I’m excited to announce that I have officially joined RocketPower, the recruiting services firm founded by CEO Mathew Caldwell. I’ve known Mat for years—he was my predecessor as VP at Instacart—and I’ve always been impressed with both his reputation for excellence and the way he really cares about people. We’ve often talked about finding a way to work together beyond the Webinars and speaking engagements we’ve done together. It wasn’t until a turn of events empowered us to make that happen now. And the timing to invest in the future is better than ever (despite what you might be reading in the news.) We know that collectively we can do more good for companies than we could ever do alone.

Last year I was helping to build the executive search function at another recruiting company, but left in January and launched my firm, Neptune People (which will continue to operate, focused on consulting and career coaching). The hardest part about going was leaving my team behind; non-solicits are definitely enforceable in California! Fast forward a few months, and that former company shut down in mid-March, laying off over 50 talented recruiting professionals right as the Covid-19 pandemic escalated exponentially. Mat saw the opportunity in the crisis and hired as many of the team members as he could absorb, including my (former) direct team of Brittany Barron and Kyle Edquist, and our leader, Tommy Jenkins. This acquisition really bolstered the executive search capabilities of RocketPower, and also offered a path for me to reunite with my team—winning all around! It was obvious that it was time for Mat and I to join forces.

But my team was not the only draw. The entire RocketPower crew embodies the kind of teams I love to work with: highly collaborative, hard-working, dedicated to client success, and a ton of fun. RocketPower folks take their work seriously but themselves, not so much, which is refreshing in business. People love to work at the company and Forbes recently recognized that (see number 91 here). I have also been enormously impressed by the sheer amount of diversity in the RocketPower crew—diversity in race, gender, age, location, country, continent and educational background. It’s a company that truly cares about all people and welcomes everyone to be their true selves. I’m already proud to work here.

RocketPower provides recruiting and outsourcing solutions that allow companies to massively scale. Mat and I have some very complimentary experience building some of the most iconic and successful startup companies in Silicon Valley history (and some that crashed spectacularly, like Deem). Between Mozilla, Apple, Salesforce, Uber, and Instacart, we’ve seen how great companies grow and recruit talent across all functions and levels: from BDR buildouts and mass hiring of engineers to C-level executive searches at multibillion-dollar unicorns. We’ve also seen, and made, a ton of mistakes along the journey, and we’re eager to help the next generation of startups avoid those potholes while adopting the strategies that led to success for the winners. The rest of the leadership team—all experienced business owners and leaders—is also here to help. Regan (outsourcing) Amber (talent operations), Tommy (running exec search), Jeff (running operations), and Dustin (in charge of RockITLaunch) are excited to solve the absolute hardest problem any org has: hiring great talent.