Elena Stefanopol is a talent leader who has built hiring systems inside fast growing tech companies, including Airbnb, and now leads talent at Rundoo. She sat down to talk about what it actually takes to build a talent function inside an early stage company. Things unique to the world of stage startup recruiters. Like building RecOps from 0-1. Owning every decision about the candidate journey, going to market with budget to select software that actually helps, and how to work with a founder as hiring manager. Let’s be honest, there’s no greater opportunity for a recruiter to learn accountability in the profession than to be a founding recruiter in a startup.
Elena shares her perspective on the recruiter and hiring manager partnership, the difference between hiring for the first 50 people versus the next 500, and how to bring more structure into the process without slowing the company down. We also got into metrics and what really matters behind the dashboards. Ultimately, strong hiring systems are built through clarity, shared ownership, and disciplined execution. Elena gets it. Because she’s done the work, too.
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Timestamps
3:00 - Why Elena is focused on building better talent functions
5:00 - Why hiring manager partnership is the foundation of recruiting
7:00 - The problem with the term hiring manager
10:00 - Using team design before kickoff meetings
13:00 - Founder led hiring vs structured hiring at scale
15:00 - What founders want from talent leaders early on
18:00 - The debate around quality of hire
22:00 - Who should own accountability for hiring outcomes
26:00 - Time in stage, speed, and useful recruiting metrics
31:00 - AI hype, 10x talent expectations, and staying grounded
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