HR Heretics

Matt Oberhardt, partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), joins HR Heretics to talk about the complexities of recruiting executives and finding talent. Matt explains the importance of precision in referencing and maintaining professionalism in recruitment processes. We also cover specific advice for founders, the transition of veterans into start-ups, and dealing with the 2024 macro and job market.

Jen Trzepacz, or JT as she's widely known, is a Silicon Valley vet (Yahoo, EA, Salesforce, Living Social) and currently the CPO of SymphonyAI. JT joins Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church to talk about how HR needs to be expertly aligned with the business bottom line, how to do transparency around compensation well, how to recruit the best talent, navigating complicated CEO relationships, and takes us on a trip down memory lane for her biggest F-ups.

Friends of the podcast and experienced CPOs Colleen McCreary and David Hanrahan join hosts Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church for this roundtable discussion of where the puck is going for DEI in 2024. They offer their takes on the progress made over the years, the current camps in this debate propelled by the recent capitol hill hearings and Harvard controversy, and the necessity of founders and companies to better understand their own priorities and define their position on DEI.

Q Hamirani, the Chief People Officer at Paper, joins Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church to talk about how to navigate the CPO seat under immense pressure, the real deal behind Airbnb's remote work policy, how design thinking helps solve people problems, and how the people function should not be left behind by the AI revolution.

At scaling companies. navigating parting ways with an executive requires finesse, strategic insights, and insider experience. Run The Numbers podcast invited Kelli and Nolan to break down every facet, lever, and little known facts behind successfully exiting execs. Its a great conversation - Kelli and Nolan have seen it all and break down termination packages, terms like double trigger and garden leave, exec pay parity, and how to fire CEOs.

Dan Portillo is the founder and GP of The General Partnership, a fund that prioritizes talent in a network-based approach. Formerly he was early-Mozilla and then went on to Greylock where he carved out a role as a talent partner.

Cara Brennan Allamano is the Chief People Officer at Lattice and previously at Udemy, Pinterest, and Adobe. Nolan and Kelli talk to Cara about building effective relationships with CEOs, undergoing layoffs with dignity, and the importance of saying "no" when necessary for the health of the organization.

Brett Queener is a partner at Bonfire Ventures, with a background extending to nearly every function as an operator at Salesforce, Smart Recruiters, and more. Brett is well-versed in the mechanics of early-stage companies and this conversation covers the death rate of startups, the point of board meetings, getting people to work outrageously hard for you, and more.

Melanie Narnajo is the VP, People at Ethena and an insightful writer at the forefront of HR thought leadership. In this episode, Melanie, Kelli and Nolan dig into the current sentiment in HR, why the bar is set lower than it should be, why you should abandon PIPs, instilling a culture of feedback among execs, and why EQ isn’t the most important skill to develop in a people leader.

David Hanrahan is the Chief People Officer of Flare and a highly respected people leader. David joins Kelli and Nolan for an unfiltered discussion on pushing for high performance in your company, normalizing scorecards, and what separates the best HR leaders.

Steve Cadigan scaled LinkedIn from 400 to 4000 people in 3.5 years, and is now an author and consultant on global talent strategy. He joins Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church to discuss lessons from working with LinkedIn’s CEO during hyper scale, recruiting talent, going public, and debate the future of work.

Molly Graham is a seasoned exec, builder, and widely-read writer in tech. She joins Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church to discuss her lessons from working on different challenges (HR,Comms, GTM, COO) in hyper-scaling companies, career building, assembling strong leadership teams, and managing the rollercoaster emotions of zero-to-one startups.

Tomasz Tunguz is a General Partner at Theory Ventures and the writer of one of the best blog/newsletters in tech. Tom joins Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church to discuss the relationship between boards, founders and People leaders, and how HR strategies interact with boards in key moments of a company’s history, including M&A.

Colleen McCreary, a seasoned Chief People Officer (Zynga, Credit Karma, EA, Twilio), turned venture capitalist at Ribbit Capital, sits down with Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church. This insider conversation covers tactical advice for navigating Mergers and Acquisitions (she’s been through multiple), layoffs, recruiting top talent, and transitioning from an HR leader into the world of the board room.

On the inaugural episode of HR Heretics, author and former Chief Talent Officer of Netflix Patty McCord joins co-hosts Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church for a candid interview to talk through how to innovate from the HR role, buck best practices, and how to build a high performing company.