The Multiplier Effect

Competition for top talent in today's market remains a key challenge for scaling companies, and few founders understand how to bridge the gap between the skillsets needed and flaws that currently exist in the hiring process. Ankur Gopal, Founder and CEO of Interapt, believes we have the opportunity to ignite human potential. And today on the show, Ankur sits down with Jackson Andrews, Managing Director of Endeavor Louisville, to shares how he and his team at Interapt are continuing to solve the tech talent gap in the heartland through their unique programs and how together, founders can build a more inclusive narrative for the tech industry.

Rory Guinan, Managing Director of Endeavor Ireland, sits down with Fiona Mullan, Chief People Officer at Ding, to discuss how companies can continue to revise and reimagine inclusion in the workplace, how to maintain cultural cohesiveness as a company scales, and some of the unique opportunities the people function has on building and growing great businesses in the next five years. Prior to her role at Ding, Fiona has held recruitment and HR leadership roles at Facebook, Microsoft, and Accenture.  

Endeavor Atlanta's dynamic leader in fintech, Lynne Laube, CEO and Cofounder of Cardlytics, shares employee retention strategies, tips for hiring your c-suite, and recruitment tactics for developing a healthy culture with Managing Director, Aaron Hurst. Lynne was featured as an Inspiring Women to Watch by Inc. Magazine. She received The Women of the Year Award from Georgia’s Women in Technology and was named one of the top 10 venture-backed female founders by Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur 360.

Today on the show, we're joined by Todd Simmons, CEO and Vice Chairman of Simmons Foods. Todd talks about how he has cultivated a diversified talent recruitment strategy at Simmons as the company requires so many different skill sets with over 8,000+ employees and counting. Todd and the team have also built a profound healthcare program for employees which has created a no-cost structure to cover Simmons team members at the Simmons Care Clinics. He also shares his strategies for ensuring safety during recruitment and retention in the last few years since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

SQUIRE developed the first all-in-one technology-enabled point-of-sale and business management system specifically designed to cater to men’s barbershops and salons. Co-founded by Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon in 2015, the team has seen incredible growth and certainly knows a thing or two about talent acquisition, developing a high productivity team and building a sustainable community starting from the c-suite. Listen to hear how they are transforming local economies, one salon at a time. This episode is co-hosted by Endeavor Western New York Managing Director, John Gavigan. 

This week we’re excited to be sharing an amazing interview with our Endeavor Louisville office — Managing Director, Jackson Andrews sits down with Stacy Griggs, President and CEO of El Toro to discuss how he has scaled his team through strategic employee development and training programs, ultimately building an iconic employer brand for the region.

We are privileged to have Jason Borschow, founder and CEO of Abarca Health with us on the show. In 2019, he was selected as Endeavor Puerto Rico's first Endeavor Entrepreneur and in 2018, EY named him Entrepreneur of the Year for the financial and insurance services segment in the Florida region. He started his career at Borschow Drug, which was founded by his grandfather in 1951 and acquired by Cardinal Health in 2008. Since then he has launched and grown Abarca and two other successful healthcare enterprises. And today, he talks about how In order to attract and retain top talent, you need a strong and distinct employer brand—which he believes is an extension of the corporate culture. He also discusses the value of an extraordinary talent strategy team and the power of a positive culture —which sets Abarca apart from a lot of organizations in the healthcare space. 'Abarcans,' as he calls his team, are encouraged to find new solutions, operate with full transparency, and focus on the experience and many have thought it was too good to be true. But that’s the Abarca way, and the results speak for themselves.

In this episode, Federico Robbio speaks to how his experience in strategy, finance, human capital, and recruitment was a key factor to help Belatrix to grow from 0 to 800 employees in 5 countries, with their own cash flow, having a continuous growth of 35% and solid profits. He also played a key role in developing the innovation culture through the creation of teams, human capital, and recruitment practices leading the industry and was recognized several times by being top 10 at Great Place to Work. If you are an entrepreneur in a growth phase where you’re evaluating expanding operations in different geographies and are wondering what the secret sauce is to build a contagious company culture, Federico shares his secret for success in this episode.

According to HBR, hiring talent remains the number one concern for the entire executive suite and views talent and skills unavailability as the biggest threat to their business. Employers also spend an enormous amount on recruitment—an average of $4,129 per job in the United States, and many times that amount for managerial roles— and the United States fills a staggering 66 million jobs a year. Hiring quality leadership takes time and requires strategy, as the first hires are often cultural co-founders. As Reid Hoffman, board member of Endeavor Global, says, "The first 150 hires are your cultural co-founders. It's up to you, the founder, to get every one right."

So what are the keys to hiring for scale? In Season 3, listeners will hear from Endeavor Entrepreneurs on executive hiring strategies, leadership assessment, and industry trends designed for scale.

After featuring over 20 organizations with meaningful solutions to strengthen our entrepreneurial ecosystems and foster inclusive community and economic development practices, Season 2 has come to a close! We wanted to spend our last episode speaking about what we know best here at Endeavor, supporting scaling entrepreneurs with Endeavor President Adrian Garcia-Aranyos. He shares how Endeavor unlocks the transformational power of entrepreneurship by selecting, supporting, and investing in the world's top founders around the world.