The Founder City ProjectFounder-led network of startup/scale-up founders that has grown from 2 to 200+ in a few months; heading to 1,000+ founders.

Founder City: Toronto-Waterloo (T-W)

2.

Talent (i.e. Engineers, Experienced Leaders)

Customers (i.e. Enterprise)

Capital (i.e. VCs, Angels)

Capital, customers, success follow talent.

Our ecosystem’s diversity and commitment to our shared values have created a unique safe environment for talent and innovation to grow, led by our founders.

"The talent, mindset, and quality of the people in the Toronto/Waterloo tech/startup community is really top notch and we love investing there.” — Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

33.

We need to grow our diverse talent ecosystem by 200% by 2020 to survive*; therefore why can’t our ecosystem’s platform be recruitment training? Employees are the best recruiters, so training them to recruit transforms our employee talent into our competitive advantage (while building more leaders and improving retention). Selling leaders (and their families) on the Toronto-Waterloo tech ecosystem requires us to demonstrate our depth of career opportunities, ideally via a multi-company approach.

Our founders have committed to growth, but risk failing if we cannot import more, diverse, talent.

*Canada needs to fill *at least* 200,000 new tech jobs by 2020 (Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)).

Training startup/scale-up employees (in all functions, at all levels, in all companies) on a values-based recruiting system that transforms their founders' access to diverse skilled talent.

4.

Founder City Talent

5.

Ben Zifkin Founder @ Hubba.

Jim Murphy Founder @ Boltmade (acquired by Shopify).

Michael Katchen Founder @ Wealthsimple.

Allen Lau Founder @ Wattpad.

Our founders are uniquely qualified to build this values-based training initiative and its content.

Eva Wong Founder @ Borrowell.

Catherine Graham Founder @ commonsku, RIGHTSLEEVE.

Mallorie Brodie Founder @ Bridgit.

Jessica Weisz CCO @ Soapbox.

Heather PayneFounder @ HackerYou, Ladies Learning Code.

Advisors and founding cohort are leaders; some spend 80% of their time recruiting.

+ Our trainer (name not released yet) has been hand-picked by founders; has 15 years’ experience designing/building/delivering over 50 learning and recruitment programs at startup/scale-up cultures, was a key early customer of Rypple, ClearFit and other local founders.

6

1. Ensured effectiveness, because it’s a founder-led, multi-company program; employees/peers are the best recruiters.

2. Additive; no risk (participation doesn’t reduce competitiveness, nor share founders’ trade secrets); anticipates down economy too.

3. Low cost/time (83% cost covered by grant/refund and only ~4 hours/week for 4 weeks).

6.

Training is for anyone, but I want to focus on non-

HR employees initially.

Building world-leading recruitment skills, to draw the best diverse talent from other regions and industries.

Here’s what our employee training program looks like. (More detail in Appendix)

Week 1

Vision + Impact

BenchmarkingCulture + Metrics

Recruiting Tools + Tactics

Applied Learning + Metrics

Week 2 Week 4Week 3 Ongoing…

1.5 hours video session + 4 hours pre-work

4 hours in-class, with lunch+ 4 hours pre-work

1.5 hours video session + 4 hours pre-work

Understand how recruiting impacts leadership, careers, people’s lives.

How recruitment and diversity training builds more effective leaders.

Assess culture and build company-specific approach to attract diverse candidates who improve culture.

Reinforce effective/differentiated job requirements.

Build company-specific tactics to find the best talent, also non-traditional and international talent, build your pipeline.

Navigate immigration, salary gaps, test skills, reduce interview errors.

Demonstrate and begin to measure competence through role-play; peer reviews, software tracking tools.

Create foundation for peer learning groups.

10 trainees per cohort:

4 trainees from Company A.

4 trainees from Company B.

2 trainees from Company C.

Founder: 3 months 1-on-1 strategy on HR/recruitment and organizational challenges.

Employees: curation and ongoing peer groups of 6-8 leaders with comparable seniority.

4 hours in-class, with lunch+ 4 hours pre-work 7.

Here’s what founders can expect.

8.

Entry-level employees who convert more referrals, become more effective communicators and presenters; while joining a peer group that improves their learning speed and retention (without giving away trade secrets).

Managers who rapidly build a diverse talent pipeline from other industries and geographies, assess culture fit, interview accurately; while enhancing the performance of their existing team.

Executives who can lead/motivate skilled talent, win key hires and build trust with peers; while using Founder City to free time and help onboard, support and track development of their own entry-level employees and managers.

9.

Here’s how we’re tracking success and improving.A founder-led recruitment/leadership training program like Founder City Talent has never been attempted before, so it’s important that we learn and improve as we grow.

Metrics tracked per role and level within company

Savings Recruiting Leadership1. Less spent on recruiters. 2. Reduced job marketing

costs. 3. Fewer unfilled roles. 4. Retention (especially in

down economy).

1. Key hires won. 2. # referrals. 3. # qualified candidates in

2-year pipeline. 4. # hires, time-to-hire. 5. Diversity metrics.

1. Improved performance (reviews).

2. Improved sales and presentation skills (peer-measured).

3. Program NPS. 4. Trainee career advancement.

Here’s how the money works. (I’ve removed your risk)

10.

1. Sign Up/Support

Any 4 employees (in any function, at any level) $7,400 each - 83% grant/refund (-100% for female trainees) = $1,234 net per employee, ($0 net per female!)

2. Initiate Your Refund

$16,773 back in 12-15 days + $7,894 back at completion = $1,234 net per employee, ($0 net per female!) (excluding HST)

3. Pick Start Date

Pick when to begin the 4-week program.

March 1 - April 11 Apr 24 - May 25

5. RepeatIdeally, all your employees will go through eventually.

No risk: I can return 100% of your $ for any reason.

I plan to invest your $1,234 in R&D, but I will refund you 100% if you’d prefer.

4. TrainIncludes 3 months of HR and

recruiting strategy for founders.

Sign Up to see booking options…

Toronto-Waterloo founders, join us!

Appendix

Our learning objectives and content. Week 1 / Module A Week 2 / Module B Week 3 / Module C Week 4 / Module D

A blended, self-paced learning module incorporating videos, personal assignment, online assessments.

An in-class, blended learning module incorporating facilitator led presentation, discussion, group activities.

A conferencing learning module incorporating videos and personal assignments using customized tools.

An in-class, blended learning module incorporating facilitator led presentation, discussion, group activities.

Learning Objectives. At the end of this training module, participants will be able to:

Introduce the participants. Understand the story of Founder City. Define the importance of recruiting. Understand the importance and business advantage of diversity. Set expectations for this program. Identify the importance of goal setting. Assess their level of personal commitment to this program. Evaluate their personal performance over time (i.e. lifeline). Describe their recruiting narrative/story/pitch. Assess their company culture, diversity. Assess their job culture. Identify job requirements. Write a job description. Assess their manager’s style for prospective employees. Assess their personality. Identify how to assess others’ personalities. Create a profile of ideal hire's cultural fit. Define the interview process and ideal "time to close.” Upon completion of this module, all learners will complete a learning reaction survey.

Learning Objectives. At the end of this training module, participants will be able to:

Identify their fellow participants. Define their expectations. Explain what motivates/demotivates them about recruitment. Understand the challenging nature of recruitment. Explain the 3 cornerstones of Founder City and Forum. Communicate in a transparent and honest fashion with the group or share personal beliefs with the group (i.e. Ungame). Share personal assessments of performance over time or share (i.e. lifeline). Discuss personal challenges and goals. Identify the challenge founders face and their role within it. Identify the difference between a good and bad hire; understand impact. Quantify the contribution (benefit/loss) of good and bad hires. Identify the importance of cultural assessments/benchmark Identify how to recruit qualified candidates. Pitch a candidate comfortably. Customize their recruitment narrative based on candidates’ motivation. Selling the Toronto/Waterloo region as a great location to live and work. Identify the role of timing in recruiting talent. Prepare for Forum-like updates Set all meetings in Calendar; align on dates. Upon completion of this module, all learners will complete a learning reaction survey.

Learning Objectives. At the end of this training module, participants will be able to:

Identify the importance of confidentiality. Share Forum-like updates. Navigate immigration red tape. Execute the cultural assessment/benchmark. Execute the narrative that they will use. Create activity dashboards/OKRs. Share hiring software tools and best practices. Prep Forum-like updates, presentation. Upon completion of this module, all learners will complete a learning reaction survey.

The majority of this training module is focused on applying learning from previous modules.

Learning Objectives. At the end of this training module, participants will be able to:

Understand and apply the one word open; confidentiality reminder. Confidently and effectively execute a confidential Forum-like presentation with peers. Review/share final cultural assessment/benchmark results. Confidently and effectively pitch a candidate on whether their aspirations match the cultural assessment. Confidently and effectively pitch the recruiting narrative that you will use. Review of recruitment theories/tools. Apply hiring software tools and best practices for multiple best practice hiring software solutions: Posting: e.g. Indeed, Pure Job Alerts, Google. Processing: e.g. SmartRecruiters, Lever, Streak, Base. Assessment: e.g. MBTI, Gallup, Fortay, ClearFit. Review and execute activity dashboards (OKRs). Identify and track success factors. Upon completion of this module, all learners will complete a learning reaction survey.

The majority of this training module is focused on applying and practicing (i.e. role-playing) learning from previous modules.

1.5 hours video session + 2.5 hours pre-work 4 hours in-class + lunch 1.5 hours video session

+ 2.5 hours pre-work4 hours in-class + lunch

(+ 1-on-1 post-course support & tools)

Who is behind this?Ben Baldwin 4x Toronto founder and multi-patent-holder in predictive analytics for human work behavior. Board Member at Drucker Institute, Member of Silicon Valley i4j think tank. Wall Street Journal Startup Guru, Inc Magazine Columnist.

Supporters, both in-kind and financial, include:

15

"Recruiting was the ultimate validation. Someone who could work on anything wanted to work on your thing.”

Recruitment success is the ultimate success predictor

Mike Shaver, on scaling Facebook’s mobile team: from 30 to 800 engineers; to 82% of revenue.