#84: Akhil Seth of UST, a16z Embraces the Human Cloud with Distributed Offices, 40% Of Employees Still Leaving

Jul 30, 2022

∙ Paid

Leaders, this week’s been an inspiring one. While the economy looks like a walking contradiction, 3 leader meetings really stuck out.

One client told us he hires by starting people as freelancers.
Another told us he’d like to funnel all talent through freelance models rather than traditional vendor models.
Another told us they’d like to have regional talent pods of freelancers to expand (same skills, different regions). Talk about expansion, scale, and speed!!!

Before we get into the confusing state of the economy, let’s meet Akhil.

Akhil is a total baller. We’ll discuss why the future of talent is freelancers and how enterprises can tap into this abundant pool of open talent.

💩 Bad News

Second massive interest rate hike hits.

Technically we’re in a recession after 2 straight quarters of a declining economy.

WTBFD: Frozen budgets and FTE headcount freeze will be multi-year.
WTBFD 2: That’s GOOD. That means most teams and org’s will stick their head in the sand while you embrace elastic freelance talent (which is under creative hiring OR variable business expense).

Moderate News

40% of workers still want to quit their jobs

WTBFD: Notice the term ‘WANT’ to leave.
WTBFD: The mid to low performers will stay. The top performers will keep leaving. Why will they leave? Keep reading (hint…career advancement).

🚀 Good News

💻 Top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz prioritizes smaller regional offices and remote work over one centralized HQ.

WTBFD 1: This is a massive deal because it’s Andreessen, not the thousands of Twitter VC’s.
WTBFD 2: This indirectly signals how venture backed companies will look going forward. Both companies will want to look like Andreessen, and Andreessen will find similarly distributed companies.
WTBFD 3: We can finally say talent is distributed outside of San Francisco and New York. Here’s to smaller regions like Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, Columbus, Savannah, etc. Also global (hint…my teams have always been 60% outside the US).

🧠 McKinsey shows that lack of career development and advancement leading reason people leave their job.

Shouldn’t this be bad news? Not really when we explain why 👇👇👇

WTBFD: Both sides are in a tough spot. Individuals want a seat. As leaders we have to align and justify the ROI to each promotion/salary increase. In my teams, prioritizing KPI’s, aligning on how outcomes align to KPI’s, and using the data as truth has been the best way to keep these two competing forces in alignment.
WTBFD: If 👆 is aligned, don’t be afraid to drown us younger leaders in responsibility. BUT give us a lifeline in the form of mentorship and budget to hire freelancers.
WTBFD: External experts accelerate our learning curve by learning from the years of experience and tactical knowledge these experts have. So it’s more than just ‘hire freelancers’, it’s enabling us to increase our scope, and accelerate our learnings.
WTBFD: In summary, give us responsibility, give us a little bit of budget, and watch us shine.

1. New Social Contract is LIVE! (members can access contribute link at the bottom of this).

2. Leader Portals coming up!

Next week you’ll hear from Abby Forman, Director of Communications at Fiverr.
- Teaser Quote: “especially when it comes to this new world of working, where everyone is remote, managers can't keep track of people's time the way that they used to. And so now, all they have to rely on is the output of that person's work”.
Thennnnn Niklas Lieb, Head of Bus Dev at Vicoland.
- Teaser Quote: “We are shifting towards an economy where freelancers are able to do more complex projects and to be staffed on more important missions.”

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