Lucy Xu

Yelp’s Chief Culture Officer, Miriam Warren, shared a great piece diving into the impact of our 21 Yelp Employee Resource Groups (YERGs). She shares that nearly half of our workforce belongs to at least one group, and nearly 4 out of 10 Yelpers belong to more than one (which is much higher than the U.S. national benchmarks reported by Pew Research). What I love is that our YERGs host virtual programming that is open to everyone, covering real-world skills like navigating AI, home buying, and leadership. Miriam shared that 93% of Yelpers agree Yelp fosters an inclusive environment, and having access to these kinds of open, supportive spaces is a huge reason why 🌟 Check out her full post here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gVCGh9FP  #LifeAtYelp #FiveStarCareer

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𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐈 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞. Along with resume and LinkedIn optimization, I regularly stay connected with 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 across different teams and organizations. This proximity offers valuable insight into how candidates are evaluated in real scenarios - not in theory and helps me continuously refine how I position professionals in today’s job market. It highlights: • Why strong profiles still don’t get shortlisted • Which skills influence decisions vs filler keywords • How resumes are filtered before interviews • What decision-makers notice in the first few seconds These insights directly shape how I: ✔ Write resumes aligned with current expectations ✔ Optimize LinkedIn profiles for better recruiter discovery ✔ Position professionals for stronger interview traction Effective resumes aren’t built on templates or assumptions. They’re shaped by 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫. If your applications aren’t getting the response you expect, a market-aligned perspective can make a meaningful difference. 📩 Happy to help with a resume or LinkedIn review.

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Even when cash flow gets tight, your team shouldn’t feel it. NEW: Payroll Bridge, powered by Parafin and available to eligible Gusto customers, allows you to apply for a line of credit to cover payroll when unexpected expenses pop up—so your employees get paid on time and in full. With flexible repayment plans and transparent fees, it’s peace of mind, built right into Gusto. Check out how Payroll Bridge works, and check out what other recent features we've launched: https://lnkd.in/eRvgEVwR Gusto provides access to Payroll Bridge through our partnership with Parafin. All lines of credit are issued by Celtic Bank. Subject to credit approval.

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You just had your YC launch, and now you’re at an inflection point. Tons you still want to build, but customer support is capping your bandwidth and momentum’s starting to stall. You could hire, but that’s significant time over the next 2-3 months pulled away from customers and building. A slowdown, even if it positions you for growth. Better option: stay lean and protect momentum. Plug in short-term, startup-tested engineers who can ship right away and buy you the bandwidth to hire right, not fast. That’s how early teams keep their velocity while everything else scales.

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Over the past few years, I’ve gone deep with dozens of founders as they searched for their first VP of Engineering. It’s one of the most transformative (and challenging) hires you’ll make—marking the transition from product-market fit to building systems, teams, and long-term scalability. Too often, founders default to searching for "senior" talent with brand-name résumés. But experience at scale ≠ effectiveness at early stage. I wrote this Field Guide to help you shortcut the process—and make the right hire the first time. 🔍 What’s inside 🔍 - How to know when you’re ready for a VPE - The traits that matter (and the ones that don’t) - Pitfalls to avoid (like hiring too senior, too soon) - Whether you should use an executive search partner - Real-world advice from BCV portfolio founders Matthew Haber Douwe Kiela Rami Karabibar Mihir Garimella and Michael R. Bock   💬 As Michael R. Bock, Co-Founder and CTO of ColumnTax put it: “As a founder, you should always be de-risking the business’s top risks. Hiring a great VPE is one of the clearest ways to do that.” Whether you're just starting to think about the role—or you're already deep in a search—this guide is built to help you navigate one of the most important leadership hires of your company’s early life. https://lnkd.in/eqtRAvkr

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$350K base + equity $325K base + equity $370K base + equity These are real offers we’ve seen in just the last week for Senior and Staff Engineers in San Francisco. If you’re a founder in SF chasing top technical talent, this is your competition. Only one of these offers was accepted… and it wasn’t the $370K one. The takeaway? You’re not just competing on comp, you’re competing on vision, team, product, and purpose. If you’re not selling the why, treating every candidate like an enterprise deal, and showcasing real technical challenges, you’re losing the talent war. This continues to be the most competitive hiring market I’ve ever seen in the Bay.

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As a follow-up to my post yesterday about how I fell in love with solving startup hiring pain, I wanted to share some of the most common ways I see tech companies using fractional TA for flexibility paired with GSD. Hiring sprints - they may already have a recruiter or small People team, but hiring suddenly accelerates beyond their existing capabilities. Fractional recruiting support adds senior bandwidth fast without burning out the team or lowering the bar. Fundraising-driven scale - a round closes and the hiring plan doubles overnight. Fractional recruiting helps teams scale quickly without committing to permanent recruiting headcount too early. Hiring needs without sustained volume - some teams need 5-15 high-impact hires, then hiring plans slow way down for a while. Fractional support matches real demand instead of forcing a full-time role that won’t be fully utilized 6 months from now. Post-acquisition skill gaps - M&A often reveals capability gaps. Fractional recruiters help define the roles and hire for what’s next. Launching a new product or initiative - new products often require new job profiles. Fractional TA brings pattern recognition and market context to avoid expensive mishires. Interim coverage - parental leave, medical leave, or unexpected transitions within the recruiting team can put strain on the remaining team members and stall momentum. Fractional TA provides interim coverage so team members can take the time they need and everything moves forward in the meantime. Highly niche or technical hiring - some roles demand deep specialization. Fractional recruiters with the right experience can lead these searches effectively and efficiently and they know what rocks to turn over to find what's needed, beyond any talent pool a posted JD is likely to result in. Early hiring foundation building - fractional recruiting brings structure, process, and hiring discipline alongside execution. The throughline across all of this is flexibility paired with competency. Fractional recruiting works because it meets companies where they are and delivers what they actually need, when they need it. What am I missing? In what other scenarios have you seen fractional support work really well?

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Imagine the efficiency and quality gains engineering teams will have at their fingertips to built robust, reliable, and scalable software in the AI era!

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