E71: Swati Khanna (VP of Human Capital, Sequoia India)
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Swati Khanna is the VP of Human Capital at Sequoia India where she plays a vital role in supporting portfolio startups in attracting and retaining top talent required to build the country’s next big unicorns. Prior to joining Sequoia, Swati founded Meyrahkee, a talent advisory firm focussed on helping companies with talent solutions, and before that spent four years at Accel as a Talent Partner, helping Accel’s portfolio companies from inception through the growth stage. Swati has a solid reputation for being a top talent recruiter and was recognized as one of India’s Top 40 Social Recruiters in 2017.
In this episode, we will cover:
Human capital in the context of the venture (2:50)
Thinking about talent acquisition at various growth cycles of a startup (5:51)
State of the industry right now with respect to talent acquisition (13:52)
How should founders position themselves and their startups to attract the best talent (16:14)
How to develop culture within a startup (18:44)
How does Sequoia help young founders attract top talent (29:45)
Talent management (36:16)
Addressing diversity in today’s climate (46:40)
What is the day to day of a VP of a Human capital (56:30)
Advice to fund managers who are building out or looking to build human capital (59:30)
How does Sequoia look at human capital with a 5-year lens (1:06:29)
Productizing human capital (1:08:45)