Very True by Verissimo

In this episode of Very True, Alex sits down with Jeff Shapiro, a thirty-year executive recruiter now at Altira Search, former Partner at Viola Group, and one of Alex's closest friends in Israel. Jeff came up through Egon Zehnder, Korn Ferry and Christian & Timbers, built Everest Search Partners in Israel over eleven years, sold it to Kingsley Gate in 2019, then spent three years on the other side of the table running human capital at Viola. 

They start with what an executive recruiter actually does and which parts of it AI has already eaten. Jeff's answer: finding people was never the secret. Getting them over the line is. From there: why the interview starts with the client, not the candidate. Why the CRO you're asking for might really be a VP of Sales. How Zuckerberg ended the era of adult supervision. Why culture is the only moat you control. Leaders versus managers, and why your best seller should not run sales. What three years inside a VC taught Jeff about founders, and the advice he gives them now: just decide. They close with a rapid-fire round: is the resume dead, when to hire your first VP of Sales, which function to go fractional on first, and whether founders should run their own searches.

[04:05] What AI can and can't do to executive search: the research and the lists were always automatable. "There's no secret to finding people. The secret is in influence, in getting them over the line."

[07:04] The interview starts with the client, not the candidate. Why a company posting "we're looking for a CRO" on LinkedIn is betting that great executives are browsing job boards.

[11:54] Zuckerberg ended the era of adult supervision. Investors now give founders as much rope as they can, maybe to a fault, and Israeli visionaries with "supernatural powers" on product wait too long to surround themselves with company builders.

[13:43] "Founder is now a step on the career ladder." Alex on the golden age of liquidity, triple-triple-double-double-double, and why late-stage money at founding stage kills companies that should be surviving to iterate.

[21:44] Culture is the whole value of the business. Tech moats are surmountable. What's left is speed, access to customers, and whether people will go above and beyond. Then the Vinod Khosla chief of staff post, and why "the 9-to-5 being enough went away with the gold standard."

[27:32] The first search Jeff ever ran: a CEO for Vinod Khosla at Kleiner Perkins, a sat phone from India, and the email from Eric Schmidt saying thanks but it's not for me, six months before he joined Google.

[32:26] Leaders vs. managers. Your best seller, a high percentage of the time, is not the best person to run the sales team. Leadership is an actual skill, and clients still ask for last year's quota numbers.

[42:33] Three years inside Viola: the 2021 war for talent, the mandate to build an edge, how 2022, 2023 and October 7th changed the priorities, and the advice Jeff gives every founder now: just decide.

[52:13] Rapid fire: never ask yes-or-no questions in an interview, two years is the new minimum tenure, hire your first VP of Sales at $7 to $10 million, go fractional on marketing first, and exhaust your network before you call a search firm.

Altira Search: https://www.altirasearch.com/
Jeff Shapiro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeshapiro/
Verissimo Ventures: https://verissimo.vc/
Alex Oppenheimer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-oppenheimer/
Alex's Substack (leaders vs. managers): https://alexoppenheimer.substack.com/

Mentioned in this episode:
Very True Ep. 35, Everyone's Wrong About AI Moats, with Michael Stoppelman: https://share.transistor.fm/s/203f5be6
Very True Ep. 38, Why the Multi-Sport Kid Wins, with Nick Greenfield: https://share.transistor.fm/s/4e6b9e99

Hosted by Alex Oppenheimer, Very True by Verissimo Ventures explores the honest, unvarnished stories of founders and the real problems they are solving. We look past the hype to find the truth in technology and entrepreneurship.