Building a Brand That Attracts Talent

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 Their career site was outdated, job descriptions read like dry legal documents, and there was no effort to communicate their culture or the meaningful impact of their work.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?

Too many founders "wing it" when building their teams—leading to misaligned hires, wasted time, and missed opportunities. If you’re serious about scaling, you need to be as deliberate about hiring as you are about building your product. Here are key lessons I’ve learned at Greylock about early startup hiring to help founders build world-class teams: • Hone your pitch. The best founders clearly articulate an exciting vision for their product or business that entices candidates. • Process makes perfect. From defining the role you're hiring for all the way through full interviews, every step should be measurable, repeatable, and scalable. Track what works, adjust what doesn’t, and document the entire process. • Candidate experience matters. How you treat candidates affects your brand, reputation, and future hires. Treat every candidate as if they will get an offer. Even those who don’t should leave feeling positive enough to refer others. • Take the long view. Every interview is a long-term relationship opportunity. Even if they’re not the right fit today, the candidate could become a valuable connection later. • Quality over quantity. Don’t cast a wide net—target a relevant candidate pool. Do your homework and approach them in a tailored way. High volume creates noise and inefficiency. • Be brutally transparent. Don’t sugarcoat the risks and challenges of a startup. The best candidates value honesty and will appreciate knowing the truth, how they’ll be supported, and how they can grow. • Always be recruiting (ABR). Top founders dedicate time to sourcing and reaching out to candidates. Early hires often come from the founding team’s network, but as that dries up (and it will), recruiting becomes harder. Invest in recruiting activities and leverage dependable resources like VCs, agencies, and investors. • Work with a talent partner.  A strong talent partner from your VC firm or network is more than a resume pusher; they’re a guide who can advise and deeply understand your needs while focusing on quality and fit. • Master the preclose. When you extend an offer, don’t rush. Schedule a call to share the exciting news and intent to prepare an offer. Express enthusiasm, revisit motivations, and address open questions. This is also the time to align on comp expectations. A thoughtful approach ensures a successful close. • Bring your best offer upfront. Lowballing or forcing candidates to negotiate can drive top talent away. Leverage startup compensation data, be transparent about your compensation philosophy, and offer competitive packages that reflect the risk and stage they’re joining. Invest in people so they become "unrecruitable." • Onboarding and beyond. Once the offer is accepted, the job isn’t done. Onboard well, and continue to support them as they grow within the company. What’s the biggest hiring lesson you’ve learned? Let’s discuss in the comments! #startup #talent #recruiting #growth

In 2025, personal brand is no longer optional for founders, it’s a core distribution channel. As someone who bootstrapped for 18 years, co-founded a YC startup, and now invests across multiple geographies and funds, I’ve watched this play out over and over: The founder who communicates clearly online builds trust before the pitch. They attract the right talent without needing recruiters. They get invited into deals, partnerships, and cap tables not because they asked, but because they’ve built contextual authority. 63% of B2B decision-makers trust individuals more than company brands. 74% of early-stage investors vet a founder’s visibility before taking a pitch call -OpenVC Consistently visible founders close rounds 30–50% faster and attract 3x more inbound talent. Founders with a consistent online presence raise faster, recruit better, and build more organic traction often at zero spend. In a world where attention is scarce and distribution costs are rising, the founder has become the front end of the business. And this isn’t about going viral or posting daily threads. It’s about owning your narrative, before someone else writes it for you. Meanwhile, equally talented founders who stay silent have to fight uphill. They get cold outreach ignored. They spend more on paid growth. They work twice as hard to earn half the attention. And for capital-efficient businesses, especially bootstrapped ones, it’s the most cost-effective acquisition and recruiting channel you’ll ever invest in. Here’s what I tell every founder I advise: If you're raising: → Publish how you think. Investors don’t just fund ideas. They fund frameworks. If you're hiring: → Share how you operate. People want to work for clarity — not just compensation. If you're building in a crowded space: → Show your unique angle. Thought precedes traction. If you're still small: → Build trust before you need it. When you're ready to scale, your audience is already warmed up. The founders who treat personal brand like a pipeline will spend less, scale faster, and stay top of mind in rooms they haven’t even entered yet. If you’ve built something worth backing, your thoughts are worth sharing. You don’t need to post daily. But you do need to make your thinking visible. Reputation compounds. And in 2025, it might just be your biggest unfair advantage. #Founders #Startups #PersonalBrand #GoToMarket #Bootstrapping #FounderAdvice #Leverage #VC

We lost our best candidate to Google last month. They offered 3X the salary." That's what my friend, a startup founder, told me over coffee last week. But here's what happened next: Two weeks later, a more experienced candidate turned down Google to join his startup instead. 🤔 The secret? It wasn't about the money. Let me share 3 unconventional ways small businesses are winning the talent war without breaking the bank: Turn Your Size Into a Superpower 🚀 -Offer direct access to leadership -Give employees the chance to wear multiple hats -Provide visibility on company-wide decisions Small means agile. Position it as a feature, not a bug. Create "Career Laboratories" 🔬 -Design 6-month rotation programs across departments -Implement reverse mentoring with leadership -Allocate 20% time for passion projects We've seen junior developers evolve into product managers through these opportunities. Reimagine "Benefits" Beyond the Obvious 🎯 -Offer 4-day work weeks instead of higher salaries -Create sabbatical programs after 2 years -Provide family care support One of our best hires chose us over a tech giant because we offered flexible hours for their passion project. The secret? Stop selling jobs. Start selling experiences and growth trajectories. Remember: Money talks, but purpose and growth opportunities whisper directly to the soul. What unconventional benefits have you seen work well in attracting talent? Share your experiences below! 👇 #TalentAcquisition #SMBHiring #RecruitmentStrategy #SmallBusinessTips #WorkplaceCulture