Weinstock, COO of Paxful, talks about good leadership, aligning values to actions, and other tips for successful company culture. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What divides an incredibly successful company from a relatively successful one? How they build their processes. Listen as today’s guest, Liam Martin of Running Remote, talks about the law of process and why it’s critical to build processes and systems that you can replicate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the Manager of Talent Acquisition at Formstack, Justin Flynn has seen a lot of hiring on the business side as well as the candidate side. Listen for his tips on setting yourself apart from thousands of other candidates during the application process and showing your engagement in a remote work setting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is a wealth of knowledge from both sides of the remote-work table and my former cofounder at Zirtual.com. During our time at Zirtual he created the infrastructure to hire and train up hundreds of fully remote employees, and currently he’s building and leading remote teams at Colony.io. Listen as Collin Vine discusses how to submit a thoughtful job application, having accountability in remote roles, and the interpersonal skills that are required for successful remote work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the remote world, it’s often harder to keep your finger on the pulse than it is to do in person. Today’s guest shares the importance of using each interaction from an initial phone screen to a conversation with the CEO to pitch yourself and land the job. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Where is the line between sharing your authentic life’s story and pitching your professional self when looking for a new role? Are you positioning your narrative to solve their problem, or just data dumping? Matt Klein, founder of PRSNL Branding, has spent years thinking about how job seekers can stand out and today he shares tips for creating your own personal brand and talks about the importance of actively job hunting. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

We are often all too aware of our faults, but how familiar are we with our unique strengths? In today’s conversation, Shannon walks us through how to identify our unique abilities and leverage them to find meaningful work where we will thrive.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Join me for the truly fascinating story of how one man went from biochem, to bartending, ultimately ending up as a Sales Manager at one of the fastest growing, fully remote companies—GitLab. Timm shares what he has learned over the years about career shifts, how to interview authentically and his tips for landing a landing a remote job in today’s economy. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Today we speak with Andres Cajiao, Cofounder and Chief Growth Officer at Torre. Andres is passionate about helping people find meaningful work, regardless of their geography. We talk about remote fluency and what professionals in today’s market need to do to stand out and future proof their careers. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Join Maren for today’s conversation with Matt Wilkerson, CEO of Paragon One. We’ll chat about education in a post-COVID-19 world, how higher education can reinvent itself and what recent grads can do to improve their chances in today’s job market. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Matt Eventoff has coached CEOs, authors, celebrities and more as a Communications Trainer. Today he joins us to lend his expertise to your job search and let us in on the communication secrets that the top performers in the world leverage. Tune in to hear more about finding your voice and find tips on the traits you’ll need to future proof your careers for the upcoming decades.

Today I talk with Michael Roderick, CEO of Small Pond Enterprises, who’s expert at making people more referable. Learn how to identify the triple threat of skills that you bring to the table and hear Michael’s tactical step-by-step process to make yourself more referable.

Today I talk with a biz-dev expert whose passion for recruiting people who are looking for meaningful work helps hundreds of startups make amazing hires. Listen as we talk about what the best candidates are doing stand out right now, the importance of being intentional, and how to future proof your career.

Today I talked with writer and podcast co host David C. Baker on the essential thoughts for today’s job search. We’ll chat about being flexible with your career, the importance of clear communication to cut through the noise, and how to be disciplined in focusing on the big picture.

 Today I talked with a founder who recently launched a free, community-driven initiative that helps people find new roles at tech companies that are hiring during COVID-19. We’ll chat about how this crisis offers an opportunity to re-evaluate how we spend our time and why spending thirty minutes researching a company before you apply will get you far.

Today I talk with a founder who runs a platform that connects vetted freelancers with small and medium businesses who need marketing and efficiency help. Join us as we discuss how companies who take remote work seriously will have a serious competitive advantage in the future and how to build a personal network that will get you hired—even if you’re starting from scratch.

With the goal of bridging the gap between people and plants, The Sill has faced challenges running a company with a perishable product. CEO Eliza Blank shares how brick-and-mortor stores have helped them better serve the needs of modern day customers and how building people ops early has helped them grow a healthy company culture. 

After experiencing a pain point in customer communication, HelpScout founders identified a need for a product that serves small businesses. They’ve scaled from 10 to 100+ in the last 5 years using a 12-step remote hiring process and fine-tuning everything from setting new employees up for success in the onboarding phase to making terminations as clear and kind as possible.

Igino Cafiero noticed his friends were having a tough time finding labor for their agricultural business, and he'd seen the same thing first hand with his in-laws' mining business as well. With his software background, he set out to create autonomous technology that could help. Learn how Bear Flag Robotics tackled the process of building safe, reliable machines and tapped into their ideal market by listening more and pitching less.

Recognizing a need for high quality, gender-neutral apparel, Fran Dunaway and her wife + cofounder created TomboyX to allow for being unapologetically who you are. Learn about their investors, the company’s long and steady approach to growing a brand, and the importance of treating everyone in the supply chain fairly. Use the code KATE!% to get 15% off your order at TomboyX.com through April 1.

When he noticed that the technology to sequence genomes was severely under-untilized, Dennis Grishin and his Nebula cofounders sought out a way to bring this straight to consumers. Find out how they built their company to keep their users apprised of breaking scientific discoveries that may relate to their own genetics and overall health.

In distributed work environments, it’s critical to find a way to measure outcomes and results all the way down to an individual level. Same shares how he and his cofounder navigated building a 100+ person global company that has raised 15M from investors by consistently setting and communicating transparent goals company-wide. 

After starting as a software engineer, Mike got passionate about education reform and began to use his technology expertise to better solve the sub problem that schools all around the nation experience. Learn how they stay mission driven and align themselves with investors that care about the kids as much as they care about the bottom line.

Almost a decade ago, Paul and his MAZ cofounders bet on the fact that companies big and small would need their own apps. Learn how they identified a massive market while it was still relatively nascent and how they built a platform that enables over a thousand companies, including fortune 100s, to create their own apps without using code. Other lessons: balancing volume vs. value and notes on managing a team across three time zones.

We talk about everything from splitting a business in two, when you realize you have two separate use cases and raising seed capital to the importance of nailing your core processes, product-market fit + culture before your startup begins to scale.

Ryan is a multi-time founder, having led his first two companies - BNQT Media Group and SWARM Mobile - to successful acquisitions by USA Today (2008) and Groupon (2014), respectively. After noticing a gap in the market for IT support in small- to mid-sized offices, he launched Electric.ai to make it easier for non tech people to manage their IT and grew it to 150 full time employees by utilizing remote engineering offices in Argentina.

Sean sold Flurry to Yahoo for more than $300M then started up again with Outlier.ai. Tune in for what he learned from building a co from the ground up to acquisition; and how started up again by “focusing on the problem” first.

Babelbark.com has scaled in a few years to hundreds of thousands of users across several verticals in the “pet parent ecosystem” by building a core (remote) team and outsourcing everything else (PR, branding, digital marketing) to high-quality, high-cost agencies.

Dave Nevogt decided to solve his own problem by making time tracking and reporting more transparent for distributed teams. Find out how he met his co-founder on Linkedin and they went on to organically build a business that is doing over 6M ARR with a team spread all over the globe.

Discover how Mark and his cofounder built Gigsalad from a side business to a $1M company with 10 employees before leaving their other projects. And hear how an ingenious business model with a two-fold revenue stream keeps them bootstrapped, with their talent and customers highly satisfied.

Learn how Devin has helped scale up several remote-first startups in the content and software space. We get real about the good and bad of building a remote team, how to avoid growth pitfalls as you scale from 5 to 50, and she shares quick and dirty tips on doing content marketing on any budget.