1% Inspiration
By Laura Ianuly
Founder and CEO, Ianuly Talent Accelerators
More than a century ago, Thomas Edison – most famous for inventing the lightbulb and phonograph – said that he looked for three qualities in hiring inventors: persistence, imagination, and a logical mind that sees analogies. Today, such traits remain just as critical, especially for innovators launching start-ups, and the recruiters who help them build their teams.
Let me give you an example. My recruiters at Ianuly Talent Accelerators were recently tasked with building the team for an insurance start-up that provides episodic insurance – spot coverage for short periods and odd situations, such as a film crew flying a drone over a crowded stadium, or a climber hired to install 5G equipment atop a radio spire. The challenge of finding great candidates for this insurtech start-up was that a majority of people who worked in the insurance industry were by nature risk-averse, and most comfortable in a corporate environment. Our client needed candidates who were comfortable with ambiguity, and had the metabolism and confidence to try building something entirely disruptive.
Working with our client to identify relevant skillsets, we determined that we should look for people in adtech, investment banking and air traffic control – fields with 24/7 tech demands and low tolerance for error – as well as in fintech, especially at companies delivering outstanding customer service. As it turns out, we were correct in our analogies, and were able to find great candidates to bring aboard the start-up.
In 20 years as a recruiter, I’ve reviewed nearly half a million candidate profiles. My team of recruiters has looked at millions more. Counterintuitively, perhaps, this collective experience has taught us to look beyond poor resumes, and not to be seduced by those that happen to be rich with current buzzwords. The reason is that the most talented candidates are often too busy doing outstanding work, or are too modest, to sell themselves.
That’s where a recruiter’s sleuthing and interviewing skills come into play, teasing out clues and stories and experiences that suggest a diamond in the rough. My team and I are always looking for what we call athletes, people with the raw talent and agility to succeed under pressure, no matter where they may be working in a given industry or ecosystem. And since we strive to build lifetime relationships with talented people, we are able to help them evolve and grow over time. Of course, this works to the advantage of the start-ups that hire us, too.
Looking back, Edison was not just an inventor of ingenious technologies, he was also the father of modern R&D, recruiting a diversity of people and skills to tackle a range of challenges as a unified team. One contemporaneous account described how Bell Telephone and the National Cash Register Company – quickly following Edison’s approach – also hired their “inventions department” from diverse fields.
“One is an ex-newspaperman from the Middle West,” a journalist wrote. “Another was a groceryman in a small town in California. Another was once known as ‘The Lone Fisherman of Cape Cod.’” As modern studies have subsequently shown, diverse teams perform better because they draw from more tributaries of knowledge, fueling imaginative problem-solving and accelerating innovation.
While my team and I have yet to recruit a fisherman, we do have a great network of talented people and love tapping it to staff promising start-ups. So if you have a great idea and the drive to translate that into reality, I’m already hooked. As Edison rightly noted, “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” For me, one of the most inspiring markets right now is 5G, because of the transformative benefits it will bring to billions of people. For smart teams willing to sweat together, anything is possible. Let’s get to work.
