Our guest today is VP of Talent Network at Redpoint Ventures, Atli Thorkelsson. In our conversation, he gives us a bit of background on Redpoint as a company, how he ended up there in his current role, and what his day-to-day job entails. Atli tells us how he adds value to the founders he speaks to and shows us some of the blind spots that many of them encounter. We get an understanding of his hiring process and why he and Redpoint place relationships at the pinnacle of importance. You’ll learn about making your hiring process deliberate, how to quantify your talent acquisition, what the common trends in current talent acquisition are, and how a company benefits differently from hiring executives as opposed to other staff.

 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest, Atli Thorkelsson, and what his venture capital firm does. 
• What Atli’s role entails as VP of Talent Network. 
• How he manages to be valuable when offering advice to founders. 
• Why many founders encounter blind spots.
• Atli’s process when someone comes to him looking to step up their talent function.
• The importance of starting with your own network. 
• Why it’s necessary to keep track of relationships.
• How Atli ended up at his current company, Redpoint Ventures.
• How a steppingstone turned into a path.
• What the interview process was like when he was being hired. 
• How Redpoint evolved to prioritize the Talent Network. 
• Operationalizing the hiring process so that it’s deliberate. 
• How Atli and his team can measure their hiring processes. 
• Leaning further into the relationship aspect of talent acquisition. 
• The different possible company outcomes when hiring executives versus other staff. 
• Common themes he has seen in the talent acquisition environment. 
• Atli’s reasons for the current trend of prospective employees preferring to enter a company at ground-level as opposed to chasing a ‘sure thing’.
• How candidates, on the talent side, should approach the equity conversation.
• The questions to ask when assessing whether your stake in the company is meaningful. 
• Knowing the difference between the strike price and the current valuation. 
• Atli’s parting words of advice for those looking to forge a career in talent. 

 

Tweetables:

 

“We think of talent as a network function. I think that's the reason that we’re distinguished.” —@AThorkelsson [0:01:37]

 

“We're really just looking for, ‘How do we help you see around corners? How do we prescribe or help you think about things that maybe you wouldn't ordinarily be thinking about?’” —@AThorkelsson [0:03:31]

 

“Track those relationships and keep those people in mind as your company builds, because maybe somebody that's not right, right now, is going to be right down the future.” —@AThorkelsson [0:06:29]

 

“I wanted to work a little bit more closely with the founders, be a little bit more both emotionally, and literally, invested in the success of the people that I was placing.” —@AThorkelsson [0:09:09]

 

“Now's a really good time to push for more equity and take a little bit more risk on the cash side, because a lot of really great companies get built-in recessions.” —@AThorkelsson [0:24:22]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Atli Thorkelsson on Twitter 

Atli Thorkelsson on LinkedIn

Redpoint Ventures

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