Google employees were prized recruits for tech founders for much of the past two decades. But that’s changing.
It was two years ago when Chris Johnson, founder of executive recruiting firm Artisanal Talent, first realized founders’ tastes were starting to shift. Johnson thought a veteran Google executive might be a good fit for a client looking to fill a combined chief product and technology officer role. But the CEO of the client, a unicorn tech firm with more than $100 million in revenue, disagreed.
“I will never hire someone that has only spent their career at Google,” Johnson recalled the CEO saying. That sentiment caught Johnson off guard, given that his clientele of mostly private tech companies had previously been enthusiastic about poaching from Google. The CEO’s thinking has since become more common. These days, Johnson’s clients are hesitant to “take the bet” that candidates can “operate outside of Google,” he told The Information.
