In this episode, we catch up with Kelly Kinnard, Operating Partner and Head of Talent at Khosla Ventures, one of the top venture capital firms in the world. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., Khosla Ventures was founded by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a twenty-year veteran of Kleiner Perkins. The firm has $19B in AUM, 100+ M&A exits, 25 IPOs, and 35+ unicorns throughout its history.
Khosla Ventures’ portfolio includes OpenAI, Affirm, DoorDash, Instacart, Stripe, Okta, Square, and 400 other companies. They focus on a broad range of areas where technology can drive economic disruption and positively impact society, create new markets, and serve existing ones better through radical new approaches. They invest in AI, consumer, enterprise, FinTech, healthcare, space, the future of food, manufacturing/robotics, sustainability, and frontier technologies.
Kelly shares her insights on talent acquisition and building successful startup teams, discussing the importance of finding the right fit for each company and offering practical tips on developing and managing relationships with top talent. She emphasises personalisation and authenticity in candidate outreach and building strong relationships with founders, while also highlighting the importance of managing stress and prioritising self-care in the fast-paced startup environment and much more.
Video version of episode 76:
Audio version of episode 76:
Key takeaways:
- Finding the right fit for each company is an absolute must for building winning start-up teams.
- Personalisation and authenticity are key in building and managing strong relationships with founders.
- The biggest mistake you can make when reaching out to people is to be generic. Make sure to be very specific and clear in your message.
- How you manage stress and take care of your mental health is the most important factor for leaders to thrive in the fast-paced start-up environment. Everyone on your team is looking at you.
- Working with the best and brightest people who change the world changes the way you think. Sceptics never did the impossible.
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