Learn how Sapphire Ventures helps scale talent operations for over 100 companies that they have invested in, enabling talent teams in the new wave of AI innovation and disruption.
Sapphire Ventures is a growth-stage venture capital firm with a portfolio of 100+ companies. Their talent team, led by Elizabeth Arnsdorf Patterson (Partner, People and Talent) and Tiffany Chandra (VP, People and Talent), is a lean operation with a powerful mandate: empower founders and executives to build high-performing teams—particularly in B2B, enterprise Go-To-Market roles. To meet growing demands with limited internal resources, Sapphire partnered with Getro to scale their impact and surface the right candidates, faster.
The Sapphire Venture talent team specifically focuses on:
“Entire organizations need to become AI savvy if they're going to survive. In order to mitigate risk for our portfolio companies, we're going to have to find ways for them to get AI savvy and to help them accelerate go-to-market hiring.” - Elizabeth
The Sapphire team is noticing trending challenges across their portfolio:
As Elizabeth explained:
"Companies are tightening their belts, driving towards profitability, forcing companies to kind of do more with less. And part of it, up to 15% [of that constriction] right now, is the impact of AI.”
The competition for top AI talent is getting tougher, putting pressure on portfolio companies to find and retain the best talent. But, they’re doing it with fewer resources. That’s where the Sapphire Ventures team aims to come in to support their portfolio.
Sapphire Ventures has been a Getro customer for 7 years, evolving their usage as their needs changed.
Here are the three core use cases that help accelerate talent workflows from Sapphire’s perspective:
"We believe the job board functionality is table stakes for our firm and for the ecosystem because of its self-service component. It enables A-players who are looking for their next role from functions or levels we might not be as close to. It frees up our bandwidth so we can continue to offer white glove service.” - Tiffany
Using data from Getro, Tiffany and Elizabeth maintain a talent market report for the investment team.
The report compares portfolio hiring trends with broader market indicators.
Using Getro’s data, the team can answer...
“Where are we hiring, what are the geographic trends, what functions are trending, how many jobs are added or removed?”. This report informs investment partners about market conditions, portfolio health, and investment recommendations.
Elizabeth shares her executive search support playbook.
“On a weekly basis, we'll comb Getro to look for other head/ VP/C-level open roles. Then, we will add those to a database and prioritize them by function, by the ability for that job to move the needle, and by how much we have allocated in that company”.
In a market defined by volatility, AI disruption, and leaner teams, Sapphire’s approach illustrates how thoughtful tooling and intelligent workflows can unlock scaled talent support. Talent teams are transforming into data sources for investment teams. The most strategic talent teams support their portfolio companies by connecting them with top AI talent, which is critical to succeeding in this new wave of innovation.
“Getro allows us do more with less, helps us support inbound referrals, and surfaces the jobs we wouldn’t catch otherwise.” - Tiffany
Getro became more than a job board; it became a strategic partner for visibility, efficiency, and trust.
SAPPHIRE DISCLAIMER:
This article is for informational purposes only. Nothing presented within this article is intended to constitute investment advice on the behalf of Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”), and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Sapphire. Information provided reflects Sapphires’ views as of a time, whereby such views are subject to change at any point, whereby Sapphire shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. Statements made by Sapphire regarding experience & partnerships with Getro reflets Sapphire’s beliefs and opinions only, which do not reflect official statements. Sapphire has provided to compensation to Getro for use of Getro’s products and services. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or the actual experience one may experience may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in these statements. Nothing contained in this article may be relied upon as a guarantee or assurance as it relates to Getro’s product or services. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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