1. Identify 2-5 fast growing companies that are bastions of excellence for that function.
1a. How do you identify these companies? Ask your friendly VCs. Ask customers. Ask other functional leaders which companies they admire.
1b. Do ensure that these companies “map” to your company in ways that matter for that function. For example, if you’re selling to SMBs and you want to hire a head of sales, you would likely not look at enterprise SaaS companies. But you might consider them for a people lead.
2. Make an organizational map of the function at each target company, starting with the leader of the function, extending to their reports, and so on. LinkedIn + employee interviews are your best friends here. This will necessitate some trial and error.
3. Your target list will be the direct reports to the functional leader at your target companies. These people are the most likely to leave because they want to lead the function at another company.
3a. Ensure that the person has been in their role at least 1-2 years, otherwise they haven’t really understood what it takes to lead the function. But if they have been at their role for 5 years without being made the leader, that might not be a good fit either.
3b. You want to see a track record of increasing scope and responsibly within that function, which is a good sign at a company that’s excellent at that function.
3c. Whether you can get these folks to engage, depends on how many stages you’re behind the target company. Eg if the target co is newly public and you’re pre-IPO, you’re 1 stage behind and have a good shot at hiring a direct report to the leader of the function.
3d. But if you’re series B, you might need to go a couple levels deeper in the org to find the right person for you. And they’re probably the right fit for your stage / size.
4. Of course, you still need to interview these folks to ensure they are a good culture fit, that they know what they’re doing, etc. but this is a foolproof way to build your target list.
5. I’ve seen this playbook used successfully by several companies I’ve been involved with. I’ve also worked at companies that have been successfully targeted (“raided”?) by younger companies. Such is the Darwinian world of technology companies.
6. Tldr create a target list of companies, map out the functional org for each, and then snipe the right folks at the right levels that map to your company stage / size.
7. Please note that I’m NOT recommending targeting your direct competitor. I’m recommending finding companies that are excellent at a function.
8. And for extra credit, do what Square did in the early days. (h/t to the awesome @zamosta)