Description

In this episode we unpack the topic of: Leadership Transitions: Uncompromising Strategies for Success with Andrew Duncan, Talent @ Atomico (ex-UpGroup) and Maddy Cross Partner @ Erevena (ex-Notion Capital)

We discuss the following with Maddy and Andrew: 

• Given the average tenure of senior execs in scaleups, what advice would you give execs and what should companies that are hiring consider? 
• How uncompromising do you need to be to get the right leaders in place?
• What is the difference in leadership skills needed between early and late stage? 
• Do we need someone that has been there and done that? 
• What is the right mix of experience needed for a leadership team? 
• How do you identify gaps in a leadership team?  

References

• Barry McCarthy (story mentioned by Andrew)
• Former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy Joins Super-Secretive Payments Startup Clinkle As COO
• Clinkle's Still a Hot Mess as Its Big Shot COO Departs
• Clinkle Up In Smoke As Investors Want Their Money Back
• The COO role (giving context for how Andrew thinks about the role)
• Stepping up: What COOs will need to succeed in 2023 and beyond
• Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer
• How Best To Onboard Into Different Types Of COO Role
• What is a Chief Operating Officer? 
• From the beginning to a billion. How unicorns built their leadership teams (mentioned by Maddy)
• What to Look for in Your VC's Talent Arm (mentioned by Brandon and loved by Maddy)
• How to Understand the ROI of Investing in People (wasn’t mentioned but Maddy thinks is a great piece)

Biography: 

Maddy Cross is a Partner at Erevena, an Executive Search firm focussed on investor backed businesses, where she leads the European Technology and Engineering practice for B2B. Previously she was Talent Director at Notion Capital, a $1bn B2B SaaS focussed VC, and she holds an MBA from London Business School.

Andrew is a Talent Director at Atomico, one of Europe's largest venture capital funds. He supports portfolio companies in finding and hiring elite executive talent and is responsible for advising founders on the evolution of their leadership