Best Practices For Attracting Talent In A Competitive Landscape

Most companies won't tell candidates their burn rate, equity percentage, or why they lose to competitors. It's a serious red flag. Leading with transparency is your BEST opportunity to build trust with candidates. Here are my 6 biggest pieces of advice for any company that wants to hire better talent through radical honesty: 1. Share the real equity math Don't just say "10,000 options." Share the fully diluted percentage, strike price, 409A date, vesting schedule, and refresh policy. Include expected dilution from future pool top-ups. Candidates betting their career on you deserve to know what their stake actually means. No denominators means no trust. 2. Name who beats you and why Every company loses deals. Be honest about which competitors win against you and why. Share your competitive weaknesses openly. Candidates respect honesty. The ones who still join become your strongest believers because they chose you knowing the truth. 3. Show your manager reality Who's the hiring manager? What's their span of control? Team size? Attrition in the last 12 months? Candidates don't just join companies. They join teams, and teams have managers. When managers are the problem, people leave. Share the relationship upfront. 4. Create a Role Briefing For serious candidates, share a role brief with role success metrics (30/60/90), org chart for their team, comp ranges with equity percentage, and interview process with timeline. For finalists, add relevant company finances (last raise, runway) and top product/market challenges. This eliminates most back-and-forth questions. 5. Explain the work cadence Expected meeting load per week. Core hours and timezone requirements. On-call rotations. Travel frequency. And yes: weekend work reality. Too many companies hide the actual workload until after an offer is signed. Share these things upfront. No surprises. 6. Open reverse references Offer unchaperoned access to peers two levels away. Let candidates talk to people who actually do the work. This is the ultimate transparency test. Most companies fail it. The ones who pass it close their top choices. SCORECARD: Rate yourself 0/1 per area - Equity math with FD percentage - Manager and team info - Competitive losses shared - Work cadence reality - Transparent role briefing - Reverse references offered Score 4/6 or higher? You're ahead of most companies. Where else do you think companies should be transparent? Tell me what I’m missing? 👇

One of the best things I've done in my career is I stopped selling candidates the job. Now, I sell them the vision. Selling the company vision to candidates is the most effective way to attract top talent, especially those who are motivated by purpose, growth, and impact. 🔑 1. Clarify the Vision Internally Before selling the vision, you need a clear, compelling, and aligned understanding of it. This includes: - Mission: What is the company here to do? - Vision: What’s the long-term goal? What does success look like in 3–10 years? - Values: What principles guide how you work? 💬 2. Tailor the Message to the Candidate Adapt your pitch to what matters most to the candidate: - Sales reps may want to know about product and market fit. - Engineers may care about technical innovation and scale. - Marketers might want to build a category defining brand. - Leaders want to make a lasting impact and drive strategy. Ask questions early to understand their motivations, then link your vision to those. 🧩 3. Connect the Dots Between the Candidate and the Vision Make it personal: You’d play a critical role in helping us reach "X". Here’s how your background in "Y" makes you a great fit for that. Highlight the opportunity to: - Shape the future. - Have meaningful ownership. - Grow with the company. 🪜 4. Show Proof of Progress Vision without execution sounds hollow. Build credibility with: - Milestones already achieved. - Customer or revenue growth. - Key hires or investors. - Traction in the market. 🌍 5. Paint a Picture of the Future Help them see themselves in the journey: - What will the company look like in 3 years? - What challenges will they help overcome? - How will the work matter to customers, the world, or the industry? - Use storytelling: "Imagine in 2 years, you're leading..." 🧠 6. Use Founders and Leadership Effectively Founders and leadership can bring emotional intensity and authenticity to the vision. When possible: - Have them join final rounds. - Share their “why”. - Talk about long-term dreams. Candidates are often buying into people as much as vision. 💡 7. Make It a Two-Way Conversation Invite candidates to shape the vision: - "We’re excited about where we’re going, but we know the best ideas will come from people like you." This gives them a sense of belonging early on. #recruiting #hiring #leadership #technology #sales #innovation #careerdevelopment #motivation

Most companies don’t have a talent problem. They have a standards problem. You’re not going to build a high-performing org by posting job descriptions and hoping the right person applies. 10x talent doesn’t scroll job boards. They’re not passively “open to work.” They’re building. Leading. Winning. If you want them, you have to go get them. Hope is not a strategy. Employer branding won’t help you. Here’s how high-performing exec teams do it: 1. Build a talent pipeline like a sales funnel. Track top 10% of the market by name. Nurture relationships early. Assign follow-ups like you would in enterprise sales. 2. Write the 6-month press release before you hire. If you can’t clearly articulate what success looks like in six months, you’re not ready to hire. 3. Use the bar-raiser model. No one gets hired unless they raise the average quality of the team. Period. 4. Move fast—with precision. 10x talent has options. Don’t lose them to your own process. 5. Be a magnet for talent. Great people follow great leaders. Be the kind of operator they want to bet on. Read that again. Build the engine. Top talent isn’t looking for a job. They’re already in motion—with their next three plays mapped out. Your job is to understand their arc—and show how your opportunity helps them go further, faster. That’s not recruitment. That’s acceleration. And when it’s done right, it’s a double win.

My business has dramatically picked up this quarter, and here’s what I’m noticing: There’s a misconception that there’s an overflow of candidates. Many believe they can take their time, sift through resumes, and pick the perfect fit. AND here’s the reality: Not everyone who fits your criteria is actively searching for new roles. Candidates aren’t lining up just because you have: – the "hottest product" – "whitespace in the market" – "a founding team from the best companies" Every company says the same things: – "top investors" – "disruptive" – "the next big thing" Competing offers are real. Companies often miss out on their favorite candidates. The truth? The market is competitive, and the supply of the right candidates isn’t as vast as you think. So how do you hire successfully? 1. Understand the market: Quality and availability aren’t always guaranteed. 2. Be proactive: Build relationships before you need to hire 3. Look beyond resumes: Talent can come from unexpected places. 4. Nurture talent: Focus on passion and growth, not just ticking boxes. 5. Retain your team: Keeping great talent matters as much as recruiting new talent. In my 10+ years in the business... I’ve learned that the real gems often come from those with passion, creativity, and a drive to learn. The tech industry thrives on innovation— and sometimes, the best ideas come from those who think differently. How are you adapting your hiring strategy? Spoiler: The tech doesn’t speak for itself. Talent does.

If your talent acquisition process received even half the care you put into customer acquisition, you'd have exceptional candidates lining up to join your team. I've seen countless companies invest heavily in crafting sophisticated customer journeys with polished landing pages, personalized email sequences, and carefully optimized sales funnels aimed at converting every potential customer into a buyer. Yet when examining the same companies' talent acquisition processes, the contrast is startling. It’s like watching an artist carefully create a masterpiece, only to hastily frame it with cheap, rusty materials at the very end. Recently, we partnered with a healthcare organization that struggled significantly with talent attraction. Their career site was outdated, job descriptions read like dry legal documents, and there was no effort to communicate their culture or the meaningful impact of their work. After thoughtfully redesigning their talent attraction strategy, they achieved a 45% increase in qualified candidate applications. Their approach was straightforward: treat prospective employees with the same intentionality, respect, and polish typically reserved for prospective customers. Here’s what worked for them—and can work for you:  • Clearly communicate your company’s most compelling story  • Showcase meaningful projects and the genuine impact your teams have  • Ensure applying is as effortless as ordering takeout Imagine the results if you treated candidates with the same intentionality you show customers—higher-quality applicants, stronger teams, and a reputation as the place top talent wants to be. Look at your current candidate experience and ask yourself honestly: Is this your best pitch?