Entrepreneurs today face a variety of difficult challenges when trying to breathe new life into their startup endeavors – at the top of that list is the ability to find and secure talent at the appropriate time of their company’s inflection. Sharon Wienbar, Partner at Scale Venture Partners, tapped Kevin Buckby to discuss this specific topic, and with the help of our Data Team, they pulled together a variety of statistics around certain company attributes which have shown to affect the talent acquisition process. In his guest post, Kevin addresses how variables like company stage, location, and relationships can impact the hiring process.
(Scale Venture Partners) – Talent acquisition is rightly regarded as a strategic issue. Start-ups are born out of innovation and ideas are given life through the infusion of capital, but companies are built by people. In this piece I look at how environmental factors impact executive-level time to hire.
Innovation is abundant and new entrepreneurs are stepping forward all the time—witness Nick D’Aloisio, who took his idea for Summly from launch to acquisition by Yahoo! for $30M, all before his 18th birthday. What was previously the preserve of MBA-trained and industry-hardened executives is now open to all comers. Repeat entrepreneurs, reinvigorated, not satiated, by success return time and again with fresh start-up ideas. All these people need people.
Removing obstacles for entrepreneurs has created vibrant economic conditions in the Bay Area technology industry, along with an unprecedented demand for talent. Those start-ups that evolve beyond the stage of testing an idea and embark on the journey of scaling a company immediately confront one of their most significant challenges: acquiring high-quality talent in a grossly imbalanced labor market.
