EP 131: Andy Price (Artisanal): Executive Hiring Advice from the Founder of Tech’s Top Recruiting Firm

Andy is the founder of Artisanal Ventures and Artisanal Talent, one of Silicon Valley’s top search firms. He’s helped build leadership teams at companies like Databricks, Snowflake, Confluent, Abnormal Security, AcuityMD, and many more. In this episode, he shares… - How founders can differentiate in the talent war today - Maximizing the success rate of executive hires - Why interviews are a waste of time - The best ways to do references - How to choose the right search firm & more   (00:00) Intro (02:02) Andy Price's Background and Career Journey (03:20) The Role of Founders in Hiring (04:32) Challenges in Early Stage Hiring (10:08) Importance of Venture Capital Brand (12:14) Effective Search Processes and Candidate Evaluation (23:27) Backchannel References and Networking (29:10) Identifying Key Players in Sales Growth (29:44) The Importance of Minimal Disruption (30:40) Effective Founder-Executive Relationships (30:57) The Role of Soak Time in Differentiation (31:52) Hiring Strategies for Rapid Growth (33:42) Common Failure Modes in Hiring (34:32) Aligning Founder and Executive Expectations (38:26) Building a Strong Talent Acquisition Team (40:51) The Talent Wars and Hiring Choke Points (44:24) Balancing Skill Sets and Company Culture (47:29) Evaluating and Upleveling Team Members (49:59) The Importance of Forecasting and Planning (51:34) Handling Executive Transitions Smoothly (59:09) The Art of Firing: Best Practices (59:32) Handling Employee Terminations with Dignity (01:02:19) Negotiating with Candidates: Tips and Tricks (01:06:31) Understanding Compensation Trends (01:08:18) Avoiding Common Founder Mistakes (01:11:28) Scaling Operations in Hypergrowth (01:15:00) Navigating the Current VC and Talent Ecosystem (01:23:34) The Importance of Specialized Search Firms (01:28:03) Adapting to the New Market Realities (01:30:46) Final Thoughts and Reflections Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky   Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA   🎙 Listen to the show   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1   Follow on Socials   📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow   About the Show   Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.