Michelle K.

🚀 Join Instawork's FAST Team: Transforming the Flexible Labor Market Instawork is hiring a senior-level engineer to join their FAST charter: About FAST: Unlike traditional 'labs' teams, FAST at Instawork is about audacious, simple, and impactful actions. Their aim? To develop products that dramatically shift the trajectory while simplifying the experience for their users.  🔹 Who They Need: Are you someone who codes or designs with a deep care for real-world impact? Do you thrive in small, potent teams where everyone brings something to the table? If you've started a company or aspire to lead one, if you're self-aware and solution-oriented, FAST is your next move. Instawork values direct communication, extreme ownership, and the drive to learn and adapt swiftly.  🔹Philosophy: FAST operates on the principles of building simple, lovable, complete products—not just MVPs. They prioritize our users over our convenience, embodying values of empathy, trust, candor, and a bias for action that accelerates our collective pace. 🔹  Your Impact: Joining FAST means you could lead efforts that multiply Instawork’s impact on the market, from increasing user engagement to expanding our reach and solidifying our market position.   📍 Location: San Francisco, in office  💼 Join FAST: If you're ready to be part of a team that values hard work and radical ideas to make real changes, Instawork's FAST is where you need to be. Let's redefine flexibility in the labor market together! Interested? Know someone who might be? Let’s connect! Or feel free to reach out to Jack Giles, who is leading this search. JD link: https://lnkd.in/gRk9bGtA

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What's going to happen to NVIDIA now that they've reached 3tn market cap? For the current employees and long timers... I've read stories of mid-level engineers who reportedly earned more than $60M via stock appreciation. Imagine the numbers for the more senior folks. How will NVIDIA keep folks around who are post-economic? And for all the new folks... The value proposition is complex. The company is the most valuable (by market cap) in the world. If they are heavily compensated via RSUs, the assumption is that there is significant remaining upside to be gained. It's incredibly difficult to continue orders of magnitude stock appreciation after reaching the absolute zenith... NVIDIA is an obvious tech darling - it looks and feels like a version of Google in the mid to late 2000's - but I'm really interested to see if the immense financial success of the stock will end up driving out the core talent group (eg, the long timers who are now mega rich) while also limiting access to new upstart talent who don't see a path to outsize financial success. Curious what others think!!

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Startup founders often think that the experience they have recruiting and hiring at more established companies will be enough to plug and play when they begin their founding journey. "At Amazon, I hired 100s of people." And sure, this recruiting experience is nothing to sneeze at, but the recruiting engine (+ process) was already built, feeding you a steady pipeline of candidates. This is MUCH different than building the earliest foundation of your own recruiting engine and process. You are the engine, tapping your network and then second and third level connections. This is hard and takes way more time than you think it will. As a #founder, your 1st level network will eventually dry up. That’s why Shannon Anderson, Matthew Witt and I constantly beat the drum for founders to always be recruiting. Connections today can and will lead to unimaginable upside over time. If you are planning on hiring a critical leadership role and are simply hoping that your dream candidate will land nicely at the bottom of your talent funnel once you take your job to market, good luck with that. Connecting and cultivating talent is a form of ongoing and strategic recruiting. And it’s the one strategy that pays dividends time and time again. If you connect and cultivate the talent you’ll need in 1, 2, 3 years from now, they are no longer strangers, they actually start to become investors in you and what you are solving. They become an extension of your building journey. Engage with them, offer to help them however you can, give them updates on how things are going, ask them for objective feedback on your product or other areas of your business. As a wise CEO once told me, the actual process of recruiting sucks. Sure, it’s necessary but it’s a whole lot easier and better when the process is just the check and balance. The relationship always comes first. I love this quote from David Younger, Co-Founder and CEO at A-Alpha Bio, from one of our earliest Hooked articles: “Founders should always be recruiting. For senior roles in particular, recruiting is all about building and cultivating relationships. It would be short sighted to miss opportunities to build or strengthen relationships with industry leaders just because the company isn't actively looking to fill a relevant position at the moment. Two of our best hires in 2022 can be traced back to ongoing conversations that started in 2018.” #alwaysberecruiting, baby! 🔥 #startups #hiringstrategies #recruiting Madrona

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Syelo invests exclusively in early stage companies building recruiting software (not to be confused for HR tooling). Every company we have reviewed is building for internal recruiting teams never external. Why? With respect, the complexities, nuances, strategy, and day-to-day tasks are entirely different from one another. An internal teams core value is to systematize and uphold processes that scale. An external team is focused on filling head count. Recruiting Agencies have a TAM of $47b. Recruiting Software has a TAM of $300m. So why are so many founders hyper fixated on building software for companies? Pain. It is a lot harder to sell to agencies. A recruiting agency needs very little software/tooling to be effective and what currently exists works. They also have really tough margins (at scale) so convincing them that a product will 10x their output needs to be clear and effective. Businesses building recruiting departments have a variety of needs and nuances that complicates standardized processes so niche products/solutions find a fit in an already saturated market. In our humble opinion if you are looking to build a next generation company in the TA space you should be building for external recruiters first and foremost.

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Hey! NY HR professionals and recruiting agencies hiring for strategy, ops, bizdev roles in tech - this one is for you! ******** As part of NY Tech Week, we have nearly 300 registrations (and counting) of high caliber professionals from top consulting companies looking to get into tech. If you’re hiring for Strategy and Ops roles in tech, come join! We’ll make sure you’re approved on time for the event. If you need more info, feel free to drop me a private message on linkedin. For more information and to RSVP, visit: https://lu.ma/7nks6kk7 If you're seeing this post, don’t shy away - share/comment for visibility. We’re helping professionals transition from top consulting firms (Big 4, MBB, and other leading consultancies) into the tech industry. __________ FYI- if you’re looking to sponsor - whether recruitment agencies, HR tech companies, other tech companies, and MBA institutes - feel free to drop me a note as well #Networking #TechWeek #HR #Recruitment #Big4 #Strategy #Operations #NYTechWeek

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🚀 Join Us at AI Forge Incubator: Meet Solo Founders Seeking Co-Founders! 👩‍🎤 My company FilmTailor AI is looking for: - Co-Founders - Software Engineers - Social Media Managers - Sales Reps - Executive PAs Interested in being a part of our Costume Design revolution? Here's the details: 📅 When: Wednesday, 29th May 📍 Where: The Old Street Gallery, 62 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4DQ 🕒 Time: 5pm-9pm Are you a visionary CTO, CPO, or commercial expert ready to make your mark in the AI start-up space? Here's your golden opportunity! ✨ What's Happening? We will be pitching to 450+ investors during the week commencing 8th July, with a high probability of securing funding. 🌟 Why You Should Attend: Dive into the world of promising AI start-ups. Contribute your skills immediately by joining an existing business. Be part of the prestigious AI Forge incubator program. Potentially integrate your own business ideas into an evolving proposition. Network with talented individuals and successful entrepreneurs. Gain invaluable insights and advice from seasoned founders and mentors. 🔎 Types of Businesses Seeking Co-Founders: There will be 9 solo founders at the event and we are leading ventures in: EdTech SalesTech LegalTech FemTech MedTech MarTech 🎉 Event Highlights: 💬 Speed Dating Sessions: Quick, focused interactions to maximize connections. 🔍 Pre-Matchmaking: Initial meetings set up to streamline the matchmaking process. 🤝 Networking Opportunities: Explore collaboration possibilities with like-minded entrepreneurs. Don't miss out on this unique chance to partner with innovative AI start-ups and accelerate your career in the tech industry. Register at Seeking AI Co-Founders · Luma - https://lu.ma/f22d1ih9 #AIStartups #CoFounders #TechInnovation #Entrepreneurship #Networking #AIForge

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"When I decided to work for Dropbox, I considered three things: exciting new challenges as the company grows into a new space, a strong engineering culture, and the people. With the new directions Dropbox is taking into AI/ML, there are interesting machine learning problems for existing and new products. Not only that, but Dropbox has a robust engineering culture with an emphasis on shipping great products. On top of that, I work with an exceptional group of people from whom I can learn and grow. Throughout my years at the company, my peers have taught me so much that I could not have learned elsewhere." - Win Suen, Machine Learning Engineer Win shares her unconventional route into engineering on the #LifeInsideDropbox blog

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Which Cities Are Seeing The Most Growth In Tech Headcount?  by  Jack Kelly Forbes Many of the Big Tech firms and startups are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, which are considered the heart of Silicon Valley. However, the shifting tech landscape, particularly the relocation of talent during the pandemic, has presented both challenges and opportunities for founders and startups, according to venture capital firm  SignalFire's State of Talent Report 2024. The tech industry is becoming more decentralized, with new hubs emerging across the United States. The geographical evolution of the tech talent pool is being driven by factors like remote work, cost of living and government initiatives to boost tech growth outside of traditional centers. Austin has seen the most growth in headcount at Big Tech employers, up 44% since 2019. The city has attracted big names like  Meta Google Oracle Tesla Snap Inc. Apple and others, which have relocated or expanded in recent years. While tech workers have migrated from Silicon Valley, it still reigns supreme when it comes to the volume of talent specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning, with the San Francisco Bay Area topping the list. “San Francisco, by far and away, has the highest volume of tech talent in the country, as a percentage of its whole population. And so it remains not only the highest volume of technical talent, but also AI technical talent, which is critical in these times,” said Heather Doshay, a partner and head of people and talent at SignalFire. “Its dominance is really under no threat. It remains the largest population, in terms of density of tech talent.” https://lnkd.in/e9VZkwYm

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✨ Building Strong Relationships: A Key to Success ✨ Reflecting on my journey with Thoropass, I'm reminded of the power of meaningful connections in our professional lives. It all began when a talented designer I was recruiting ended up joining Thoropass. Little did I know, this would mark the beginning of a transformative partnership. I recall reaching out to the Head of People, hoping to explore ways we could collaborate further. From our very first conversation, I was struck by his vision and passion. Over the next two years, we worked hand-in-hand to expand and strengthen their product and design teams. Our partnership deepened when he entrusted me with finding a Head of Talent Acquisition for his team. This pivotal hire not only enriched their team but also set the stage for the next chapter of my journey. I was honored when the new Head of Talent Acquisition invited me to join Thoropass internally, a testament to the trust and relationships we had nurtured. Joining Thoropass has been an incredible opportunity to not only contribute to their growth from within but also to witness firsthand the company's unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence. I am grateful for the relationships that have paved this path and excited about the future we are building together. What keeps me going in this industry is the relationships I have built. At Carbon Talent our core focus is nurturing deep, meaningful relationships which results in us being able to grow teams. Let's continue to invest in relationships that matter and watch as they flourish into something extraordinary. Together, we can achieve remarkable things. 💓 ✨ PHOTO - A majestic black bear exploring an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. #RelationshipBuilding #ProfessionalGrowth #RecruitmentSuccess

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Which Cities Are Seeing The Most Growth In Tech Headcount?  by Jack Kelly Forbes   Many of the Big Tech firms and startups are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, which are considered the heart of Silicon Valley. However, the shifting tech landscape, particularly the relocation of talent during the pandemic, has presented both challenges and opportunities for founders and startups, according to venture capital firm  SignalFire's State of Talent Report 2024. Tech Talent MigrationThe tech industry is becoming more decentralized, with new hubs emerging across the United States. The geographical evolution of the tech talent pool is being driven by factors like remote work, cost of living and government initiatives to boost tech growth outside of traditional centers. Austin has seen the most growth in headcount at Big Tech employers, up 44% since 2019. The city has attracted big names like Meta, Google, Oracle, Tesla, Snap, Apple and others, which have relocated or expanded in recent years. For venture capitalist-backed startups, Texas holds two out of the top three spots with Austin (+23%) and Dallas (+19%). Seattle falls in between at No. 2 with a 20% rise in tech talent. The growth can be attributed to the movement from larger tech companies to startups, with only 6% growth Big Tech headcount in Seattle. “While Austin saw the biggest growth in tech headcount as a percentage of its former size, the city came in second when it came to raw volume, with just under half of total relocators moving to NYC,” the report stated. People are flocking less to notable tech hubs. The “biggest losers” include San Francisco, Seattle and Boston. Although the high cost of living is seen as the primary factor, New York City is an anomaly, as it boasts astronomical rent prices yet attracts the largest share of relocators since 2019. “San Francisco, by far and away, has the highest volume of tech talent in the country, as a percentage of its whole population. And so it remains not only the highest volume of technical talent, but also AI technical talent, which is critical in these times,” said  Heather Doshay, a partner and head of people and talent at SignalFire. “Its dominance is really under no threat. It remains the largest population, in terms of density of tech talent.” https://lnkd.in/e9VZkwYm

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🎙️ I recently listened to a "fascinating 😉" podcast interview between Ami Vora and Lenny Rachitsky. Here are some key takeaways that stood out to me/I found particularly insightful: Some great metaphors: "dinosaur brain" and "hill climb". • 🧠💡 Executive communication: The "dinosaur brain" metaphor refers to the idea that executives have a limited capacity for processing information. When presenting information to executives, it's important to focus on distilling complex information into concise, actionable recommendations. This allows executives to make informed decisions without being overwhelmed by too much data. • 🏔️💪 Take risks to reach new heights: The "hill climb" metaphor refers to the idea that in order to achieve a global optimum, one must be willing to take risks and make sacrifices. It involves giving up something that is working well in the present in order to pursue a potentially better outcome in the future. It's important to remember what the summit feels like in order to push through the difficult times and keep climbing. • 💼🚀 Execution trumps strategy: Strategy provides direction and goals, but execution is what drives success. Without strong execution, even the best strategies can't succeed. • 🤝📊 "my manager owns context, I own the recommendation", highlights the complementary roles of managers and team members. Managers are responsible for providing context and guidance, while team members are responsible for making recommendations based on that context. This division of responsibilities allows for more effective decision-making and collaboration. • 🔍🤔 Embrace curiosity: When having a disagreement, embrace curiosity, and collaborate to broaden your perspective and information set. While everyone loves being right, delivering the best outcome is what truly matters. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gUHanrPy #LeadershipInsights #EffectiveCommunication #RiskTaking #CuriosityMindset #PodcastTakeaways

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I want to share a little story about a 20-something kid visiting San Francisco with his then-girlfriend in 2013. Anyone who has been to the Bay Area knows there’s just something extra special about the place. I was inspired by the tech boom. We rode in the first Uber and Lyft cabs, saw the first Teslas on the road, visited the Google and Facebook campuses in Mountain View, met people at parties who worked for big ‘.com’ businesses we all know. I realised it’s the people who are insane enough to believe they can make a difference and actually take action, who do, in fact, make a difference. It’s a simple concept, but it is entirely down to a founder’s energy and passion to make anything happen. Too often those people don’t get the right advice or support they deserve to succeed. I knew it wasn’t my scene, but it was a world I was desperate to be a part of in some way. And decided to take action, in my way. I was inspired by my Mum and Dad, who were always entrepreneurial. From growing broccoli to managing IT networks. They semi-retired last year and I couldn’t be prouder of them. Back in Australia, I had a shower thought. Ammo Marketing. A way I could combine my skillset of marketing with my passion for tech. So, I started as a marketing freelancer helping fledgling startup founders, sitting in makeshift offices. They all seemed to be upstairs in crappy rundown old buildings. Then along came the Techhub co-working space in Northbridge and Spacecubed. I got to help clients pitch on Shark Tank and raise millions of dollars. Capturing the attention of the country. I even had the chance to found a few startups of my own with some amazing people. The WA Startup Community was critical in the early days – Bloom, Spacecubed, Curtin University, Atomic Sky. Then taking the leap of hiring a team after two years – Jack Hallam and Liam Barden. We created rituals like annual Retreats, Song of the Week, being Frank, Useful and Invested. Ammo has been through 6 website versions, about 20 styles of merch, dozens of events, over 50 episodes of a podcast with a dumb name (Weird Growth). We’ve evolved so much in 10 years, and continue to challenge everything we do, to improve 1% every day. Yet it all comes back to helping founders make big ideas happen. Last year I handed over daily responsibility to Jack as GM. He’s about the same age I was when Ammo began. He has a big future, along with our amazing team Phoebe, Alex, Liam and the wider team like Terina and Lewis. We wouldn’t be here without the people in our startup community. Our clients, supporters, podcast guests, contractors, referrers and so many others. Most importantly it wouldn’t be possible without my now-wife, Arabella. She’s the one with the real job. Who made sure we could still eat during those tough early days. Every business founder needs an angel investor and I’m the luckiest to have the most angelic of them all. Thank you Abby. I’m so excited for the next 10 years of Ammo. Let’s make ideas happen.

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🤖 Exciting news! 🤖 {Meta AI} has just released the next generation of open source LLMs, the world's leading AI assistants; designed to boost your intelligence and lighten your load in a responsible way. Check out the latest release from {Meta AI} built with Llama 3! #AI #LLMs #MetaAI #OpenSource #ArtificialIntelligence

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The Co-Founder of Netflix, Marc Rudolph, speaks about "Building & Scaling Startup Culture" in <30 mins. Consider treating yourself to a short walk 🚶‍♀️ and giving this a listen. Lightning Talk Summary ⚡ 1️⃣ Culture isn't aspirational, it's observational. Our culture isn't what we say, it's what we do 2️⃣ The Biggest Culture Mistake: We Say One Thing, And Do Another Thing. (oftentimes unconsciously) 3️⃣ Some behaviors weigh much more than others. The top 3 opportunities to demonstrate your culture are when you: A) Hire someone new to your team B) Fire someone on your team C) Reward specific behaviors/performance Simple and practical, but not easy to implement at scale. When it comes to scaling culture, what do you think is missing from this list? Check out Maven and watch the full talk (link in the comments)

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#byronpm - My Journey: Tech Recruiting > Product Manager A message I recently sent a PM connection of mine: "I love product work. I wish I would have found it sooner. It really fits my personality well and I didn't realize how many skills I've built over the years that really aligned with this work. Like, the data analysis piece was pretty easy to grasp because the data isn't any more complicated than what I was working on in education or as a recruiter. It's just a different focus. SQL was also not super hard to grasp either. I'm no expert, but from what I've gathered, as a PM, you need to know how it works and you can generally figure things out as needed. I was told you end up running similar queries as your staples." Honestly, I felt this was worth sharing because we are often really scared of making career transitions to fields that seem too far out of reach. That said, you'd be surprised how much similarity there is between different fields. Lesson, don't let your fear delay your move or scare you away from the direction you want to go in your career. It's going to be scary, but it is also exciting and rewarding. #productmangement #recruiting #careeradvice

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“We were using Teams for meetings, town halls, and projects, Slack for our tech teams, and Workplace for everything else. It became chaotic. Slack is now our primary tool for collaboration and information.” We love to see it 👏 With Meta recently announcing the sunsetting of their Workplace tool, the timing couldn't have been better for Scandinavian HR technology company Simployer to transition to Slack. Being in the business of people, Simployer understands the importance of everyone having access to the information and systems they need to perform at their best. Enter Slack. By consolidating their communications onto one platform, they have cut out the noise, making everything easier and less time-consuming. When one person asks a question, the entire team can see the response, reducing time spent searching for answers and boosting productivity. Beyond communication, Slack continues to enhance everyday tasks with new tools. An AI bot will simplify work for the HR department and its clients, while Confluence, Jira, and Outlook are already integrated into daily operations. Additionally, Slack Connect supports seamless external collaboration. If you'd like to learn more about how Slack can improve your team's productivity, collaboration, and culture, get in touch today.

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