Lately, it’s felt like every single tech giant out there has had major layoffs — including Amazon, Coinbase, Intel, Meta, Stripe, Twitter, and others. With these layoffs and a looming recession dominating news, hiring planning might feel harder to navigate than ever. Startups aren’t sure if they should scoop up laid-off talent, slow down recruiting, or freeze hiring altogether. So, how can you best navigate this changing landscape? And how does network recruiting come into play?

Today, referral programs are one of the most powerful recruiting strategies available to companies. Referrals are 85 times more likely to be hired than inbound candidates, over twice as fast to hire, and they stay with companies — on average — 70% longer than non-referrals.

Another day, another tech industry layoff. At least, that’s how it’s felt lately, with tech titans’ layoffs and hiring freezes dominating headlines. If you’re a startup watching this all happen, you may be wondering what this all means for your own growth and hiring — especially as the stock market falls and interest rates rise.

While the Great Resignation was spurred on by the pandemic, the real reason employees are leaving jobs has little to do with COVID-19. For employers that are now backfilling empty roles, that’s an important distinction to make — because it means an entirely different approach to recruiting is needed.

Bringing the right people on board is one of the most crucial parts of building any successful business, and few people understand that better than Monarch Money Founder Ozzie Osman.

Matt Maasdam, Ex Navy SEALs Instructor and Co-Founder at PECOS Outdoor, didn’t take the most traditional path to entrepreneurship. In fact, his career journey matches few others. Maasdam started his career with the Navy SEALs, where he spent 20 years working in candidate selection and training. He later carried the nuclear codes for President Obama during his two years as the White House’s Military Aide. Since then, Maasdam has run strategy programs at Under Armour and worked as the COO of startup Revtown. Today, he’s the co-founder of PECOS Outdoors, an e-commerce company that produces outdoor gear.

The new GTM playbook is about building relationships and leveraging influence to drive deals forward. It’s no longer enough to rely on cold outreach and a flood of emails. The winners in today’s market will be the ones who tap into sales data 2.0 and capitalize on their network’s power.

The webinar emphasized the critical role of network operations in venture capital, highlighting how VCs have always relied on their networks for sourcing investment opportunities. The ability to map and leverage relationships is now recognized as essential across various aspects of a VC fund’s performance, including fundraising, deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support.

Here's a practical playbook with ten insights for startup leaders focusing on building and leveraging their networks!

Experts explain the tactical, network-based approaches companies should take to succeed in 2023 — and why they matter: Richard Cho (Advisor & Former Chief Recruiting Officer at Gem), Nolan Church (CEO at Continuum), David Connors (Co-Founder & CEO at The Swarm). Panel event moderated by Opal Franklin (Events Lead at The Swarm).

The Swarm can now also be used for sales purposes, in addition to recruiting and building investor networks. New features allow you to use The Swarm to discover warm connection paths into target companies, identify net new target companies within your Swarm network, and prioritize your sales pipeline based on network connectivity.

More than ever, founders need to do more with less, and they need their growth engines to be as efficient as possible. We’re excited to introduce new ways your company network can be activated to accelerate recruiting and sales, and for investors to build their own networks.

When we talk about uniting the individual networks of your team, investors, and advisors into a single combined network on The Swarm, what exactly does that mean? We’re glad you asked. Your Network Graph is where the magic happens.

The way we build and structure businesses has changed radically over the past few decades. The rise of the startup has created a whole new model for business, challenging the traditional, siloed corporate structures that have been around for a century or more. However, while businesses have changed, the way we recruit has remained the same in many ways. Network recruiting is here to change that.