Keycodes

​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​

Managing Partner, Sonia Nagar of SNAK Venture Partners joins host Dana Guthrie to walk through her path from engineering at GM and launching categories at Amazon to founding and selling a startup, then becoming a VC - joining Pritzker Group before co-founding SNAK. They break down how small funds must “play a different game” than mega-funds, why many founders are better off with earlier mid-nine-figure exits, and how domain expertise beats generic AI in today’s market. The conversation also covers imposter syndrome, leadership evolution, building a “mafia” of great people, and why the Midwest is uniquely positioned for industrial marketplaces and vertical AI.Extended show notes: 01:48 – Sonia’s journey: engineer, founder, operator, Pritzker GP, and now emerging manager​04:48 – Harvard Business School, discovering finance, and a painful summer at Goldman Sachs​07:11 – Launching Amazon’s clothing category and why it was a pivotal career decision​09:29 – Founding a mobile shopping startup, raising venture capital, and the early roller coaster​13:09 – Building a “little black book” of talent that she still taps as an investor​17:07 – Returning to the Midwest, planning a new startup, and falling into venture at Pritzker​18:21 – Becoming Pritzker’s first female investor and wanting more direct impact through capital​21:39 – Why Sonia left Pritzker to co-found SNAK Venture Partners with Adam​24:11 – Global bifurcation: $10B+ mega-funds vs. sub-$50M regional funds and the games they play​28:34 – The Midwest narrative gap and how coastal ecosystems still win the story war​32:26 – VC fund math: check size, ownership targets, and returning the fund​38:46 – Advice for founders and emerging managers: build your “mafia” of good people​39:57 – The “PayPal mafia” concept and how to recreate that effect over a career​