Ep 45 - Slingshot x Ruckus: Discovering Exceptional Talent

In this episode, Estelle Reardon and Anish Shah sit down and talk about their organizations, Slingshot and Ruckus. Slingshot’s goal is to match startups with tech prodigies and is of the ethos that talent, not education or age, should dictate access to opportunity. Estelle and Anish discuss what makes the best hires for startups and why exceptional talent is not just found in good schools and big-shot companies.  

Here’s What We Discussed

• [00:34] The founding stories of Slingshot and Ruckus 
• [03:35] The values that drive Slingshot - Providing unparalleled opportunities to talented high school students regardless of their age or education 
• [04:28] The perspective that the Ruckus team brings to executive searches to set their clients and candidates up for success
• [06:48]  Estelle on the benefits of hiring and working with Gen Z high school students 
• [09:16] Anish on spotting exceptional talent 
• [14:27] How Slingshot’s interns balance high school and their jobs and why it works so well 
• [18:14] Anish talks about the most significant shifts in hiring trends since 2020 
• [20:49] Estelle’s advice for employers hiring high school students – The benefits of hiring talented young people before the larger tech companies get to them 
• [24:30] Anish’s predictions for hiring trends in 2023 

 

About Estelle Reardon

Estelle is from a four-square-mile town in Maine called Ogunquit. She completed three internships in high school before going on to The University of Chicago and starting her career in venture capital at .406 Ventures and New Stack Ventures. She later went on to help teach New Venture Strategy at Chicago Booth before founding StandOut Search, a startup matching high school students with internships at startups. StandOut Search received investment from The University of Chicago and The University of Illinois and matched over 1000 students with internships before merging into Slingshot Ahead, where she took over the CEO role.

Anish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.

 

Quotes

“We believe in talent. Your skills, not your age or education, should determine the opportunities available to you.” – Estelle Reardon

“At Slingshot, we're trying to find the most exceptional self-taught technologists of every generation before they enter the university environment and match them with roles at startups. In this way, ambitious founders can hopefully beat leaders to the talent that they're looking for.” – Estelle Reardon

“You really want to look at the motivation of the right candidate and not how hot of a company they came out of.” – Anish Shah 

 

ABOUT RUCKUS

We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!