Lauren Ipsen: evaluation

Transcript context

…That sounds awesome and it makes sense. How do you, as a founder, do some of that? Do you just ask folks like, "Hey, who are some of the best product leaders you know? I just want to chat with them. I'm not hiring, just want to kind of meet people who are awesome." Is that the behavior you suggest or is there something else you can do? That's a great way to go about it. And by simply saying, "No agenda, I'm not trying to hire you tomorrow, I just want to know great people." And to be totally honest, people feel flattered by that, typically. Most of the time if you've been referred to someone and heard nothing but great things about them and you really don't have an agenda other than wanting to pick their brain, people are like, "Huh, well, this is different from the day to day. This is fulfilling," and people want to pour their knowledge, especially into companies that they believe in. So, I think more often than not you'll find that, not just products leaders, but executives across the board are actually really inclined to do so and want to help out because it's a little bit different from the day to day monotony of their work life. So, the advice is keep track of companies who are killing it, who you might be able to kind of poach from in the future, and keep a list and keep warm contact with folks that are awesome.…

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