Graham Weaver, the extremely successful founder of the tech-focused PE firm Alpine Investors, recently gave a great podcast interview.1 Weaver explains the critical insight he had in 2009, that he was not in the number-crunching business but “actually in the talent business:”
And that was really this light bulb that went off, that ended up having us — having me realize I’m actually in the talent business. That’s the fundamental business that I’m really in. And that was like ’09 that we came to that realization, and then started completely redesigning our firm to like build our companies around talent, build our firm around talent, build our investment strategy around talent. So that was just a huge turning point.
I think many of the best operators in any business come to this realization. Of course, thinking you’re in the talent business isn’t enough. What matters is doing something about it.
For an early stage startup CEO, intensely searching for product-market fit & struggling to have enough funding to stay solvent, it can be extremely difficult to find time to devote to being in the talent business.
Over the years, I’ve notice a strong correlation between startup founder success and time spent recruiting. Granted, the causation might go in both directions.
But I do think that the most effective startup CEOs tend to be the ones who are able to dedicate the most time to recruiting & organizational development.
Thanks to Sandbox Banking CEO Ravi B. for the recommendation!