Event category: Leadership, People & Culture

Jacob will explore how he has built and led teams as an internal operator and now as an external recruiter. He has successfully hired over 2000 employees for various startups and continues to recruit hundreds more as a "consultative recruiter for tech".

The journey of scaling up from 5 to 25, 25 to 50, and beyond all have their own unique challenges and triumphs. In this session, you'll learn when to bring on your first HR professional, how to effectively leverage your network, what to look for in your key hires and how to minimize churn as you scale up.

Startups are rollercoasters. CEOs and leaders face extreme highs and lows. A veteran CFO, VC, and coach, Mark MacLeod has seen it all. Failure is expected, but personal failure shouldn't be. Happy, healthy leaders build lasting companies. Mark shares strategic insights and practical habits for sustainable success in this talk.

90% of startups fail and the founders behind them often silently struggle with extreme stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout.  

While mental health isn’t a topic that’s readily discussed when it comes to entrepreneurship, it is vital to the success of any startup.  

 In this session, Lloyed Lobo, Co-founder, and President of “Soonicorn” Boast.AI shares 7 steps entrepreneurs can use to turn pain into personal and professional happiness from his experiences as a gulf war refugee, 2x failed startups, and almost dying due to COVID-19. 

 Specifically, Lloyed will share: understanding and preparing for the types of rejection and failure, tactical strategies for navigating anxiety and stress, how to build a support network, how to share safely and vulnerably, how to disassociate yourself from attachment, how to refocus and re-energize when you’re backed into a corner and best practices for peak mental, physical, and business performance.

As companies strive to elevate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as an organizational core value, many struggle with how to implement change at a systemic level. DEI practitioners Sage and Sharon will help to unpack this complex challenge and share tactical tips on how to integrate DEI as a functional and integrated part of your business structure by addressing specific issues with processes and systems in the day-to-day of your business, operations, and culture. 

The greatest challenge facing SaaS founders post-pandemic may have less to do with adjusting growth strategies and more to do with retaining team members, making them ‘talent poaching proof” and emulating a strong culture with hybrid/remote teams. People are not just changing jobs; they are shifting what they care about and leaving organizations that don’t meet expectations.    

In this session, hear innovative examples of how top companies have: Built cultures that fuel engagement and where team members can find meaning in their contribution, build top talent initiatives and strategic leadership development plans to retain employees who can grow their careers within your company and created connection amongst remote and hybrid teams.

It's been a tough few months for tech employees, with a new round of layoffs hitting LinkedIn almost every week. While the instinct might be to lay low, this is exactly when brands need to double down — on their employees, job candidates, and customers. Shalina Patel, Senior Employer Brand Manager at Ada will share the importance of maintaining an authentic employer brand in times of crisis, and how it can drive business growth.