​Host Dana Guthrie sits down with Amanda Daering, CEO of global recruitment and HR advisory firm Newance, to unpack how to think about talent, pace, and capital in early-stage companies. Amanda shares how she fell into recruiting from finance, why “pace” is the most underrated element of fit, and how starting from outcomes (12–24 months out) leads to better hiring decisions. Dana and Amanda also dig into capital as a constraint, founder-investor alignment, busywork vs. progress, and why great founders should act like scientists and lawyers when testing assumptions at the earliest stages.

Extended show notes:

00:00 – Systems, engineers, entrepreneurs, and why pace is the most underrated

element of fit​​

01:05 – Amanda’s path: leaving finance, falling into recruiting, and learning on the fly​

03:01 – Becoming a dissatisfied agency customer and deciding to build something

better (Newance)​

03:31 – First Newance clients, why the firm gravitated to startups, and Amanda’s early

hopes​

04:17 – When the “ideal” candidate profile doesn’t exist and how to reset expectations​

05:08 – Designing roles from outcomes: “In 12–18 months, how will we know we hired

the right person?”​

06:03 – Capital as a constraint and as a risk: too little vs. too much, and how both hurt

execution​

07:57 – Reading financial projections as a story: what headcount and revenue

assumptions really say​

10:15 – Talent evaluation as investing: what Dana looks for in founders (insight and

numbers)​

11:27 – The “quantifiable value prop” question and why early founders struggle to

answer it​

14:02 – How Amanda evaluates candidates: competencies, culture, company context,

and pace​

14:58 – Pace matching: methodical vs. hyper-speed teams and avoiding fit mismatches​