episodic AI is rewriting what "great" looks like across sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps. Old playbooks have stopped working. And most founders are hiring in the dark.

Human-First: The GTM Hiring Show cuts through the noise with high-signal conversations for B2B Tech founders, revenue leaders, and the VCs who back them - from the team at Captivate Talent.

Unlike other shows about hiring, we pull back the curtain on what a search actually looks like: real funnel data, real candidate feedback, and the kind of market intelligence that helps you make decisions based on reality, not guesswork.

Every episode is built around three questions every leader asks before making a GTM hire:

  • Am I ready to hire? (And what to do when the honest answer is "not yet")
  • How do I hire? (How to run a tight process and spot "great" when you've never seen it before)
  • Did I hire the right person? (How to diagnose whether it's the role, the comp, the process, or the person)

Each episode features founders, revenue leaders, VCs, and operators who've made the hard calls firsthand - sharing what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently. We also tackle the AI fluency question head-on: not the hype, not the fear, just what's actually changing in GTM hiring and how to evaluate it in candidates.

Human-First is produced by Captivate Talent, a boutique recruiting firm specializing in go-to-market hires for seed through Series B B2B Tech companies.

If you're building a GTM team and want to hire with more clarity and less chaos, this show is for you.

Subscribe so you don't miss an episode - and join the founders, VCs, and revenue leaders already listening.

]]> Captivate Talent Human-First: The GTM Hiring Show 2026 Captivate Talent Captivate Talent false Captivate Talent producer@b2b-better.com en https://www.captivatetalent.com/ Giulia Gagliardi took Nory from two marketers to a full demand generation engine, then rebuilt it again to fund a $37 million US expansion.


If you're staring down international expansion with no hiring playbook, or you're not sure whether your BDR team belongs in marketing or sales, this one's for you.


Giulia Gagliardi is VP of Marketing and Growth at Nory, an AI-native restaurant management platform that just raised $37 million to fund its US expansion. She joined as Nory's second marketing hire, took inbound from under 5% of revenue to 50% in 14 months, and now leads a growth function that includes partnerships and the BDR team.


You'll get Giulia's playbook for structuring a marketing team as it scales from pre-seed to Series B, including when to hire generalists versus specialists. She breaks down why Nory's BDR team sits under marketing instead of sales, how that changes as a company matures, and the two interview questions she asks every candidate, from intern to C-suite.


Giulia and Danielle cover organizational design, sales and marketing hiring sequencing, and what changes when a GTM team expands from Europe into the US. They also dig into hiring for AI fluency in roles that didn't exist a year ago. This is for founders and marketing leaders scaling past product-market fit, not early-stage teams making their first hire.


Key Takeaways

  • Giulia took inbound from under 5% to 50% of Nory's revenue in 14 months, and it started with a two-person team wearing every hat.
  • Nory's BDR team reports into marketing, not sales, tied to a single pipeline number instead of separate KPIs, but that setup has an expiry date.
  • Giulia asks every candidate the same two questions, regardless of seniority, and the answers reveal who's actually done the work versus who's just seen it done.
  • Competing against entrenched incumbents in the US market isn't the real hiring challenge. Finding builders who see the market opportunity is.


Chapter Markers

0:00 Testing the US Market Before Launching 

0:33 Welcome to Human First: Meet Julia Gagliardi of Nory 

1:50 Building the Marketing Team from Two People to a Growth Org 

4:41 People Strategy vs. a Hiring Plan 

5:03 Giulia's Org Design Playbook: Growth, Brand & Product Marketing 

7:05 Why Product Marketing and Brand Report to One Leader 

8:29 There's No One-Size-Fits-All Hiring Sequence 

11:21 Why BDRs Still Sit Under Marketing at Nory

14:30 The $37M Raise and the Mandate to Expand into the US 

15:00 The First Question to Answer Before Building a US GTM Team 

17:31 Balancing HQ Culture with a New Local Business Unit 

18:05 Hiring Builders to Compete with Deep-Pocketed Incumbents 

20:39 Mixing Industry Veterans with Hungry Junior Talent 

22:39 Hiring for Roles That Didn't Exist Six Months Ago 

23:17 Finding Talent for Skills, Not Job Titles 

25:37 Assessing AI Fluency in Marketing Candidates 

28:02 AI-Native Culture vs. Bolting AI onto Legacy Products 

29:37 The Two Questions Giulia Asks Every Candidate 

32:28 The Hire Who Didn't Look Right on Paper (But Worked) 

34:19 What Founders Get Wrong About Marketing Leadership 

35:33 Teaching Founders to See Brand as a Weapon 

36:12 Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Nory


Useful Links & Resources

  • Giulia Gagliardi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giulia-gagliardi-28856b86/
  • Nory: https://www.nory.ai/


Connect With the Show


]]> How Giulia Gagliardi Built Nory's GTM Team From Two People to a Full Demand Engine How Giulia Gagliardi Built Nory's GTM Team From Two People to a Full Demand Engine 00:36:39 564a96b4-5ecf-4eaa-b568-43595eed7784 Captivate Talent 11 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/how-giulia-gagliardi-built-norys-gtm-team-from-two-people-to-a-full-demand-engine Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:23 +0000 A lot of candidates have gotten very good at saying the right things about AI in interviews. The problem is that saying the right words and saying them in the right order are two very different skills, and most hiring teams cannot tell the difference until it is too late.

Tom Andrews is VP of GTM and Revenue Operations at Hivebrite and principal at TA Advisory. He has taken a rev ops and enablement team from ten people to two without missing the output, and he has equally strong opinions about why most companies are trying to layer AI onto a data foundation that will never deliver real ROI. Tom has spent his career building the systems and teams that make organizations actually work, and on this episode he gets specific about what that looks like in an AI-driven world.

This episode is for founders and revenue leaders hiring for rev ops and enablement roles, anyone trying to assess genuine AI fluency in a candidate, and leaders trying to figure out whether to fix or rebuild a broken tech stack. Tom covers how to design interview tasks that actually filter out AI-assisted bluffing, why data architecture has to come before any AI investment, and why he believes most in-house rev ops teams are heading toward a leaner, agency-supported model.


Key Takeaways

- Anyone can say the right words about AI. The skill to look for is whether they say them in the right order.

- A well-formatted slide deck rarely comes from an LLM.

- The real skill of a modern leader is asking great questions, not generating long documents. A poorly contextualized prompt produces a generic report. A precisely framed one, with real business context, produces something genuinely useful.

- Most companies build a Frankenstein system: one tool bolted onto another, with no central data architecture. Fixing it is often more expensive than starting over. Choose your core platform, consolidate around it, and hire someone certified in that system who can create value from day one.

- Token efficiency is becoming a real cost center. A well-structured org with clean markdown files and a clear context layer can get the same output from a fraction of the tokens that a messy, siloed system requires.

- Bring in rev ops expertise earlier than feels necessary. The companies that build the scaffolding first avoid building a Leaning Tower of Pisa they will need to tear down and rebuild later.


Chapter Markers

(00:00) Cold open: why AI gets complex processes that humans struggle to describe

(01:52) How Tom took his rev ops and enablement team from 10 to 2

(05:05) Why in-house rev ops is becoming harder to justify

(09:21) The hidden cost problem: token usage and clean data

(13:29) Tool fatigue and the challenge of leading through constant change

(17:29) Spotting candidates who say the right words in the wrong order

(18:37) Designing interview tasks AI cannot easily pass

(22:09) Why hiring is one of the few things AI still cannot do for you

(26:38) Fixing versus rebuilding a broken tech stack

(31:22) Why Tom is going back to university to study machine learning

(31:59) The Frankenstein's monster system and why it happens

(35:19) Managing the cultural change to fix it for good

(43:01) Wrap-up

Useful Links & Resources

Connect With the Show

]]> The Frankenstein System Killing Your AI ROI with Tom Andrews The Frankenstein System Killing Your AI ROI with Tom Andrews 00:43:21 664b051b-e139-4f14-8133-860dd7a4eb7e Captivate Talent 10 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/the-frankenstein-system-killing-your-ai-roi-with-tom-andrews Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:10:31 +0000 Most founders get their first marketing hire wrong. Not from lack of effort, but from hiring to a bar they haven't defined.


You know you need a marketing leader, but you're not sure what seniority level fits your stage. You're drawn to the big-name resume, unsure how to test for AI fluency, and worried about spending six months discovering you hired for the wrong role.


Kathleen Booth is VP of Marketing at Sequel.io and former SVP at Pavilion. She's built marketing teams across multiple B2B tech companies, recently navigated a deliberate job search in the AI era, and is now building an AI-first marketing function from scratch at an early-stage SaaS company.


This conversation gives you a practical framework for matching your marketing hire to your actual stage of growth. You'll walk away knowing how to test for the qualities that matter most, what to prepare before you even write the job description, and why the big-logo CMO might be the most expensive mistake you make.


Kathleen and host Danielle Parker dig into the real tension between AI capability and core marketing fundamentals, why founders confuse product-market fit with marketing talent, and what "figure it out factor" actually looks like in a candidate. This one's for early-stage B2B tech founders and revenue leaders making their first or second GTM hiring decision.


Key Takeaways

>> Founders often mistake the person for the product with many celebrated CMOs will tell you their success came from a product that sold itself, not a secret playbook.

>> Testing for AI fluency means asking candidates to share their full prompt conversation, not just the polished output but how they challenge the AI reveals more than what it produced.

>> Before engaging a recruiter or writing a job description, founders should build a "data room" for the hire: clear targets, the budget logic behind them, and which marketing discipline (demand gen, product marketing, or brand) they actually need first.

>> The CEO-marketing leader relationship lives or dies on trust and you can hire the best marketer in the world, but if you can't communicate honestly with each other, it won't matter.


Chapter Markers

00:00 - Why building AI-first marketing means doing the work yourself

01:28 - Kathleen's deliberate move from Pavilion to Sequel.io

04:17 - Clean slate vs. change management in marketing builds

05:41 - Finding the rare combo of product-market fit and no existing team

07:46 - The AI resume: showing your work before they ask

11:24 - VP vs. CMO: matching seniority to company stage

15:53 - The "high figure it out factor" and how to test for it

19:02 - Practical exercises in hiring: controversial but essential

22:52 - AI fluency vs. core marketing fundamentals

27:08 - The bookend strategy: owning inputs and outputs with AI

31:34 - Why founders reach for the wrong marketing leader

37:05 - What founders need to prepare before starting the search

39:06 - How to find a marketer who fits your stage and culture

41:40 - The one thing founders should do 3–6 months before hiring


Useful Links & Resources


Connect With the Show


What's the biggest mistake you've seen (or made) when hiring a first marketing leader? Drop it in the comments, we'd love to hear what you learned the hard way.


If this episode made you rethink your next hire, subscribe and share it with a founder who needs to hear it before they post that job description.


Visit captivatetalent.com to learn how we help B2B tech companies hire exceptional GTM talent.

]]> What Your First Marketing Hire Should Look Like at an Early-Stage Company with Kathleen Booth What Your First Marketing Hire Should Look Like at an Early-Stage Company with Kathleen Booth 00:44:37 5ea4c24a-c98f-4c99-924f-b7dd81bb4a3f Captivate Talent 9 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/what-your-first-marketing-hire-should-look-like-at-an-early-stage-company-with-kathleen-booth Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:35:03 +0000 Most people using AI in recruiting are asking the wrong question. They want to know how much they can automate. Cassie Chao Leemans wants to know where the human has to stay in the loop, and she has built her entire workflow around that distinction.

Cassie is VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, a team of one, and a recruiter with 15 years of experience scaling teams at Uber, Palantir, and Threads. Over the past year she has built her own AI-native CRM from scratch using Claude Code, with no engineering background, that automates the back-end work of recruiting while keeping every hiring decision firmly in human hands. Her take on where AI belongs in the recruiting process, and where it absolutely does not, is one of the clearest frameworks we have heard on the show.

This episode is for early-stage founders thinking about their first recruiting hire, talent leaders looking to build smarter workflows without losing the human element, and anyone trying to figure out where to draw the line between AI and human judgment in hiring. Cassie covers build versus buy decisions, the danger of AI-written scorecards, why inbound has become a noise problem, and the one question every founder should ask before handing any part of their hiring process to a machine.


Key Takeaways

>> AI should amplify what you are already doing, not make decisions for you. The moment AI starts filtering candidates in or out without a human reviewing why, you are introducing false positives and false negatives that will cost you hires you cannot afford to lose.

>> Start with your biggest pain point and automate that one thing first. You do not need to overhaul your entire workflow. Find the task you are repeating over and over and start there.

>> AI-written scorecards are a red flag. If you are not the one evaluating whether a candidate collaborated well or showed initiative, you are outsourcing your own judgment to a model that was not trained on your values or your definition of great.

>> The human moat in go-to-market hiring is interpersonal judgment. No AI can evaluate the nuances of how someone sells, collaborates, or shows up in a room. That assessment has to come from a human who has had the conversation.


Chapter Markers

(00:00) Cold open: Why humans have to stay in the loop

(01:54) How Cassie built an AI-native CRM as a team of one

(04:33) Build versus buy: why she stopped looking for an off-the-shelf solution

(10:34) How early-stage founders should think about automating recruiting workflows

(15:00) Does Cassie fear building too deep on one set of tools

(22:10) Where Cassie draws the hard line between AI and human in hiring

(26:45) Can you hire a great go-to-market person using AI alone

(31:40) What founders get wrong about handing off recruiting

(36:55) The one thing founders should and should not do with AI in recruiting

(39:20) Selling versus buying market: how founders should think about talent right now

(41:45) Wrap-up and where to find Cassie


Useful Links & Resources

Cassie Chao Leemans on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassieleemans

Craft Ventures: https://www.craftventures.com


Connect With the Show

Captivate Talent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/captivate-talent/

Danielle Parker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemessler/


]]> AI Can Rank Your Candidates, But It Shouldn't Pick Who You Hire with Cassie Chao Leemans AI Can Rank Your Candidates, But It Shouldn't Pick Who You Hire with Cassie Chao Leemans 00:43:22 948b4899-0395-4069-b74c-fb461580308c Captivate Talent 8 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/ai-can-rank-your-candidates-but-it-shouldn-t-pick-who-you-hire-with-cassie-chao-leemans Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:51:10 +0000 Here's how to tell if you need a GTM Engineer and what to fix first.


Lauren Hughes is VP of Revenue Effectiveness at JustWorks, where she rebuilt the entire function from the ground up by merging rev ops and enablement, introducing GTM engineering roles, and hiring AI enablement specialists. Roughly 75% of her team is either new or in a completely different seat than before.


From this episode of Human-First, you'll walk away knowing exactly how to diagnose whether you need a GTM engineer or a Salesforce admin, how to assess builder mindset in interviews when no one has "10 years of GTM engineering experience" on their resume, and what foundation you need in place before any of it matters.


This one's for founders, revenue leaders, and rev ops professionals trying to figure out what their team should actually look like right now and what it needs to become. We cover GTM hiring for technical roles, AI fluency as a hiring bar, case studies in the age of AI, and why your operating maturity determines your next hire.


Key Takeaways

>> If your pain is "Salesforce hygiene is bad and routing rules need fixing," you need an admin. GTM engineers are for inventing capabilities that don't exist yet, not maintaining what does.

>> The strongest GTM engineer candidates deconstructed the problem from a data perspective and came with a complete system redesign, while average ones just talked about process improvements.

>> Case studies are more critical than ever precisely because of AI with the real test is whether candidates can defend and explain what they built when questioned live.

>> Before hiring a GTM engineer, get your data foundation right with clean infrastructure, clear ownership, and system discipline. AI and builders can't fix what's fundamentally broken underneath.


Chapter Markers

00:00 - What a GTM engineer actually does

01:54 - Why JustWorks rebuilt revenue effectiveness from scratch

05:17 - How the rebuild played out: roles added, removed, and renamed

08:51 - GTM engineers vs. Salesforce admins: where the confusion comes from

14:58 - How to interview for builder mindset with no job title precedent

18:05 - Case studies in the age of AI: what's changed and what still works

21:02 - The AI fluency bar: what Lauren asks every candidate

24:08 - AI enablement roles and just-in-time personalized learning

29:52 - The flattening org: why middle management layers are thinning

33:44 - Career paths in rev ops: skills-based, not tenure-based

35:34 - What early-stage founders should do before hiring a GTM engineer

38:35 - Rev ops as the entry point for AI across the org

41:07 - Where Lauren learns: podcasts, communities, and vendor dinners

45:32 - The one thing to get right before writing a job description


Useful Links & Resources


Connect With the Show


What's your take? Is the GTM engineer title getting ahead of what most teams actually need? Drop your thoughts in the comments, or tell us what your rev ops team looks like right now. We'd love to hear how you're navigating this shift.


Visit captivatetalent.com to learn how we help B2B tech companies hire exceptional GTM talent. If this episode was useful, like, subscribe, and share it with someone building out their rev ops function.

]]> What is a GTM Engineer? Hiring, AI and the Future of RevOps with Lauren Hughes of Justworks What is a GTM Engineer? Hiring, AI and the Future of RevOps with Lauren Hughes of Justworks 00:49:07 58d6a466-1607-4df3-b1d0-27f0b31ae3bd Captivate Talent 7 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/what-is-a-gtm-engineer-hiring-ai-and-the-future-of-revops-with-lauren-hughes-of-justworks Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:18:37 +0000 A lot of founders get their first go-to-market hire wrong. Not because they pick the wrong resume, but because they skip the thinking that comes before the job description.

You've raised the round, your investors are pushing you to scale, and you're copy-pasting job descriptions from companies ten times your size. But you don't actually know what "great" looks like for this role at your stage, and the cost of getting it wrong won't show up for 12 to 18 months.

Rav Dhaliwal is a partner at Crane Venture Partners who spent the first half of his career as an operator building GTM teams at Slack, Zendesk, and Yammer. He's made every early-stage hiring mistake possible and now helps founders avoid the same traps.

You'll walk away with a clear framework for deciding whether you're actually ready to hire, the math to pressure-test your plan, and a structured approach to interviewing that separates real performers from polished storytellers. This is practical, data-backed hiring advice you can use immediately.

This episode is for B2B tech founders making their first (or next) GTM hire, VCs advising portfolio companies on GTM buildout, and revenue leaders navigating the shift from founder-led sales. Rav covers readiness signals, scorecard design, behavioral interviewing, and the critical transition from founder-led to founder-managed sales.

Key Takeaways

>> Before hiring an AE, work backward from OTE to pipeline: if you can't generate 3 - 4x qualified pipeline against their quota target, the timing isn't right, no matter what your investors say.

>> The four types of salespeople willing to join before you've figured out your market are almost never the ones you want. Be aware of poor performers, lucky riders, stealth consultants, and semi-retired operators.

>> A job description lists activities; a hiring scorecard defines mission, outcomes, and behavioral competencies and it's the difference between collecting useful interview data and getting sold by a good storyteller.

>> Test intrinsic motivation before you test skills: why someone wants to leave, why they want to join you specifically, and whether their career goals align with what you're actually offering.

Chapter Markers

00:00 - Why early-stage GTM mis-hires create management debt

02:07 - What a hiring mistake actually costs in practice

04:30 - How to know if it's the right time to hire

06:54 - The OTE-to-pipeline math every founder should run

09:32 - Pushing back when investors pressure you to scale

10:14 - Four types of salespeople who'll join too early

12:49 - Sussing out stage fit in interviews

16:04 - Behaviors vs. skills: where the conviction comes from

18:49 - Behavioral interviewing in practice with real examples

22:01 - The hiring scorecard: mission, outcomes, competencies

28:53 - Early warning signs of a GTM mis-hire

30:37 - Founder-led sales to founder-managed sales

34:38 - Why the Frankenstein job description is dangerous

36:31 - Testing intrinsic motivation in screening calls

41:18 - Key takeaways and wrap-up

Useful Links & Resources

Connect With the Show

]]> The Framework Behind a Great First GTM Hire with Rav Dhaliwal The Framework Behind a Great First GTM Hire with Rav Dhaliwal 00:42:08 d1813249-e4d6-415b-9b5f-e57db6eb828e Captivate Talent 6 1 full false https://www.captivatetalent.com/ Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:11:44 +0000 Most European founders expanding to the US make the same hiring mistake. This episode breaks down what actually works when building a commercial team across the Atlantic.


Tired of watching US expansion burn through cash with nothing to show for it? Wondering whether to hire senior or junior first, which city to land in, or how to stop your new US team from churning out within a year?


James Isilay founded Cognism and scaled it from zero to $80M+ ARR, navigating the move from the UK to the US firsthand, including an early pivot from New York to Boston that changed the trajectory of the business. He's since advised multiple high-growth B2B software companies on strategic expansion and go-to-market.


You'll walk away with a clear framework for sequencing your US expansion: when to transplant your own people, when to start hiring locally, and the positioning work most founders skip that determines whether the whole thing sticks. This isn't theory, it's a playbook built from real decisions and real mistakes.


This one is for European and UK-based SaaS founders and GTM leaders who are planning or actively navigating US expansion. If you're deciding on your first US hire, choosing a city, or trying to figure out why your US pipeline isn't converting, this is the episode.


Key Takeaways

>> Hiring a senior US sales leader before you've built a working system on the ground is the most common and most expensive way European founders fail at US expansion.


>> Transplanting early employees from your home base creates a bridge between your existing playbooks and the new market, giving your US team access to the knowledge network that remote hires simply can't replicate.


>> Choosing a city based on where your specific industry talent lives, not prestige or personal preference, dramatically affects hiring quality, retention, and cost.


>> Founders need to find a tight ICP with high win rates in the US market before putting their foot on the pedal with sales hiring; without that foundation, you're accelerating from nothing.


Chapter Markers

00:00 - Why hiring senior in the US usually fails

02:59 - The pattern behind failed European expansions

05:17 - Starting junior vs. transplanting your own team

06:32 - How often founders need to be on the ground

07:50 - New York to Boston: why geography matters

10:01 - Choosing a city based on talent, not prestige

12:27 - The competitor that burned through a Series A in San Francisco

14:04 - Time zone overlap and the East Coast advantage

15:09 - US vs. UK sales talent: cost, churn, and calibration

17:44 - Adapting your hiring process for the US market

20:33 - Building culture across a satellite office

22:33 - Why your UK brand doesn't transfer to the US

24:44 - Reducing churn: comp, culture, and in-office presence

26:46 - Working with specialist recruiters in the US

28:55 - The one thing James would tell every founder before expanding

30:17 - Honest signals that you're ready and false ones that trick you

33:08 - Quickfire round


Useful Links & Resources

James Isilay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-isilay/

Captivate Talent: https://www.captivatetalent.com/

Danielle Parker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemessler/

Chris Gannon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gannonchristopher/


Connect With the Show

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/captivate-talent/


What's been your biggest surprise expanding a team into the US? Or if you're planning it right now, what's the question keeping you up at night? Drop it in the comments, we read every one and it helps shape future episodes.


If this episode gave you a clearer picture of what US expansion actually takes, subscribe and share it with a founder who's about to make the move. New episodes drop every fortnight.


]]> How to Build a US Sales Team When You're Expanding From Europe with James Isilay How to Build a US Sales Team When You're Expanding From Europe with James Isilay 00:34:37 c0534fd1-dd4a-4d77-8f48-584754606fd2 Captivate Talent 5 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/how-to-build-a-us-sales-team-when-you-re-expanding-from-europe-with-james-isilay Tue, 26 May 2026 09:25:38 +0000 Your first revenue-generating hire can unlock your Series A or quietly burn 12 months of runway. This episode breaks down how to get it right.


Hiring your first salesperson when you don't come from a sales background? You don't know what "great" looks like, sellers are experts at selling themselves, and the old playbook of poaching from a big-logo company keeps backfiring. Sound familiar?


Ben Newsome is VP of Talent and People at Cherry Ventures. He's spent his career inside the talent functions of major European VC firms, advising hundreds of early-stage B2B tech companies on their most critical GTM hires.


You'll walk away knowing exactly what behavioral traits to interview for, why the "hire from Gong" instinct usually fails at seed stage, and the concrete steps to take before you talk to a single candidate. This is a practical hiring diagnostic, not theory.


This one's for early-stage B2B founders, revenue leaders, and the VCs backing them. We cover the founding AE archetype, how to test for entrepreneurial grit in interviews, when founders hire too early, and the referencing mistakes that keep costing startups months of runway. 


Key Takeaways

>> The strongest first GTM hires weight 75% toward attitude and behavior and only 25% toward experience and the interview questions you ask are the fastest way to see the difference.


>> Hiring a seasoned operator from a growth-stage company often backfires because you can hide inside a mature playbook. Early-stage demands a generalist who's already proven they can build from zero.


>> Founders should stress-test their go-to-market assumptions before opening the role, not after. The gaps you find will reshape the job description entirely.


>> Firing fast only works when you're high-conviction in your GTM strategy; if you're not, seek advice fast and audit the whole machine, not just the hire.


Chapter Markers

00:00 - The cost of getting this hire wrong

02:51 - Real examples of misfired GTM hires delaying funding rounds

04:18 - The founding AE archetype: what to actually look for

05:49 - How to interview for attitude, resilience, and entrepreneurial grit

07:57 - Why the "big logo" enterprise seller keeps failing at seed stage

10:17 - Behavioral interview questions that separate operators from talkers

13:15 - Stage specificity: identifying true early-stage operators

15:26 - How exposure and relationship-building signal a great GTM hire

17:15 - The link between first sales hire quality and Series A graduation

19:54 - How to know if a founder is actually ready for their first commercial hire

21:52 - Fire fast or coach through it? When to cut ties vs. course correct

27:40 - The founder's role: coaching, relinquishing control, and setting hires up to win

30:20 - Three things every founder should do before talking to a single candidate

32:25 - The one question Ben wishes every founder would ask him


Useful Links & Resources


Connect With the Show


What did your first GTM hire teach you, the hard way or the good way? Drop your story in the comments. If you're a founder navigating this decision right now, we'd love to hear what's tripping you up.


Visit captivatetalent.com to learn how we help B2B tech companies hire exceptional GTM talent.



]]> Why Your First Sales Hire Is Making or Breaking Your Series A with Ben Newsome Why Your First Sales Hire Is Making or Breaking Your Series A with Ben Newsome 00:34:15 4119718c-9f2d-4f7c-a341-6248c4582507 Captivate Talent 4 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/why-your-first-sales-hire-is-making-or-breaking-your-series-a-with-ben-newsome Tue, 12 May 2026 10:34:08 +0000 Welcome to Human First. 

AI is reshaping every stage of the hiring funnel. But the companies winning the talent war aren't the ones automating the most, they're the ones knowing exactly where to draw the line.


You're buried in AI-optimized applications, unsure which tools to trust, and wondering whether your recruiting function even has a future. Sound familiar?


Hung Lee curates Recruiting Brainfood, the most trusted newsletter in the talent profession, read by over 39,000 recruiters and HR professionals weekly. With 20+ years as an agency recruiter, Head of Talent, and recruitment tech founder, he's one of the few people who can separate genuine AI signal from vendor noise.


This conversation gives you a practical framework for where AI belongs in your hiring process and where human judgment is non-negotiable. You'll walk away knowing how to protect your recruiting function while using technology to move faster.


Hung and the Captivate Talent team break down the real impact of AI on recruiting, the case for founder-led hiring, and why employer branding needs radical authenticity right now. Built for founders, GTM leaders, and anyone responsible for building high-performing teams at startups and SaaS companies.


Key Takeaways

>> AI won't kill recruiting, but it will dramatically shrink the number of specialist recruiters needed, as non-specialists gain the tools to recruit effectively on their own.


>> "Human in the loop" sounds reassuring, but most companies haven't tested what happens when AI recommendations and human intuition directly conflict and the answer matters more than you think.


>> The AI-powered application flood is pushing companies back toward old-school sourcing, referrals, and gated communities as the only tenable way to manage candidate quality.


>> Founders who build in public sharing raw, unpolished content about what they're hiring for and why, solve their employer branding and recruiting problems simultaneously.


Chapter Markers


00:00 Is recruiting dead? The case for resilience


02:15 LinkedIn, job boards, and why "recruiter killer" tech keeps failing


03:45 What "human in the loop" actually means in practice


07:10 Assessment tools, AI delegation, and the temptation to avoid risk


09:29 Where AI agents belong in the recruiting funnel


11:23 Interview scheduling, intelligence, and high-volume screening


13:00 Voice interviewing and when candidates prefer talking to AI


16:31 AI bias, LLM training data, and the honesty problem


18:41 The K-shaped job market and who wins in an AI economy


21:03 Candidates weaponizing AI: the application flood crisis


24:29 How founders should think about building their core team


25:55 Founder-led hiring: how long should CEOs stay hands-on?


28:05 Talent strategy vs. hiring plan and why founders confuse them


29:17 Employer branding in the age of AI: radical authenticity wins


32:49 Rapid fire: remote vs. in-person, favorite tools, and hot takes


Useful Links & Resources

Connect With the Show


What's your take? Where should AI stop and human judgment start in your hiring process? Drop your thoughts in the comments or tag us on LinkedIn. We'd love to hear how your team is navigating the AI hiring wave.


If this episode made you rethink your recruiting strategy, visit https://www.captivatetalent.com/ to see how Captivate Talent helps founders and GTM leaders build the teams that matter most.



]]> How to Build a Hiring Strategy That Survives the AI Tsunami How to Build a Hiring Strategy That Survives the AI Tsunami 00:33:56 729fb076-8575-4d88-8be7-f505f8f4c295 Captivate Talent 3 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/how-to-build-a-hiring-strategy-that-survives-the-ai-tsunami Tue, 28 Apr 2026 06:00:19 +0000 Most companies say they want AI-native hires. Almost none of them can tell the real thing from a polished talking point.

You're writing "AI fluency required" into every job description, but when you sit across from a candidate, you don't actually know what good looks like. And your interview process? It's probably optimized for charisma, not competence.

Kyle Norton is CRO at Owner.com, one of the fastest-growing companies in restaurant tech B2B Tech. He leads a GTM org spanning sales, partnerships, onboarding, demand gen, rev ops, and enablement and he's built a dedicated Applied AI function inside his revenue team that most companies haven't even considered yet.

This conversation gives you a concrete framework for assessing AI fluency in interviews, a clear case for centralizing AI capability instead of spreading it thin, and a structured hiring process that replaces gut feel with repeatable data. You'll walk away knowing exactly where to invest and where to stop guessing.

Kyle breaks down the AI sophistication ladder for GTM professionals, explains why early-career hires are outperforming tenured reps at Owner.com, and makes the case for killing vibe-based interviews for good.

This one's for revenue leaders, founders, and hiring managers building teams that need to be competitive in the next two to three years.

Key Takeaways

>> Centralized AI teams produce orders-of-magnitude better output than reps tinkering side-of-desk. Kyle explains why he made Applied AI the first hire after Owner.com's Series C.


>> AI fluency matters most at senior and leverage roles like rev ops, but frontline managers and reps don't necessarily need it if the right infrastructure exists around them.


>> The fastest way to spot genuine AI fluency in an interview is to be deeply fluent yourself or have someone who is sitting in the process. Buzzwords fall apart fast under real scrutiny.


>> Structured interviews with identical questions, weighted scorecards, and separated criteria consistently outperform "vibe hiring" and they're the only way to build a data set you can actually learn from when a hire doesn't work out.

Chapter Markers

00:00 - Kyle Norton on AI fluency and hiring on vibes

01:56 - The internet comparison: why AI is already table stakes

04:48 - Where to actually learn about AI: Twitter, YouTube, and the feed algorithm

08:58 - Interviewing for AI fluency: what genuine answers look like

13:39 - Building a centralized Applied AI function inside GTM

16:45 - How the Applied AI team expanded beyond sales

19:04 - Why Owner.com shifted to early-career hiring

23:33 - Finding top talent at lesser-known companies

26:15 - The structured interview process: scorecards, mock calls, and bar raisers

32:32 - Go-to-market org structures for the next 2–3 years

36:25 - One concrete step: kill vibe hiring this week

40:09 - Danielle's closing thoughts

Useful Links & Resources

Connect With the Show

When did you last audit your interview process against real performance data? Drop your take in the comments or share the one hiring change that made the biggest difference for your team.

If this episode made you rethink how you're hiring for AI fluency or structuring your interviews, share it with a founder or revenue leader who needs to hear it. And if you're building a GTM team that needs to be competitive in the next few years, visit captivatetalent.com

]]> How to Stop Vibe Hiring and Build a Sales Team That Actually Scales How to Stop Vibe Hiring and Build a Sales Team That Actually Scales 00:41:01 87976de0-2c1c-4e96-a1bf-894342362880 Captivate Talent 2 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/how-to-stop-vibe-hiring-and-build-a-sales-team-that-actually-scales Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:38:54 +0000 Welcome to Human First. 

The bar for AI fluency in go-to-market hiring has shifted dramatically and most executives haven't caught up.

You know you need to talk about AI in interviews, but you're not sure what "good" actually looks like anymore. Is using ChatGPT to brainstorm enough? Should you be building dashboards? And how do you evaluate something you're still figuring out yourself?

Andy Mowat built and scaled RevOps and demand gen at four unicorns - Box, Upwork, Culture Amp, and Carta. Now, as founder of Whispered, he's in constant conversation with senior GTM leaders about how AI is reshaping the way they hire and get hired. Few people have a broader, more grounded view of what's actually happening.

In this launch episode of Human First, Danielle Parker from Captivate Talent, and Andy get tactical about what AI fluency means right now, how it's being tested in interviews, and what you can do in the next 30 days to get across the chasm. You'll walk away with a clearer picture of what hiring managers are really asking and how to answer.

Key Takeaways

>> The AI fluency bar has moved from "curious" to "builder" in under 12 months. Using tools like Gamma or ChatGPT for slide decks is no longer enough to impress in interviews.

>> Most executives don't realize they're overselling their AI skills because the technology is moving faster than their self-assessment and many interviewers can't probe deeply enough to tell the difference.

>> The traditional take-home case study is broken and AI makes every submission look polished, so hiring managers need to rethink whether they're evaluating real thinking or just well-prompted output.

>> Hiring managers are over-indexing on "builder" without asking what's behind the question, whether it's doing more with less, flying low and high, or actually implementing AI tooling are three very different needs.

Chapter Markers

00:00 The question behind "hire a builder"

01:00 - Introduction to Andy Mowat and Whispered

01:38 - Biggest shifts in executive hiring conversations

03:33 - How AI fluency evaluation has changed

07:23 - What AI-fluent leaders actually sound like day to day

09:27 - Rev ops as the bridge role for GTM AI adoption

13:01 - How candidates oversell AI skills without realizing it

15:22 - Recognizing genuine AI passion in interviews

17:18 - Whispered's view on roles being reshaped by AI

19:23 - What rev ops looks like in two years

22:16 - The 30-day playbook to cross the AI chasm

28:30 - Is AI fluency learnable or inherent?

33:17 - Why take-home case studies are broken

38:06 - What should replace the case study

40:59 - Where go-to-market hiring is heading in 2-3 years

43:18 - One thing to do differently this week

Useful Links & Resources

Connect With the Show

If this conversation hit home, we'd love to hear from you. What's the hardest part of evaluating AI fluency in your hiring process?

Drop a comment or send Danielle a message on LinkedIn — these are the conversations that make this show better.

Head to https://www.captivatetalent.com/ to see how Captivate Talent can help you find the right GTM leaders for what's next.

]]> AI Fluency Is the New Hiring Litmus Test for Go-to-Market Leaders AI Fluency Is the New Hiring Litmus Test for Go-to-Market Leaders 00:44:32 2c53635c-2119-4dd8-9c9c-c2e93d48288a Captivate Talent 1 1 full false https://pod.co/human-first/ai-fluency-is-the-new-hiring-litmus-test-for-go-to-market-leaders Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:05:45 +0000 We help early- to mid-stage SaaS founders and revenue leaders make go-to market hires that actually stick. If you're about to make a GTM hire and want to get it right, book a meeting with the Captivate Talent team

Most SaaS founders are making go-to-market hires based on gut feel and outdated playbooks. In this teaser, the team at Captivate Talent introduces Human First, the show that pulls back the curtain on what really happens inside a search.

Human First uses real market data, candidate feedback, and rejection insights to help founders, revenue leaders, and the VCs who back them hire based on market reality — not guesswork. Every episode helps you walk away knowing if you're ready to hire, what a great candidate looks like, and a grounded take on AI fluency that goes beyond the buzzwords.

]]> Introducing Human-First: The GTM Hiring Show Introducing Human-First: The GTM Hiring Show 00:01:02 b42dfcbf-8db5-47e0-8edc-119786036b55 Captivate Talent 1 1 trailer false https://www.captivatetalent.com/ Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:41:49 +0000