Co-Founder & CEO Handshake, Garrett Lord: The Billion-Dollar Question That Changed College Recruiting

Handshake CEO and co-founder Garrett Lord was amazed when he first learned that Silicon Valley firms like Google recruited on college campuses ... just not his, Michigan Technical University. But after excelling in the competitive Palantir internship program, he started asking himself, “How come they can’t reach us?” That question led him to found the job placement platform Handshake, which has raised $434 million in funding and is used by 100 percent of the Fortune 500.

In this episode, Garrett and Joubin discuss growing up in an “achievement-focused household”; how Garrett went from struggling to be noticed by Palantir’s recruiters to Handshake CEO; how his $1 billion-plus-valued company started with a broken-down Jeep; working without a safety net; why Garrett has changed his mind about hustle culture; “fortune favors the bold” and “no shave til you raise”; the relief of raising VC funding; how money condenses or extends time; and transitioning from scrappy to scaled CEO.

In this episode, we cover:

• The impostor syndrome — and crucial epiphany — that Garrett had while interning at Palantir (05:46)
• Starting the IT Oxygen club, and Trojan Horsing other college recruiters in Michigan (11:34)
• Does having a chip on your shoulder make you more powerful? (17:08)
• Living in the car, sleeping in McDonald’s parking lots, and showering at university pools (22:25)
• Hard work and the importance of luck to Handshake’s success (27:08)
• The difficult VC fundraising process, and finding a crucial ally: Former assistant dean of the Stanford GSB Andy Chan (30:55)
• Handshake’s first office: A Palo Alto mansion owned by one of LinkedIn’s co-founders (37:55)
• Growing fast and hiring a COO, Jonathan Stull (41:45)
• Is Handshake the next LinkedIn? “Why not LinkedIn plus Indeed?” (47:16)

Links:

• Connect with Garrett
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: garrett@joinhandshake.com
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm