Cassie Leemans on VC Talent Strategy, Interviewing, and Building Unicorn Teams
In this episode of The Unicorn Whisperer, Eric Guidice sits down with Cassie Leemans, VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, to dive into her journey from in-house recruiting to venture capital, how she supports portfolio companies in hiring exceptional talent, and what great interviewing—and candidate experience—really looks like.
Whether you're a recruiter, a founder, or someone breaking into executive search, here are the top five takeaways from the conversation and why they matter to you.
1) VC Talent Work Is Advisory, Not Command-and-Control
Takeaway: Cassie supports portfolio companies by offering guidance—not mandates. She doesn't own hiring quotas, but she offers deeply informed advice based on experience scaling unicorns.
Why It Matters: If you’re moving into VC talent work or working with a VC firm, understand that success depends on influence. Founders don’t need another boss—they need a trusted advisor who brings perspective, tools, and clarity to critical decisions.
2) The Best Interview Process Is Iterative and Calibrated
Takeaway: Cassie works closely with founders to run "calibration" cycles at the start of a search. This helps refine the hiring bar early and avoid wasted time. She encourages a clear intake process, tight rubrics, and regular feedback loops.
Why It Matters: Without strong calibration, teams spin their wheels—often rejecting great candidates for unclear reasons. The solution isn’t more interviews. It’s better alignment on what “great” looks like and giving interviewers the tools to assess it.
3) Candidate Prep Is Not Cheating—It’s Best Practice
Takeaway: Cassie emphasizes prepping candidates for interviews. She views this not as gaming the process, but as ensuring they put their best foot forward. If a candidate fails because the expectations were unclear, that’s a problem with the process—not the person.
Why It Matters: Prepping candidates leads to stronger signal and better experiences. Founders and recruiters should focus on evaluating someone at their best, not tricking them into failure.
4) Data Is Your Armor—Especially When Leading Talent at Startups
Takeaway: Cassie shared that the turning point in her career was getting serious about metrics. Whether it’s pass-through rates, close rates, or interview efficiency, numbers tell the real story—and help recruiters drive change with skeptical founders.
Why It Matters: Startups often operate on intuition. But founders trust data. Recruiters who can frame problems and solutions with numbers gain credibility—and the power to reshape bad processes.
5) Great Recruiting Requires Pattern Recognition—and Repeat Networks
Takeaway: Cassie has conducted thousands of conversations and sees her role as building a living, breathing network. The ability to recall past candidates for future roles is critical—and better tools for "network recall" are still a big opportunity in recruiting tech.
Why It Matters: Building a long-term talent network isn’t just about sourcing. It’s about remembering. Candidates who weren’t the right fit for one role may be perfect for another—if you’ve got the infrastructure to find them again.
Bonus: The Candidate Experience Is Everything
Cassie’s final point: don’t make your hiring process a maze. When companies align their job descriptions, interview rubrics, and evaluation criteria, they create clarity—for themselves and their candidates. Everyone wins.
Interested in working with Cassie or at a Craft Ventures portfolio company? Visit jobs.craftventures.com or follow Cassie on LinkedIn.