Chris Vanzetta | Seven Seven Six

Talent Outcomes at Seven Seven Six

by Chris Vanzetta | Sep 20, 2022

Because we like to do things a little differently

Original art by Guss Navarro

At Seven Seven Six, we’re committed to innovating everything from products to processes. We share our learnings—and what we’d do differently—in the hopes of pushing tech and VC forward as industries. So, with that in mind, here’s what we’re doing with our Talent function.

To start, you may have noticed we’re calling this function Talent Outcomes. We’ve chosen the word “outcomes” to reflect the impact of our work and the accountability we’ll share in the results of these efforts. This function will sit directly next to – and work in tandem with – the Founder Outcomes Team, led by my colleague Cristina Georgoulakis. Together, these two areas of focus will ensure our portfolio companies are values and goal aligned, producing the greatest possible returns and building the future of tech.

In a traditional venture firm, the Talent team is responsible for making introductions to (or even placing candidates at) their portfolio companies. It is hyper-focused on talent attraction and helping their portfolio companies recruit. While this may feel like it solves an immediate pain point, this only represents one very small part of a founder’s real challenge. Getting them in the door is one thing. Creating an environment where they want to stay and a company they want to grow with is another.

Whether the candidate happens to work out or not—it can go either way—filling that role is just one part of cultivating talent. Issues such as building compensation strategy, a performance management program grounded in clear expectations and consistent feedback, building a diversity and inclusion roadmap to drive employee engagement, or working through organizational design and culture challenges are far more impactful in making sure an employee stays. One qualified lead for a key role, enticing as that may seem in the moment, will not enable a company to effectively recruit or retain talent into the future.

We believe that teaching our founders and their leaders how to recruit top talent is far more valuable than helping to fill a handful of open roles. Directly staffing roles for our portfolio companies can’t and won’t scale. Access to our network of over tens of thousands of people through Cerebro (our firm’s proprietary software) will. A direct introduction tool eases top of funnel candidate congestion. The depth of experience in our Talent Outcomes function will give the founders the tools and strategies they need to build a recruiting and retention strategy that scales. This combination of software, coaching, training, and closing will ensure our founders get their key roles filled quickly and effectively.

In addition to coaching and network access, we feel strongly that a company’s biggest competitive advantage is culture. Developing, retaining, and rewarding talent is all a part of our Talent Outcomes strategy and programming. We have no business (or interest) in trying to be executive recruiters to hundreds of portfolio companies. Instead, we’re placing our resources into learning, development, and software to help our founders build sustainable, scalable, and holistic people & culture practices.

The Talent Outcomes Playbook

Our founders will engage with the Talent Outcomes team in a variety of ways:

1:1 Coaching: This is for those “oh s*#!, red alert” moments where our founders need immediate support, guidance and coaching. It might not always be that urgent, but when the founder needs strategic advice from a people & culture perspective, we will be there to guide them.

1:1 Workshops: This is for when our founders need to solve a more complicated problem that will take us a lot of time, headspace, and energy. From building a competitive compensation & job architecture strategy, to revamping recruiting and interview processes, to building a diversity and inclusion roadmap, our Talent Outcomes team is equipped with the tools and experience to go deep with our founders and early teams to help solve their most pressing people & culture problems with precision.

1 to Many: To help us scale our impact, we will build and share resources and best practices to give our founders the on-demand support they need to build talent-dense teams and world class cultures. We will partner with industry experts to bring to live trainings, workshops and the like to help upskill our founders.

Technology: Everything above requires a human with EQ and lived experience. But sometimes, technology can be even more efficient and effective than humans. As we continue to build Cerebro, our firm’s internal operating system, we will develop a world class talent network that will help our founders make connections with other founders, investors, and the best talent on the market for their teams.

What’s Next?

The reality is, we’re still a very small team and there is no way that I can do this by myself. We already have well over 50 portfolio companies, 100+ founders, and just one me. The Talent Outcomes team will need to grow as we continue to raise more capital, onboard new portfolio companies and founders, and continue to iterate on how we can scale our support with technology.

As we look into the future, the most critical need we will hire for is someone with deep Talent Acquisition experience. A leader in this space who has done the heavy lifting, helping organizations scale from 0 → 1 → many, that has built and scaled recruiting operations, and has an innate ability to coach senior leaders on how to build diverse, talent dense teams. If that sounds like you, keep your ears and eyes peeled for an open job application soon!

As we like to say here at the firm: we’re just at the starting line. I am grateful to be on this team, doing the work I know and love so very much. I can’t wait to share our progress and learnings with you all as we continue to build this function!

Welcome Chris Vanzetta – Talent Outcomes Partner

by Chris Vanzetta | Sep 6, 2022

Because LinkedIn doesn’t tell the whole story

Original art by Guss Navarro

Hi, y’all. Chris here, writing from a space of immense gratitude for the opportunity to lead and build the Talent Outcomes function at Seven Seven Six.

I can’t wait to tell you all about what we are building and how we are thinking about approaching things differently on the Talent front, but I thought it would be appropriate to share a bit about myself first. In true Seven Seven Six fashion, I’ll let my LinkedIn page give you my resume rundown and take this space to share my story instead.

My Love Affair with All Things People & Culture

For those who truly know me, there’s no wonder as to why I fell in love with the people function. My upbringing and my identity have shaped my perspective and guided me through my career. These formative experiences sparked the drive to build thoughtful, inclusive, and thriving workplace cultures.

I am the byproduct of a low-middle income, split family from upstate New York. Both my mother and father are Licensed Clinical Social Workers. My dad is a practicing therapist and my mom is a care coordinator for adults with disabilities. Very early on, they instilled in me and my siblings that our success should be measured by the lives we touch, not the money we make or the status of our job. They taught me how to be in tune with my emotions, how to understand people and their motivations, the value of a strong work ethic, and that everyone has something special to offer this world.

In college, I studied international business with a minor in economics and Russian studies – the latter perhaps being a little less practical – but I was always fascinated by the world of business; the way it is ever-evolving, deeply strategic, and curiously dynamic. Outside of the classroom, I ran track to exhaust my energy and exercise my competitive nature. But, as a gay man who was coming to terms with his identity, I struggled to find my sense of belonging and true community.

It is this combination of experiences that have been woven into my career over time, giving me a deeper purpose in all that I do. My life’s work is to ensure that people feel engaged, inspired, safe, and included in their workplaces, and to help organizations achieve success through their people strategy and practices. I have spent the last decade of my career directly impacting the lives of people, giving them the tools to thrive at work and enabling greater results through people optimization. I have helped to build several successful organizations, all while keeping the human experience as the primary focus. Now, I am ready to scale my work, supporting the 776 portfolio companies as they build world-class organizations.

I didn’t set out to be an “HR Guy”, but I have to say – it feels pretty right to me.

New Role, New Function

And so our work together begins! I can’t wait to share with you how we’re thinking about Talent at the firm and why this function is going to have a massive impact on the success of our investments. Until then, be well and follow me on Twitter for a peek behind-the-scenes of 776 and pictures of the best cat in the world – Apollo!