nigel robinson

This edition features stories on 368th Engineer Battalion and 1st Stryker Brigade helping build and support Route Aggah and Combat Outpost Lion and technicians and engineers of RDECOM working to make improvements to equipment used by service members in the field. Hosted by Air Force Staff Sgt. Melissa Hay. Produced by Tech. Sgt. Shane Cronin and Spc. Nigel Robinson. Includes soundbites from Staff Sgt. Dyron Merriweather of 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Sgt. Maj. Matthew DeLay, NCOIC, RFAST-C, RDECOM, and Marty Eaton, executive officer RFAST-C, DA civilian. Also available in high definition.

Paula Judge, VP Talent at Accel, joins us this week to explore this topic. Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, CrowdStrike, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshWorks, Jet, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, UiPath, and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Martin Siniawski, Co-Founder & CEO at Podcast App, a team of podcast fanatics with more than 20 years of combined experience in the audio space. It is a minimalist podcast player enhanced with cutting-edge technology that leverages machine learning to build customized podcast playlists for users based on their interests and tastes.

As a founder, your company's overall success in the market is adversely impacted if you do not release products fast enough. Joining us this week to explore this topic is Jennifer Smith, Co-Founder of Scribe, a company with a mission to unleash know-how across teams, organizations, and communities. Scribe was founded in 2019 to provide an easier, more effective way to share what you know.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Amanda Daering, CEO of Newance, a company that builds technology and ops teams for startups and VCs. Its mission is to be the best spot in the world for brilliant people to find and succeed at solving interesting problems. Its Talent Advisors are paired with a hands-on subject matter Experts-in-Residence with years of experience in engineering, UX, and product. This unique approach helps our team to focus on what matters most - finding and engaging the right candidates at the right time.

In this episode of The Gradience Podcast, Nigel is joined by Jay Fulcher, Operating Partner at Cheyenne Ventures. He is a three times CEO, author, board member, advisor, and entrepreneur. Previously CEO at TriNet Zenefits, where he led an impressive turnaround. Before that, he was CEO at Ooyala, an online video company that brought in the personalized Cloud TV era. Before that, he was CEO of Agile Software, an enterprise software company pioneering product lifecycle management. He is also the author of the five-time bestseller: "People Operations: Automate HR, Design a Great Employee Experience, and Unleash Your Workforce".

Since it enables limitless dissemination at very little cost, the internet has upended almost every major sector predicated on distribution routes. At least half of the founders' time should be spent on recruitment to develop the best possible workforce. Joining us this week to explore this topic is Chandan Lodha, Co-founder of CoinTracker, a company with the mission to increase the world's financial freedom and prosperity.

Creating blueprints or playbooks for founders is one of VCs' numerous responsibilities regarding talent. Operationalizing assists you learn how to support several companies simultaneously. Therefore, rather than spending five to ten hours with a founder, you spend thirty to sixty minutes with a playbook or blueprint. Finding and hiring the most qualified candidates for a position does not adhere to a "one size fits all" model. Early-stage businesses need VCs that can rapidly examine their existing conditions and key obstacles and then use this knowledge to develop a strategy that matches their specific needs.

Joining us this week to explore this topic is Kevin Novak, Managing Partner & Founder at Rackhouse Venture Capital, an early-stage VC fund that backs data founders, regardless of sector or geography. Before that, he was an angel investor at Jigsaw Venture; an early-stage venture fund focused on founders and firms that sit at the intersection of AI and ML and the real world. Before that, he was at Renegade Partners, a VC firm that helps founders navigate the pivotal phase of their development. And before this, he was head of data science at Uber during their early days.

Many founders speak to specific actions that enabled the growth of their companies in their respective industries. Some tips might apply in all sectors, while others are specific to certain industries. Here, Riley Ennis of Freenome shares actionable steps that have worked for him in healthcare.

In this episode of The Gradience Podcast, Nigel is joined by Gia Scinto, Partner at Launch Search Partners and Growth Advisor/Expert at Y Combinator. If you’re interested in the strategies for a successful recruitment process, the fundamentals of onboarding diverse talents, or generally building portfolios that could plug into the recruitment space, tune in to this episode of The Gradience Podcast

While being a solo founder is all well and good, having a team of co-founders with your projected team culture, a wide range of skill sets, and experiences you do not possess is even much better. Adding to the team is a delicate process as your choices can push your startup in the direction you envisioned or cripple it.

In an industry where there are a thousand and one search firms, choosing the right executive search partner for your startup might be a challenge. Considering many of these search firms don’t even have the expertise or qualifications to hire top talents, recruiting might pose an even bigger challenge as a wrong partnership might result in the loss of time, energy, resources, and even potential finalists. Consequently, having the know-how for the right firm tops the list of to-dos when searching for executives.

The crypto industry is rapidly expanding as interest in the ethos and space increases. As such, the demand for crypto talent in crypto-inclined startups is also increasing and getting competitive. Founders are painfully aware of this and the fact that the early stage of a company is its most delicate. Therefore, to deliver on the company’s goals, an early team has to function appropriately and synergize. In achieving this, professionals with the right skillset need to be recruited

Any company’s greatest asset is the employees. They represent the company as ambassadors, determine the public’s perception of the business, are handlers of intangible assets, and are the biggest contributors to an organization’s worth. As such, recruiters and hiring managers need to bring people into the fold, develop a strong recruitment strategy and raise the bar during the process. Candidates should be carefully selected to ensure that additions to the team are people of high quality who are skilled, self-aware, have a growth mindset, and share the organizational culture, among others.

As an early-stage founder, going through the recruitment process on your own might prove to be a bigger challenge than envisioned. How do you select competent executives who also understand and integrate your company culture? How do you recruit top talents in a highly competitive and demanding market? This is where search firms and recruiters come in.

Building a business as a solo founder can be quite challenging due to its peculiarities and hassles. But hiring a dream team can significantly take the burden off a founder if done right.

1066 and all that - Doctor Who style! Greg and David review The Time Meddler by Nigel Robinson with the audio version read by Peter Purves. The 1st Doctor story has a number of firsts for Doctor Who - We discuss the original TV version, the Target novelization and also the new audio version released this month from the BBC.