14 min
When clubcloud was in its early stages of company development, we realized that our primary responsibility as founders was to attract and retain exceptional talent. We understood that our initial cohort of leaders, and each cohort of leaders thereafter, would significantly shape our company’s trajectory in various aspects, including product development, operations, business development, sales, marketing, mission, vision, and culture. Our objective was to ensure that with every great leader we acquired, we made attracting and retaining exceptional talent easier in the future.
Our concept of talent acquisition, which we call our “talent flywheel”, revolves around the idea that A-players attract other A-players or simply put, smart individuals seek to collaborate with other smart people. This social dynamic serves as a significant force multiplier, which led to our aggregate talent pool surpassing the already impressive sum of our individual components.
As a bootstrapped company, we consistently reject pitches from investors. However, each investor has specifically highlighted two key points: our founders’ exceptional ability to attract top talent and how this talent acquisition has ensured clubcloud possesses the necessary “brainpower” to achieve both short-term and long-term milestones.
So, how did we at clubcloud implement our flywheel? As an early-stage company, we were self-aware enough to recognize that recruiting isn’t just about assessing talent; it’s also a game of selling and persuading. As founders, we constantly sell to candidates as much as they sell to us during the interviewing process. We understand that we can’t approach our talent acquisition process like large companies that likely already have employer brand value or can entice candidates with high salaries.
We also acknowledge that rushing into “screening” and “interviewing” might leave a negative impression on candidates. As we’re in our second cohort of leaders, and all of our leaders are referrals from already established leaders, we can maintain a casual and exploratory tone during the initial interview stages, avoiding an “assessing” vibe.
The key to attracting exceptional individuals lies in understanding the difference between good and great qualities. We leverage our already impressive leadership groups to “benchmark” our talent acquisitions. This enables us to surpass the notion of simply bringing “friends” on board. By adhering to this standard of attracting only candidates with great qualities, we hold ourselves accountable to ensure that we only attract the highest caliber of talent.
We recognize, joining a startup can be a risky endeavor, as candidates are essentially taking a “career bet” on our founders’ convictions. To address this, we’ve implemented an audit-for-interest process for all our prospective leaders. This process involves the candidate and their on-boarding manager collaborating in the role the prospective leader was brought on for before fully committing. This allows the company and the prospective leader to assess each other’s interest, fit, and alignment of goals. We’ve found that this process mitigates an already daunting experience and enables our prospective leaders to evaluate their readiness to join the company before fully committing.
Once the new leader is onboarded, we continue to provide support. We ensure that all new talent is provided with a comprehensive and well-defined title that includes corresponding roles and responsibilities. We have moved past the notion that titles may appear unnecessary and pretentious in a small startup. Instead, we view titles as a tool to understand the company’s organizational structure six, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months down the road. Establishing titles with roles and responsibilities allows our leaders to comprehend our expectations in both the short-term and long-term. This approach eliminates surprises and fosters a culture of respect, appreciation, and transparency.
Once fully onboarded, we believe that great individuals should be empowered to achieve greatness. Consequently, we support our leaders without micromanaging them. We encourage them to become thought leaders in their respective fields and provide a platform and encouragement to help them attain this goal.
Talent acquisition remains a crucial and challenging aspect of company building, regardless of the tactics and strategies employed. Smart founders should always be vigilant in seeking ways to gain an advantage in the recruiting process. At clubcloud, we firmly believe that our talent flywheel effectively achieves this.
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