In this episode of Unicorn Whisperer, Phil Strazzulla, founder of SelectSoftware Reviews, breaks down the full lifecycle of buying HR technology, from defining the real problem to quantifying ROI and negotiating the right deal. Drawing on his background in venture capital, a Harvard MBA, and experience scaling a company from 300 to 3,000 employees, Phil outlines a repeatable framework that helps HR and Finance leaders avoid costly mistakes and run a disciplined, executive-ready procurement process.

In this episode of Unicorn Whisperer, Daniel Illes breaks down his journey from lawyer to operator to people leader advising Europe’s top venture-backed companies. The conversation explores executive hiring, leadership team effectiveness, and why hiring mistakes compound faster than any other decision. Listeners will walk away with practical frameworks for scoping roles, designing executive interviews, and building leadership teams that actually work.

In this episode, Chris Mannion breaks down the People Supply Chain framework he developed across the Navy, MIT, and Wayfair Recruiting. He explains how consolidating headcount data, modeling true recruiting capacity, and identifying operational constraints can dramatically improve hiring outcomes and reduce organizational chaos. Listeners will walk away with practical tools and a sharper understanding of how top TA leaders build predictable, high-performance systems.

Imole Ashogbon shares how curiosity, data fluency, and relentless learning transformed his HR career from operations to strategy. Discover the frameworks, metrics, and mindset shifts defining the future of strategic HR.

Jim Miller, Head of People & Talent at Ashby, shares how curiosity and craftsmanship built his career from agency recruiter to Google to Ashby. He explains why quality beats quantity, how transparency elevates hiring, and what today’s TA leaders must learn to stay ahead.

Katrina Kibben is the founder of Three Ears Media, a recruitment marketing boutique that has trained thousands of recruiters across Unicorns like Zillow, Forever21 and Instacart, on how to write job postings that attract the right candidates.

Michael Brown, founder of Door3 Talent and former VP of Global Talent Attraction at Snyk, shares how AI is reshaping recruiting. From resume fraud detection to prompt engineering, he breaks down where talent leaders can harness AI to work smarter and deliver better candidate experiences.

Alex Wu, SVP of Talent at Left Lane Capital, shares how she helps founders scale smarter. With insights from hundreds of venture-backed companies, Alex breaks down what great recruiting looks like at every stage of scale.

Learn how Andrew Cesarz scaled talent at top tech companies. We talk intake session discipline and how outbound sourcing still wins. A must-listen for recruiting leaders navigating change and growth.

Cassie Leemans, VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, shares real stories and frameworks built from Unicorn experience to advise founders on optimizing interviews, and building a high-performing recruiting function

Darren walks through his rise to leadership through TA technology at Ericsson, what he’s looking for in the next generation of TA Talent, and his projects to help candidates find their way in this post- AI job market