Brett Isis

Big changes in U.S. tech hiring! The new $100K fee for new H-1B visas is set to reshape the market. What is likely to happen... - Startups & SMEs may struggle to justify the cost - Expect more competition for domestic tech talent - Companies may shift hiring offshore or embrace remote models - Senior/rare skill hires will still command sponsorship despite the cost Whilst a lot is up in the air... If the U.S. becomes more expensive and harder to enter for foreign tech workers, skilled professionals may look for alternative markets which could be a great advantage for the UAE if they can benefit by attracting more international tech talent, especially those dissuaded by U.S. cost/visa hurdles. Keen to hear peoples thoughts on this! Talent Connect Group (TCG) #TechHiring #H1B

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Startup Founders, here's how you choose solid business partners: Don't focus on business acumen, connections, prestige. Choose them because of who they are as a human being. Your business partner is going to be the person you talk to all day, every day, for your entire life (assuming all goes well and you never retire, lol). So when you're choosing a business partner, don't choose them because they're good at marketing or fulfillment or operations. That's cool, that's great. But are they a good person? Do you trust them with your livelihood? Do you even have the same values and goals? Because when things get tough, you need to be on the same page. You need to have that staying power. All skills can be learned. Look for character first.

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Hiring for a startup vs. an established company has the same process but different challenges. At first glance, the process of hiring may appear to be a routine procedure. However, when you compare a startup to a well-established company, the differences become clear.  What is different in startups? - Startups need speed over structure. - Employees need to wear multiple hats.  - Candidates must align with their vision & thrive on uncertainty. What is different in established businesses? - Larger companies have a structured hiring process.   - Candidates are hired for specific expertise and experience.   - Brand reputation attracts talent. What is the same?  - Hiring the wrong person can be costly for any company regardless of its size. - Every business, from new startups to big firms, does well when its workers share its main beliefs. - To draw in great people, you need to offer them an exciting goal and a positive work environment. The best hiring strategy for both small & big companies is to understand what makes your company unique and hire accordingly.    What has been your biggest hiring challenge? #hiring #startup #bigcompanies

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Some founders will do literally anything… except sales. They’ll: - Obsess over the product roadmap - Rewrite the pitch deck for the 12th time - Refine positioning, ICPs, pricing, narratives - Talk to advisors, mentors, accelerators - Study competitors - Prepare for fundraising - Start fundraising - Pitch VCs - Pitch again But actually sell to customers? Suddenly… silence. Selling is uncomfortable. Selling invites real feedback. Selling risks exposing the truth. Not about the market. About whether someone will pay for this. So founders stay busy instead. Product work feels safe. Strategy feels intelligent. Fundraising feels validating. Sales feels personal. I speak to hundreds of founders every month. And the pattern is painfully obvious. Many aren’t raising because they need capital. They’re raising because they can’t sell. And they believe money will fix that. It won’t. Capital doesn’t create demand. Decks don’t close customers. Valuations don’t replace conversations. If you can’t sell without funding… funding won’t magically teach you how. This isn’t a gtm problem. It’s a founder problem.

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Startups are hiring pedigree to reduce risk and defend process. That mindset usually belongs to big companies. And it’s a bad fit early on. Even Steve Jobs argued startups win by hiring people who think differently, not “bean counters.” Yet a lot of AI startups are hiring like incumbents. Brand-heavy resumes Familiar titles Comfortable signals For a startup, copying big-company hiring logic is self-sabotage. 📌 Why do you think so many early-stage teams still default to pedigree hiring?

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"We’re only hiring exceptional candidates" I hear this a lot from early-stage founders lately. But when I ask what exceptional actually means, there’s usually a long pause. Is it FAANG? A top 5 CS degree? A résumé that screams “IPO veteran”? In our experience helping dozens of startups hire their first few engineers, exceptional means something very different at the early stage. It’s not prestige. It’s not perfection. It’s this: -Autonomous and doesn’t need hand-holding -Communicates clearly—even when things are messy -Thrives in ambiguity and constant change -Doesn’t wait for specs—helps write them -Can ship fast and learn even faster -Balances scrappiness with technical judgment -It's okay being the only engineer on a call, a sprint, or a fire drill We’ve seen engineers without elite logos outperform those with them, not because they’re “better,” but because they were a better fit for the stage. Startups don’t need specialists in navigating corporate org charts, they need builders who can think in first principles, wear many hats, and move without waiting for permission. So if you’re hiring and holding out for “exceptional,” define it through the lens of what your company needs today, not what might look good on paper. Let’s stop chasing the wrong signal. The right hire, at the right stage, is exceptional.

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* VC Objections * In pitch meetings with VCs, if you see no objections from them on your assumptions, questions on your projected numbers or inputs on your business model then you are not getting their money. They are not interested. It takes minimum 7 meetings with a VC to close an investment deal. Check the list of VCs pitched, no of meetings done, if it crosses 7 meetings then mark them as a good qualified VC lead, till then it’s only prospecting or discovery mode. #100X Smeet Mehta Vatsal Kanakiya

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Startups without funding need one thing: frugality. When you don’t have VC money to throw around, every dollar must be accretive. No burn room, no luxury of “we’ll figure it out later.” Frugality forces you to get efficient. You start asking smarter questions: → Does this spend actually move the needle? → Can we build it scrappy instead of hiring for it? → Are we solving a real problem or creative bureaucracy? You hustle harder, make sharper calls and focus only on what drives growth. And weirdly, that pressure is a gift. It builds intuition. When your back’s against the wall, you learn to build efficiently, not fire from the hip. That kind of discipline keeps you alive.

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I built a hiring toolkit for startups and job-seekers. The VU Talent Resource Hub is now open. It’s based on what we’ve seen in real work in VU Venture Partners, Venture University, & VU Talent Partners ecosystem. It includes: For founders: Founder Hiring Toolkit Plan your next hire with clarity. Includes a role builder, onboarding plan, JD generator, and scorecards. For job seekers: Personal Positioning + Outreach Kit Revamp your resume and narrative for startups. Includes Dartboard targeting strategy, LinkedIn optimization, and outreach scripts. Startup Interview Toolkit Get inside the founder mindset before you interview. Includes real scorecards, reverse-engineered prep, and tactical examples. It works on both sides of the table. Founders get clarity. Candidates get context. The job search game has changed. We’re trying to make it easier to play it well. Access is free — just ask ask here, and I'll send it to you. https://lnkd.in/eMqD5Fa3 Or drop “toolkit” in the comments and I’ll send you the access link directly.

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Sometimes, the quietest startups build the strongest foundations. 🩷 When you build with limited resources, every decision matters. You learn to listen to customers instead of chasing investors. You measure value in users, not vanity metrics. You move slow enough to understand, but fast enough to survive. Bootstrapping doesn’t just test your product — it shapes your mindset. You become more disciplined, more creative, and far more resilient. You learn to think like an owner, not a spender. Raising funds can accelerate growth, but bootstrapping builds the kind of founder who knows why they’re growing — and how to sustain it. To every founder who’s building with limited capital: you’re not behind, you’re just becoming sharper. #founders #startup #growth #bootstrap #hrtech #interviews #ai

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7 funding stats to know: 1. global startup funding hit $91B in Q2 2025, up ~11% YoY (but down ~20% QoQ) 2. H1 2025 venture capital + private equity funding reached $189.9B, up ~25% vs H1 2024 3. average VC deal size in Q2 2025 was ~$19.2M (while deal count dropped ~29%) 4. software & AI companies now take ~45% of all VC funding globally 5. in Q1 2025, VC-backed companies raised ~$80B — nearly 30% higher than Q4 2024 6. about 89% of VC funds have <$100M in committed capital; but the ~11% >$100M funds account for ~54% of total dry powder in a Carta analysis 7. blockchain startups raised ~$4.8B in Q1 2025, the strongest quarter since late 2022

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Relocation ≠ Integration. Many companies support their international hires with relocation logistics: ✔️ Visa ✔️ Housing ✔️ Contracts ✔️ Paperwork But what happens after that? The truth is: Settling physically doesn’t mean settling socially. Without support to build a life beyond the office, many international professionals quietly struggle and eventually leave. Social and cultural integration plays a huge role in long-term retention, wellbeing, and performance. And yet, it's the one thing most companies still overlook. What support does your organisation offer after day 1? #internationalhr #globalmobility #expatsinnorway #employeeengagement #integration #belonging #socialbridgenorway

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“Enthusiasm is not demand” Rob Snyder lays out how successful founders find customer pull versus relying on founder push of their product. Rob’s PULL framework even has a handy acronym: Project - a prospective customer has a job that needs done Unavoidable - accomplishing that project isn’t optional. List - the prospect has tried a lot of options Limitations - those options have hit important meaningful blocks in completing the project. Utah Tech Week Randall Lloyd University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute

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You might have seen a lot about H-1B visas recently, here’s a quick video on what they are, who they’re typically used by and what the changes are (for now)! If you’re a recruitment agency that currently works with contractors on a H-1B visa you might well have questions like: Are my candidates able to keep working without the new $100,000 fee? Can my candidates leave the country and return? Will this affect me being able to place candidates on H-1B visas into roles? If you have any of these or more then contact me or any of the team at PGC Group (Workwell Global North America) and we’d be happy to support. #h1b #visa #usa

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