Kathryn Minshew - How Employers and Employees Should Build Careers - [Invest Like the Best, EP.103]
My guest this week is Kathryn Minshew, the co-founder and CEO of the Muse, and the co-author of The New Rules for Work: the Modern Playbook for Navigating Your Career. I’ve learned in business is that the quality of people and the culture they create dictate outcomes. Having made plenty of mistakes hiring, and having had many enormous successes, I am always interested in best practices for finding and successfully recruiting the right people.
Given that Kathryn runs a jobs marketplace and has written a book on the topic, she is the perfect person to explore some the core concepts around pairing people with the right positions. We discuss how companies should market to prospective employees, how employees should represent themselves to employers, and the most common mistakes she sees across the hiring landscape.
Please enjoy our conversation.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
1:31 - (First Question) Largest changes in the nature of work and how people approach finding the right job for them
3:27 – Can this work be jammed into a formula
5:18 – What strategies is she sharing with employers when it comes to hiring
8:31 – How long should the process take
9:33 – Biggest mistakes employers make in this process
10:39 – Besides the usual stuff, what can perspective employees do to bolster their chances
12:50 – How much more efficient will matching technology get in the years to come
16:00 – What will be the largest changes to work itself
19:09 – Will we move away from full time work into parsels of work units
20:50 – Most successful piece of content or content strategy the Muse has employed
22:34 – Advice for early stage entrepreneurs
26:24 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Kathryn
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
SaaStr 078: To Get Early Customers You Have To Make People Uncomfortable & Why Customer Success Should be Actively Involved In The Upsell Process with Kathryn Minshew, Founder & CEO @ The Muse
Kathryn Minshew is the Founder & CEO @ The Muse, named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Media and Inc.'s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. Before founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccines in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and was previously at McKinsey. Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on The TODAY Show and CNN, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Kathryn came to found The Muse? What was the a-ha moment for her?
Why did Kathryn introduce a SaaS business model into the traditionally, transactional model of recruiting? What were the benefits and how did it alter her go to market?
With no prior sales experience, how did Kathryn find the experience of running the sales team? What were the core takeaways? At what stage should the founder stop selling the product and hire a sales team?
Why does Kathryn believe you have to make the customer feel slightly uncomfortable to be successful? What did Kathryn look for in her initial sales hires? Why did Kathryn hire 3 reps to start with and not 2, as usually suggested?
How does Kathryn approach the customer success field at The Muse? When did Kathryn hire her first CS rep? What is Kathryn's take on CS being involved in the sales process?
60 Second SaaStr What does Kathryn know now that she wishes she had known when she started?
Biggest mistake SaaS companies are enacting with their recruiting process?
Productivity tips and hacks?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Kathryn Minshew
20VC: How To Win The Strategic Process Of Fundraising and Optimising Co-Founder Relationships and Break Ups with Kathryn Minshew, Founder & CEO @ The Muse
Kathryn Minshew is the Founder & CEO @ The Muse, named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Media and Inc.'s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. Before founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccines in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and was previously at McKinsey. Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on The TODAY Show and CNN, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kathryn came to be Founder of The Muse following charity work in Rwanda?
2.) Question from Adam Quinton (investor): What is it about Kathryn and Alex's relationship that works so well? How do they deal with founder disputes?
3.) Prior to The Muse, Alex and Kathryn founded another business with 2 other founders. What did they learn from the breakup and how have they applied to The Muse?
4.) How has Kathryn managed to maintain startup ownership culture as the team has grown to over 100 people ?
5.) The Muse has now raised large Series A & B rounds. What were the lessons Kathryn learnt along the way and what would she do differently for the C round?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Kathryn's Fave Blog and Newsletter: The Atlantic, The New York Times
Kathryn's Fave Book: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kathryn on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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