...finding exceptional talent
The “I know a guy” approach of legacy search firms is outdated in our world of ever expanding startups, and most of all, from a D&I perspective.
Executives with specialized knowledge are hard to hire and at record low unemployment, they're hard to keep. Additionally, over 50% of executives fail within 18 months. - Harvard Business Review
The cost of a bad hire is not just in the salary, but in lost time, lagging morale, and missed objectives.
Brandi is a Talent Sourcing and Research Specialist that enjoys the process of digging finding targeted candidates and providing a highly personal candidate experience. Brandi found her passion for talent sourcing as an early member of the Strategic Sourcing team at IQTalent Partners where she developed her skillset in developing and executing sourcing strategies to meet client needs. Brandi graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Human and Organizational Development.
John Jeff has spent the better part of his career coaching and developing high-performing teams with over a decade of people leadership experience. He worked in retail operations and management from 2011 to 2017, including launching lululemom in the Korean market, where he recruited and hired the founding team and led country operations. In 2018, he joined Enjoy, a technology-powered platform disrupting the physical retail model, where he built and led sales teams throughout the US before launching and leading the business in Canada. After a year at Enjoy, he stepped in as Head of Talent Acquisition for North America, where he built and led scalable recruiting strategies and processes to support the organization growing from 300 to 2000 corporate and field employees in the US and Canada. John Jeff lives in Pittsburgh and is a graduate of the George Washington University.
Michelle is an astute professional with over 10 years of experience in established and early-stage startups. She has a vast background in organizational and operational support in education, nonprofit, and consumer goods. As a results-driven team collaborator, she works to identify and launch new technologies to improve business functionality, output and processes, while also creating strategical tools to help teams execute critical business fundamentals towards company goals/objectives. Michelle is the spouse of a retired military veteran and has been blessed to see many parts of the world. She currently resides in the St. Louis area with her family.
Trey has immersed himself in the world of startups for over fifteen years as a founder of a rich media startup, an angel investor, and an executive recruiter. From 2005 to 2014, he founded and exited Music Interactive, a rich media company focused on the digital music business. After his exit, his attention broadened to many areas of emerging technology such as foodtech, Bitcoin, cleantech, and more. Looking to work with a wide variety of emerging companies, he switched careers in 2015 to executive recruiting. He became a Partner at Safire Partners, the most active executive recruitment firm in Southern California, placing over 100 execs at high growth startups across consumer, SaaS, digital media, and other areas. In 2018 he moved back to his hometown of Nashville and founded Position.Trey is a graduate from Vanderbilt University.
Startups have fragmented most every industry with new challenger brands rising up every day. Some of them get acquired by the incumbents, some fail, and some become the new guards of their industry.
All startups face unique challenges due to internal and external dynamics, marketing positioning, funding, timing, location, and more. Learning the stories of these evolving companies means understanding the people who built them, how they organized themselves, and the challenges they overcame.