Kyle Harrison
concept

Talent

Talent

Talent is a recurring theme in Kyle’s notes around sourcing, representing, developing, and accessing high-skill people. In his April 30th, 2020 Roam “Quick Capture” log, the concrete instance is on-demand access to expertise: a note praising Toptal as close to “a magic bullet for immersing yourself in a new industry” — you can know nothing about a business area, post your project, and have experts recommended to work with. The broader cluster threads through Talent Identification (spotting talent early), Talent Vortex (how talent concentrates and compounds), and anti-library reads like Powerhouse (the CAA story of representing and monetizing talent) and The Polymath (versatility as a model of human capability).

Quick Capture links — April 30th, 2020

Saved in Kyle’s April 30th, 2020 Roam “Quick Capture” log.

  • On accessing expertise on demand: “There’s rarely a magic bullet for immersing yourself in a new industry—but Toptal is pretty close. You can know nothing about a particular business area, but post your project on Toptal and they will recommend experts for you to work with. So let’s say you want to develop an app that helps salons book appointments more efficiently. You can post that exact sentence on Toptal and they’ll help you find mobile developers. It’s that simple.”

Talent / recruiting marketplaces

  • Triplebyte
  • Toptal — hasn’t raised since 2012, might be struggling.

People leaders (talent / recruiting)

  • Johnny Curl at GO1
  • Natalie Gavello at Persona
  • Bruce Lee Lang at Retool
  • Olivia Gochnour at Tiled
  • Amber Kammer at Weave
  • Mattson Heiner at Adobe
  • Shilo Riddle at Spiff
  • Christopher Vanzetta at Reddit
  • Kara Chambers at The Motley Fool
  • Brittany Rohde at GitLab
  • Colleen Neary at Faire
  • Marisa Fezza at Ro

Chief People Officer / Head of People / VP of People

  • Jessica Neal, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix
  • Mary Francis, Global Head of People at Uber ($UBER)
  • Carolyn Frey, Chief People Officer at Curology — previously at Philz Coffee
  • Kristen Hayward, Head of People at Superhuman
  • Alexandra Agnoletti, Head of People at Segment
  • Shaya Fidel, Head of People at Tray.io
  • Catherine Saarinen, Head of People at RevenueCat
  • Katie Morrow, VP of People Operations at Podium
  • Erica Alioto, Head of People at Grammarly
  • Veronica Pohls, VP of People at Mercury
  • Marie Szuts, former VP of People at Figma
  • Margie Lee-Johnson, VP of People at Addepar

HR investors

  • Robby Peters at People Tech Partners

Best-in-Class Tech Stack (recruiting)

The talent-acquisition side of the Best-in-Class Tech Stacks HR/Talent branch — the recruiting tooling and roles Kyle tracks. The people-operations side (comp planning, leave, HRIS, contingent labor) lives on the HR page.

Best-in-class tools

  • Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Gem
  • Candidate Experience: Guide.co · ModernLoop

Positions

  • Head of Talent

Playbooks