Why I Joined P9 and What I’m Here To Do.
As promised in my ‘Day 1’ LinkedIn post, I want to unpack a little more about what a ‘talent person’ actually does at a VC and then narrow…
Written by Kim Goddard · First published on Point Nine Land on Medium, June 2022
As promised in my ‘Day 1’ LinkedIn post, I want to unpack a little more about what a ‘talent person’ actually does at a VC and then narrow in more specifically on why I chose P9.
So…What does a ‘Venture Talentist’ do?
Yep, I went and coined a term — don’t worry, I’m not expecting it to start trending, but I thought it would be useful to distinguish talent work in venture from its counterpart in the startup world given the two are somewhat different.
I think ‘What does a Venture Talentist do’ could actually be a much larger article and one I plan to revisit in the future from a data-led approach, but for now, in the absence of said data, I am going to focus on what I am here to do at P9.
My background differs from the typical talent profile you see in venture, which tends to be someone from the Exec Search world. For growth stage companies where founders are frequently focused on hiring senior leadership and building out the exec team, this type of profile makes complete sense. At the earliest stages, the needs of most founders tend to look very different: hiring the first engineers, a standout PM or two, and likely the first few GTM roles. As a founder who’s just raised a seed round, you’ll frequently be told ‘now go build the team,’ but there’s one issue: raising a seed round didn’t turn you into a talent expert overnight! Yes, you can figure it out as you go, but how long will this take you and how many mistakes will you make along the way? You need the team now and want to hire great people, but you probably lack some of the knowledge to execute.
This is where I step in…
My fundamental mission at P9 will be to help founders accelerate through the learning curve of what we consider to be a core skill in building a successful and enduring company: hiring great people. Equipped with this knowledge, I hope to help our founders skip some of those early-stage mistakes we’ve all either made, seen, or had to fix. I could just as well have chosen to focus on actually hiring people for the P9 family, but I and we are convinced that this wouldn’t be nearly as impactful as coaching our founders on how to do it themselves. Give a person a fish…or so the adage goes.
I guess if I were to look at my role at P9 and how I envision it currently, it’s something like:
To break that down a little further, non exhaustively:
These are just some of the essential talent building blocks I feel you need in place to make sure that you are hiring well — the foundations if you will. A new shiny door (read hire) may compliment a house perfectly, but it won’t stop it from falling apart in an earthquake or make it easier to extend the house in the future You need solid foundations for that, and building those foundations and equipping teams with the tools they need to build the rest of the house efficiently is what I am hoping to do with the P9 Family.
So…Why P9?
Whenever I’ve contemplated joining a company in the past (even when I used to consult), I’ve always asked myself three guiding questions:
Is this the right team for me to join?
Will I get to do the work I love doing — at least most of the time?
Is the timing right?
For me, if the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ to all those questions, then the answer should be a resounding ‘yes’ to joining.
Let’s start with Team…
During my conversations with the P9 team, I continually found myself forced to think harder, debate more fiercely, and defend my position more robustly on what makes a great talent function. The team really challenged me. Those chats made me think, ‘I know if I work with this team, I will get better at what I do’.
The entire team also showed they cared — not just professionally but also on a personal level, which to me is very important. Given we spend most of our waking hours with the people we work with, it’s nice to know they care and are interested in life outside of work. Ricardo’s tips in particular on how to get a newborn to sleep quickly were very helpful, as was the baby-grow swag!
Will I get to do the work I love most of the time?
During my process we spoke at great length (individually & collectively) about what my role would look like, the things I love to do and those I don’t, and where the trade-offs would be. It became clear that we had great alignment and that the things I love to do are, by and large, the areas where support was needed.
There was a clear understanding between us all that I couldn’t be the default ‘Head of Talent’ for an already large, and increasingly growing, portfolio — it’s just not scalable. I’ve always loved the advisory/fixing/building part of previous roles, which is part of why I consulted for so long. I was able to focus my energy on making a clear and tangible strategic difference, not just BAU, as is often the case in internal roles. Rolling into our businesses and helping them build their talent infra, coaching them on how to evolve it, and then being on hand to offer tailored support is clearly the help the P9 Family wanted. Luckily for me, those are the things I love to do!
As a ‘Venture Talentist’ the portfolio and founders I will work with are really important. I will be dedicating 100% of my time to helping them, so knowing that we can build strong, collaborative relationships is critical. I was lucky to attend the Point Nine Founder Summit in Lisbon last month. It was an incredibly well organised and engaging event and also an opportunity for me to meet with multiple founders within the Family and take a deeper look at how important talent is to them. Let’s just say the talent workshops were reassuringly ‘oversubscribed,’ and I was grabbed for some great chats frequently!
Timing
The question I asked every Partner I spoke to at P9 was ‘why hire a talent person now?’ Thankfully, there was great consistency across the team. One of the biggest challenges all founders face is how to hire and hire well — having someone at P9 dedicated to helping our founders navigate these challenges will hopefully supercharge their learning on talent topics.
It seems that discussions around talent and how best to support the P9 Family had been on the agenda for some time and had reached the point where it was agreed that founders (and their teams) would benefit from a dedicated resource.
These three guiding questions helped me to understand that joining P9 was the right move to make and at the right time. It’s a framework I’ve used for some time but rarely do I have every box ticked with such a ‘Strong Yes’ — and as I am sure you can tell, I’m delighted to be here!
So, this is why I joined P9 and what I am here to do. If you’re part of the P9 Family, I am sure we will speak very soon — I hope this at least gives some context as to why your seed investor hired this ‘talent guy.’ If you aren’t part of the P9 Family and are reading this, I will likely be trying to make sure you are, in some capacity or another, very soon. Our founders will be hiring a lot, so don’t be shy! :)