Talent Partner Trend A recent trend in VC firms has been to hire internal talent teams to build and manage their ecosystem of people and companies. These teams, generally comprised of only a few people, are tasked with managing talent networks across the VC’s entire portfolio. Although many talent executives come from an executive search background, they’re not there to replace the external recruiter and fill openings within the firm. Instead, they’re looking to connect with great talent that they feel could contribute to one or more of their portfolio companies. It’s critical to connect the talent team to the firm’s entire ecosystem – Partners, Portfolio Companies, Advisors, and 3rd party Recruiters – allowing VCs to build and share their dynamic talent and company networks. Challenges Currently, there is a technology gap when it comes to organization and utilization of data collected by VCs. As the window for success narrows amidst ongoing introductions and increased competition, the pressure intensifies to fill openings more quickly. It’s necessary for talent teams to be able to quickly and readily access which openings exist within their ecosystem. Due to the evolving nature of the tech industry, today’s VCs encompass a greater number of partners, portfolio companies, and industries. As a result, these small talent teams are challenged to manage the increasing complexity of a larger, more diverse portfolio. Adding people to the team isn’t an option; neither the resources nor the ROI is there to do so. Without a single system to manage this, a lot of valuable time is lost updating multiple spreadsheets and databases. A force multiplier is needed! White Paper: Jump Start Your Portfolio Companies’ Talent Acquisition – Learn how to add real value to your portfolio companies by helping them attract the best talent in their sector, industry, and geographic location. The Challenges Manage and share talent networks Track open positions across portfolio companies Match candidates with openings Sharing resumes, contact profiles and feedback Small teams needing a force multiplier The Solution In order to remain competitive, VCs need to adopt technology that allows them to move beyond process mastery into the realm of strategic influence. Leading firms have implemented powerful tools to manage and share talent networks across their portfolios. Talent management software allows VCs to more efficiently manage their data with a customized and user-friendly platform. Recommended Criteria for Improvements Through a TRM Gain a global view of open positions Quickly match the right candidates Capture crucial candidate intelligence Share contact profiles and feedback Central database that keeps ownership in-house Makes management easy Has a great user experience At Thrive, we’ve introduced a talent relationship management (TRM) platform for VCs that does this and more. I encourage you to click here to learn more about our solution.