Uber and their “culture of sexism”  may be fading slowly from the front pages, but tech companies are scrambling to review their official practices and unofficial workplace norms. We see now that a single blog post or GlassDoor rating can cripple your company brand. It’s a scary time, but we are (finally) seeing some serious focus on the culture of our tech community.

Tom Kane joined Virtek in December as VP Global Sales. As an international sales leader with extensive experience in growing and mentoring teams, he was excited to apply his learnings to help Virtek continue to grow and compete on a global level. A few months into the new role, we caught up with Tom to hear about why he joined Virtek, why they are poised for global success and how to scale a sales organization.

Sean Erjavec is the new EVP Sales at Bridgit. As a scale-up sales leader with global experience, he is responsible for building a team to drive revenue growth for this exciting KW start-up. Now 3 months into his new role, we talked to him about why he made the move and his approach to sales leadership.

Recently a friend and local tech exec met with some top engineering students, and learned that as many as 60% had plans to accept jobs with tech companies in Silicon Valley. He asked a very interesting and complex question"What can we do to convince them to stay local and build a career here?"

You’ve figured out employer branding and have defined your ideal team.. But how do you get that message out to your dream candidates. They are not likely looking for a job, and if they are, the recruiting messages of hundreds of other growing tech companies just sounds like noise. How do you craft a message that is actually heard - and where do you tell the story? Step 1: Tell a Great the Story Storytelling brings your brand to life and allows you to build meaningful relationships with future employees. Here are a couple of tips: Think about your Who What drives your target employees? We know that what really drives engagement and love for a job is Autonomy, Purpose (Why) and Mastery (and here is a great video by Daniel Pink that drives this message home). Talk about the people behind the brand & their passion for impact While telling your company’s origin story (similar to a Superhero origin story) highlight the people behind the brand and why this mission is important to them. Share inspiring real life accounts that your future employees will connect with. (Read our blog post on developing a hero story - link) Build your brand personality Create a distinct tone of voice across all channels that separates you from your competitors and is easily recognizable. Think about your culture, your team, your workspace - does your tone and voice reflect this? Is it consistent with the what you project to customers? Step 2: Know Where the Story will be Heard Do you know the difference between employment branding and recruiting for a specific role? Recruiting for a role is typically reactive, you focus on tactics to find candidates for a specific profile. Great branding makes recruitment MUCH easier. Branding is about always recruiting - it is the overarching message to the your broad community of future hires. To the people you are targeting AND to those who influence them it says, “YOU WANT TO WORK HERE” To get that message heard, you need to think like your prospective employees. Find them in their natural habitat. Where are the top leaders, sales executives, developers and technical experts working, playing and spending time. What events do they attend? What websites do they frequent? What are they reading? Where do they drink coffee, play games, collaborate with peers on projects? Here are a couple of ideas on how and where to proactively engage prospective hires:

• Hackathons
• Webinars and meet-ups
• Sponsor events relevant to your brand
• Industry events and trade-shows
• Challenges
• Community and volunteer events
• Social media and targeted online communities
• Sponsor podcasts

So go out there and tell your emotionally engaging, problem solving, impactful origin story! Find your tribe.

“For a brand to ring true, and have real authenticity to it, it must start from the inside of the company. It must be inextricably linked to the soul - the very DNA - of the company. The company must live and breathe its brand from the inside out.”

- Daryl Weber

Your ability to harness the talent of great designers is critical to the success of your business. It’s a fact. Design doesn’t just matter. Design is critical. Not just good design, but great design.

I can’t claim that I remember everything from my Economics 101 class - it was more than 20 years ago, Yikes!-  but there was an analogy about lemonade stands that has stuck with me.

When you’re looking for someone to hunt down new customers, land a million dollar partnership, find new investors or land the best executive talent, you need someone special. You need someone who will take up your cause and fight for it - sometimes against fierce competition and in the face of incredible odds.  This person must be resourceful, diligent, and fearless. Many would describe this ideal person as aggressive.

In tech hubs across North America, the success of innovation ecosystems hinge on start-up culture, where ideas and creativity that are free to blossom without the constraints of politics, red tape or inertia that exist within most big companies. And as these small and nimble companies emerge we see that they can disrupt existing markets, offering compelling solutions to customers, and exciting career opportunities for top talent, making it tough for large companies to compete.