TLDR

⬇️ Open Roles I'm Hiring For ⬇️ 

✅ Sales Enablement Lead
✅ Account Exec (media sellers only)
✅ SDR (ZERO COLD CALLS - we’re the email people)

Building the People & Talent function 

TLDR is the newsletter collective with 5+ million readers. 

Passionate about media, tech, VC, and startups? DM's open 📥

Director, People & Talent

The RevolTA Podcast

Passionate about Recruiting? Let's talk.🎙️

Host

DisruptHR Denver

Associate Council | Speaker

Transform

I head up the Denver chapter: https://plus.transform.us/c/denver-chapter 
Swing by our next event

Denver Chapter Lead

Talent GOAT Media

Managing Editor

Go Fractional

Early Ops hire, platform for fractional CxOs from early stage startups.
Sold Executive Search AI-enabled recruiting platform
Community Management for the Go Fractional Community

Talent | Operations | Community

Prospectus Labs

Prospectus Labs builds hiring engines 0-1.


• Executive search for Seed-Series C startups
• Full cycle technical and corporate recruitment for EPD, GTM, & G&A roles
• RecOps: Tech Audit, Recommendations, Implementations, Analytics
• Bespoke Talent Assessments for skills-based hiring models 
• Employer Branding, EVP Activation, and Community Engagement strategy and execution

Clients include:
• HR & Talent Tech 
• Artificial Intelligence
• Y Combinator founders
• Venture Capital startups

GM | Talent Partner

Metaview

Had some fun creating content and promoting AI transcription in the hiring process.

Brand Ambassador

Searchlight

Early ops hire at an ethical AI startup acquired by Multiverse. (YC, Founders Fund)
Remit included: Hiring, Demand Gen, MarOps, Partnerships, BizDev

Ops + GTM

Caribou

• Early TA hire at a fintech unicorn recognized by Mogul as Top 100 Global Company for D&I
• Executive search, full cycle technical and non-technical recruitment

Senior Recruiter

👋 Talent Acquisition | Employer Branding | HR Tech | Startups | Y Combinator Enthusiast

“Possibly the first person to make HR look cool.” - Head of Talent

"The content king!" - Head of Marketing, ATS vendor

“Your content is wild and contagious.” - Recruiting Influencer 

“The Kevin Bacon of Recruiting” - Head of Talent 

“Our HR conference godfather.” - Recruiting Influencer

“That video is so clean. The TA world doesn't often get edits like this.” - Head of Events, marketing agency 

“Your videos are fire. We need more of this in our space.” - Recruiting conference producer

“Already way ahead of the pack.” - Brand Consultant, B2B creator platform 

"You actually match your online persona in real life. It's authentic." - Sales Director, Outside Magazine 

“That was our fastest time to fill ever [VP Eng search]” - VP, HR series C startup 

“You are the least HR person ever, in a good way.” - SVP, HR series B startup 

“You’re not just a recruiter, are you?” - VP Sales, ex-Lattice 

“I don’t know how these people are in your orbit.” - CEO, TLDR

“Lol! So you’re funny in real life, too!?” - Director, HR tech startup 

—
TLDR: I turned down Google to build startups and uplift the HR tech industry.

My Why: Life's too short not to work on cool problems with interesting people.

My Mission: Empowering the candidate<>employer relationship in the future of work.

My How: If I activate my highest potential, I can inspire it in others.

Good morning to everyone except people who talk about recruiting who haven’t worked a req since before the pandemic.

✌️Brandon Jeffs

Startup Recruiter | TA Tech Video Creator | Podcaster | Hype Man

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Katie Wagner is legit.

There's a lot of folks who talk about recruiting who don't actually....recruit.

So when she sat down to talk shop I was stoked because she operates at a level that's inspiring and not for everyone. She's truly top 90th percentile in the field, and that's what these conversations are about. Uplifting and upskilling high performing recruiters.

When you're a talent team of one, there's nowhere to hide. I mean this nicely, most folks in recruiting don't actually have what that takes. Or they work in later stage startups or scaleups and think they want that level of pressure because it sounds impressive or whatever. 

But Katie's approach to working with high tech companies for high stakes placements is defined as "Problem Based Recruiting".  And she's crushing.

PBR (lol okay I won't call it that again) is a fantastic framework for recruiters who are a ready take on a little bit more impact and strategy in their career as a recruiter. And all the preparation in the world won't prepare you to perform if you don't have the ability to execute at an elite level.

So why did I want to catch up with Katie? 

At the end of the day, recruiting isn't just about filling reqs. It's sharing those learnings and uplifting the community. Katie made time for that in her presentation recently at RecOps Con and I'm thrilled to continue to share these stories of contemporary recruiters who DO. THE. WORK.

Tl;dr - New Gen's here. And while the old guard is afraid to work reqs. We live for it.

Congrats to the team at Growth by Design Talent for their acquisition by Cursor. Thrilled to see what Katie will cook up next.

This is the biggest problem to solve in recruiting.

Candidate Fraud. 

Recruiters right now are spending way too much time just trying to confirm if a candidate is real. It’s become a real tax on the funnel. And that’s why I wanted to highlight something that actually solves the problem instead of adding more steps.

Endorsed just launched the FraudShield Chrome extension. AI fraud detection that runs directly inside your ATS. No integration. No setup. You install it and it immediately starts flagging suspicious profiles wherever you’re working.

FraudShield verifies identity across resumes, social profiles, phone numbers, emails, and external databases to help you spot fakes before they hit your interview pipeline. You can bulk filter and reject fraud, create compliance records, and access analytics on advanced plans.

Privacy is built in. No data retention on free plans beyond short-lived debug logs. Minimal Chrome permissions. And your data isn’t used to train their models by default.

If you’re tired of sorting through questionable resumes or losing hours to manual verification, this is one of the simplest tools I’ve seen to get that time back and protect your funnel. Shout out to David Head and the team for solving a very real problem everyone is talking about.  

You can try it free in seconds

A couple years ago I didn't have many work friends. 

The pandemic took it's toll on even the strongest of extroverts like me. 

I was working 12-15 hour days from the basement. Sourcing candidates in the middle of the night after rocking a newborn back to sleep. 
Hoping the startup IPO we were doubling down towards was going to deliver life changing wealth. 

Spoiler alert. It didn't. 

I'm still here on LinkedIn like I was ten years ago.

So I changed my thinking. How can I be the friend I wish I had at work? 

The podcast was part of that. But it was about showing up professionally as I do personally. Tie dye, bad jokes, slack/circle threads, community dinners, and all.

RecFest USA is part of that story as well. Jamie Leonard put me on a stage for year 1 and a few people showed up and said they liked what I had to share. So I kept building and went mask off online.

So this year at RecFest, I threw a dinner. For friends. 
Real people, real relationships, and a real vendor partnership. (With the text threads receipts to prove it.) 

Two of my actual friends Jonathan Wigodsky and Antonio Miguel Javiniar at Teamtailor were happy to make it happen. No panels. No pitches. Just good people, good food, and real conversation. As a former restaurant guy, there's nothing more powerful than breaking bread. (RIP, celiac disease.)

The theme for me that kept coming up at the table as a I watched people laugh through the evening was really quite simple. Friendship. Something we all deserve.

And it serves as a reminder that the next generation of people building in this space will be relationship-first.

Yes, it’s B2B.  But anyone will tell you, people buy from people. And part of building tech for recruiters is actually caring. It’s amazing how that works.

Why I like the ATS:
 • AI-native transcription makes note-taking and follow-ups seamless. They were quick to build this before everyone else.
 • Customizable career sites help brands tell their story, without relying on marketing resources.
 • Fast feedback loops. As a lot of teams are forced to scale and focus on enterprise needs, their product team actually listens and ships updates fast. And they have an amazing ICP filled with passion people. Like all of us.

Thanks TT 🩷

🤑 What's it like to build a recruiting media company in public? 

Here's an update on Building the Talent Machine... as promised. 

When it comes to sourcing, there's a lot of talk about how AI is disrupting everything. But great recruiters always think about pattern disruption. 📫 

I went out to speak about just that at Michigan Recruiters Conference. 
Shout out to Tim Sackett, SCP  🟦 and the good folks over at HRU Technical Resources for having me out. You're the best. 

Stay tuned for more. Because we're just getting started.

I have one work related friend who I know I can make laugh. 

Like any time, any place, give me an espresso and I can cook some corporate chuckles on short order. 

And they’re kind of like Jimmy Fallon. They sign up to support and commit to the bit.

When you write for an audience of one, you receive the real world benefits of all of this content creator whatever.

It’s called “Connection”

There’s literally a button for that.

Sure count your metrics that’s fine. (mine are insane btw I had no idea, I looked them up against benchmarks and they’re dope. Like top 90th percentile for what matters.)

Most creators just focus on vanity followers, impressions, engagements and try and sell a side hustle for consumer goods.

But they don’t do the math for those numbers. And I got curious about my own because A. I’m an ads guy from the new media world, and hire these people..And 2. I noticed an influx of agencies hitting me up. (I turn down brand deals all the time.)

You see, my friend, you don’t have to have a gazillion followers to make an impact on one person’s life. (Or your own, really.) 

I’m growing 90% YoY and anything more would concern me.
Hopefully I can keep the genie in the bottle. 

Why? Because the biggest thing you’re going to hear about in the creator economy in the next year or two is audience control.

So write for one not one million. 
And you might just make someone laugh. 
Or at least entertain yourself. That’s what most of this is for me anyway. 

And it’s been fun so far.

Why are frontline hiring teams still drowning in manual tasks in 2025?

Genuinely asking.

I was catching up with Ty Abernethy, founder of Grayscale, and he told me a story about a national retail team that was losing thousands of candidates a month… not because they didn’t have applicants, but because their process couldn’t keep up. 

Meanwhile, we’re in an era where AI can:
 • Run multi-step workflows across SAP, Workday, Greenhouse, and UKG
 • Text candidates instantly and actually get responses
 • Cut drop-off before it even becomes a dashboard metric
 • And handle the mountains of repetitive work recruiters quietly hold together with duct tape

So why are we still pretending “high-volume hiring” has to mean chaos?

Ty walked me through how Grayscale uses AI agents to rebuild frontline hiring from the inside out. Reducing time-to-fill, eliminating manual steps, and giving every candidate, recruiter, and hiring manager an experience that actually feels human. And one case study with a customer that onboarded nearly 50,000 new hires using Grayscale.

We got into:
 • Why candidate-first design outperforms every time
 • How multi-agent systems reshape recruiter workflows
 • What conversational UI means for the future of TA
 • How to evaluate AI tools so you don’t end up with another failed deployment
 • And what it really takes to scale to tens of thousands of applications a year without burning out your team

I cut my teeth hiring front line retail and manufacturing roles. So if you hire hourly or frontline workers, this episode is worth your time.

Here's the thing about building a company in public.

Competition is for the rear-view mirror.

That's something my business partner Eric Friedman told me years ago that I carry with me daily. 

But the thing that shocks me is when creators, agency owners, founders are completely oblivious to the major players and king/queen makers in their category. 

And we're not even getting into the awareness and respect for the history within an industry. Not enough people are kneeling to kiss the ring. And that's important to acknowledge. It's not about power. It's about signal. That you're credible to be taking up air space in the room. 

This is especially important for new *builders* with M&A activity heating up. We're only going to see more industry mobility among products and people. And frankly, the recruiting industry is about relationships. 

Honest question...If you aren't aware of what's going down and when, how are you able to position your product or service?

Think about it, you wouldn't pick up a cello, show up at symphony and then when someone asks you if you like Yo-Yo Ma stare blank generationally z and say "Who's that?"

But for some reason in the recruiting industry I see this ALL. THE. TIME.

I get it. It takes a lot of effort to build a craft.  So don't worry, I've spent the last few years mapping the industry so you don't have to.

That's what Building the Talent Machine is all about. Storytelling with the best in the industry. Behind the scenes looks at how companies get built, with real practitioners and real partners.

So if you want to up-level your career, and start your day with a bit of pep in your step, tune in. Or at least stop by to heckle me.

Since it seems like this one came back around last week, let's clear it up for the new folks jumping in on the Quality of Hire debate.

🟢 Always: The Title of a People Analytics Dashboard 

🟡 Sometimes: A Service Sold by a Consultant 

🔴 Never: A Product or Software

Questions? 

_
I'm Brando 👋  and for the last 10 years I've been obsessed with quality of hire. 
Which makes me uniquely opinionated to tell you it doesn't mean anything. 
We literally made it up.

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