When to Engage Your VC's Talent Team with Jen Kodner

Intro: Welcome to the Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real- world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with Jennifer Kodner. Jennifer is a talent partner at DFJ Growth and Threshold Ventures. She has prior similar experiences and similar roles at Andreessen Horowitz, Comcast Ventures. At one point she ran in- house recruiting at Box. Jennifer, it's great to see you.

Jennifer Kodner: Great to see you too, Matt. And you can call me Jen.

Matt Blumberg: Jen.

Jennifer Kodner: We're going to keep it informal here.

Matt Blumberg: Okay. All right, Jen. But not Jenny.

Jennifer Kodner: No. Sorry. It's a great name for some people, just not me.

Matt Blumberg: Just not you. All right, so my question for you today as a talent partner at multiple VCs over time, and have also done in- house, it's kind of an interesting perspective, is when should CEOs, or founders, think about engaging operating partners or their venture talent team? I know that there's some of them that are addicted to those teams and they're there all the time and there's some that never use them, and there's some that probably just don't know when it makes sense.

Jennifer Kodner: Yeah, for sure. And thank you for the question. And I think the third category is probably the one where we should focus, because the ones who know how to use us, and it's great, and they're fully aware of our capabilities. The second category, I mean, I kind of look at it this way. It's like there's enough love to go around, so maybe I'm not vibing with a founder, or they just have a better relationship with another firm. That's totally cool. And if they feel comfortable working with that firm, that's great. But the third category of those of like, hey, I know this function exists. I don't know when to engage it. That's probably the one where we should focus. What do you think?

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. Although I think the second one matters too, because I think there are probably some founders and CEOs that don't want to engage an operating group of any form either because they don't know how, they don't know when, or they're worried that it's going to somehow show weakness on their part, or it's going to get back to the investment partner and board member that something is wrong. I think those two categories probably go together.

Jennifer Kodner: Fair enough. Good point. Well, to answer the question of are we going to come back to our partners, or the board member, whatever, no. I mean, if there's something going on, hopefully your board, and/ or your investors already know about it, so there are no surprises, but we're really here to help support you. Literally the function exists is because we know that in building a startup, people are the most important asset. So that's kind why I'm sitting here. But to answer the question, when to engage your venture operating team and specifically talent, it's like early and often. So there's no question too big or too small in which to engage us. So kind of going through the theme of three things, I'll walk through how I think about it and really how I walk through our capabilities when I am onboarding a new company and a new founder. So the first thing is there doesn't have to be a huge event. I mean, it's almost better just to get to know us and get to know our capabilities and where we are super strong, where we're less strong, but have resources. Because the thing is, is we're not going to hide anything. We will let you know how and when we can be helpful and when we can refer you to someone who we know can be helpful if it's not us. And like I said earlier, we're literally here for you. I mean, the role exists because we invest in early stage companies, or on the threshold side with mid- stage companies with growth, but we invest in companies who ideally need some talent or people support. So that's why we're here. Second, use us as a thought partner. If you're toying around with, hey, I'm thinking about hiring a CFO, or a CMO, I don't know when the timing is. Come to us. We don't have a perfect answer, but we've seen it enough to where we can say, hey, this is what we've seen with other companies. This is what we think works. And not even just on the people side, but if you're thinking about implementing a bonus program, or you're thinking about equity refresh, again, we see this a lot and we know what other companies do, so we're happy to give you our relatively educated opinion and perspective on things like that too. Plus we can help you scope it out and again, get you, if it's not us, get you resources that can also help you be successful at whether it's hiring an executive or building out some sort of compensation program.

Matt Blumberg: That thought partner point is a really important one because if you think, if you're a founder and you think about the best VC board member you have, they're really good at pattern matching at the strategic level. What your team is really good at doing is pattern matching with data at the operating level. I would encourage founders to think about it that way. The value you're getting out of your board member in one place, you can get out of the operating team at another place.

Jennifer Kodner: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, we're here to really complement each other and fill in the gaps where others can't. And going back to my first point, even if it's something you think that we can't help you with, you should still come to us. Again, we're not here to tattle back to the board or the investors. And again, if there's something going on, they should know about it, or they probably already do know about it. Because if nothing else, we're pretty good founder, CEO, executive therapist. Where it's like, again, if you're just wanting to bounce something off us, or just vent, I have those conversations every day and I'm happy to do it. That's why I'm sitting here. And again, if it's something that I truly can't help with, we typically have pretty good resources who have done whatever it is that you need. We either have good resources and/ or great operators who have seen what you've seen and are always happy to have a formal, or informal, conversation and be a third party, or also someone else in the portfolio. So we have just a group of people who we know who are willing to be helpful and just talk. And again, it could be on the record, off the record, and then that eliminates us to be in the picture if there is some fear that we're going to go back and talk to our partners.

Matt Blumberg: All right. So bonus question here at the end. You've seen, back to the pattern matching point. You've seen dozens, hundreds, of companies go through the scaling motions from seed to series A to series B to series C. What is the biggest, or the most, prevalent, I won't say mistake, but the most prevalent thing you see CEOs do that they are sorry they did down the road, or didn't do?

Jennifer Kodner: Yeah, it's a great question, Matt. It's really making a decision. I mean, I know that this is very simplistic, but it's making a decision. I want to hire a head of sales, but I'm going to just dance around it for six months and think about it. It's like, no, you should hire someone because if you're not, as a CEO, the best salesperson and you have a go- to- market function, hire the person. And just know, and this sounds a little callous, and I don't mean it to be, but just know that this person might only stay with you for 12 to 18 months, and if they do the job and if they do what you wanted them to do in that 12 to 18 month period of time, that is a win. And so I had this conversation a lot where it's like, oh my gosh, this person only lasted for 12 or 18 months. But it's like, but did they do what you wanted them to do and were they successful? If the answer is yes, then that's a positive outcome. So I think it's really more lack of indecision, or inability, to move forward with the decision is one of the bigger mistakes that I see.

Matt Blumberg: And look, I think a lot of first- time founders question themselves a lot when it comes to people judgment, both on the way in and on the way out. So that's not surprising, but I think it's probably good advice that usually if you think something needs to happen, it needs to happen.

Jennifer Kodner: Yeah.

Matt Blumberg: All right. Jen Kodner, from DFJ Growth and Threshold Ventures, thank you so much for being here.

Jennifer Kodner: Thank you for having me.