Inside Interviewing: Exploring Growth, Development, and the Future with Carin Van Vuuren of Greenhouse

Get ready to be inspired as we sit down with Carin Van Vuuren, the Chief Marketing Officer at Greenhouse. On this special episode of Greenhouse: Inside Interviewing, we go on a fascinating journey recounting the incredible evolution of her company over the last five years. 

From scaling up to match their clienteles' growth to the transformation of their brand to serve both SMB and enterprise customers, she reveals it all. And, it's not just about the company's drive. Carin attributes this growth to the harmonious partnership between Greenhouse's co-founders and their ability to build an expansive ecosystem, strategically partnering with other companies to deliver a comprehensive product offering. 

You’ll leave this episode with a newfound appreciation for the power of partnership, the importance of adaptability, and the bright future of HR Technology.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:07

This is William Titkep. We are broadcasting from the Greenhouse booth at HR Tech. It's been a wonderful two days. We've had a lot of great conversations. Right now we're going to talk to Karen, who's a CMO at Greenhouse. And why don't we do introductions? Tell us a little bit about what you do at Greenhouse.

Speaker 2 0:23

Thank you for the opportunity to be here even. So I'm Chief Marketing Officer. I do a little bit of everything that is flavored marketing, and one of the things that I think is my pride and joy is helping to build this brand.

Speaker 1 0:37

You've done an amazing job building this brand. I mean, first of all, it wasn't completely broken to begin with, so that's good it was very cool, but very like start-up-y. Yes, but you got to take it. Especially with Talent Makers, the book and everything that you've done with Open, you got to take it to another level which is great. It's a credit to you, your vision and the team, Because you've also assembled a world-class team, a really awesome team.

Speaker 2 1:05

Well, I think fun fact is I just have my five-year anniversary at Greenhouse.

Speaker 1 1:10

Do you get like a pin?

Speaker 2 1:12

No, no, we don't do watches, we don't do. It's like dog here. You just don't know how you got there, but it was wonderful to imagine being here at HR Tech and celebrating five years. But to the point that you were just making, when I joined Greenhouse, the brand was very cool, very innovative, but we were very focused at SME at that time.

Speaker 2 1:35

And so the past five years has really been about this journey up-market. And here we are and our enterprise business is very strong. Our brand is a sophisticated, more mature brand and I think when companies now look at Greenhouse they're like we want to be part of that community and I feel that's good progress in five years.

Speaker 1 1:53

The beauty of that and we talked about this at Open a few years ago is that y'all got pulled up market. It's not like you sat around and said we want to go up Work with 80,000 employee firms globally. It's like, no, your customer's like we, like you, we're growing, we want you to come with us. So I like those stories personally, because it's one thing to say you set your sights on a market and then you do something and then the market's like, mm. No, y'all were pulled that way, which I think is better.

Speaker 2 2:24

I think it's great, but there's also a design piece here that we shouldn't underestimate. I mean, one of the things that I love about working at Greenhouse is that it's such a purposeful company, so our mission is to help companies become great at hiring, and so you can't just say only small companies need to be great at hiring. If every company so, then the question is, how do you actually grow with them and scale with them? Or how do you influence them at the beginning so that by the time they become a unicorn or they become an enterprise, they still feel that Greenhouse is the place where they do their best hiring.

Speaker 1 3:00

They haven't outgrown you.

Speaker 2 3:01

Right and we haven't. We've been able to scale with them, and so huge goodos to the product team that actually created a product that can serve both SMB, medmarket and Enterprise, but also like a massive gratitude to our customers who like invest the time and energy in us to tell us what it is that they need, and I think that sort of relationship is part of how we got here.

Speaker 1 3:27

Well, you've got two co-founders that are still very much engaged in the business, which is rare. Yes, after 10, 11, 12 years, whatever the bit is, it's rare that they're both still connected and very connected, like I talked to John once a month and just really kind of talk about life and other stuff and he's in it Like he's in the weeds Right, thinking about things, thinking about innovation, talking to customers. Is that any other? It's like not a lot of founders at this stage do that?

Speaker 2 3:57

It's very true, and therefore I feel it's a privilege to have the opportunity to work with leaders like that. But I think one of the other things that's interesting is we're all hiring managers right, and so we live every day in like how do I get the very best talent onto my team? And when I'm using the product, oh, wouldn't it be cool if so? Every time I talk with John, I just come away feeling very excited about what's possible. And when I talk to Daniel, it's like there's no problem that we cannot solve.

Speaker 1 4:26

He's an amazing thing. You need the balance of the two. Right, you need the balance of the two.

Speaker 2 4:31

But it's also an interesting thing, because part of what makes Greenhouse a little bit different is we're not just designing to solve problems for the recruiter but, actually very much designing to solve problems for the hiring manager. And candidate and candidate exactly, and so it's the whole ecosystem around hiring that we're saying how can we improve this? And so the compliment, or rather the partnership between Dan as the executive and John as a product visionary works extremely well.

Speaker 1 5:03

Well, you mentioned the word ecosystem. That's actually what I was going to mention. Next, one of the things I love about y'all is from a very early stage and continued into today is you're not trying to build it all, you're not trying to do it all, you're not trying to meet all things to all people. You kind of kind of idea of where you fit, but also you've brought in wonderful partners and you treat them like wonderful partners and you treat them well. And again to the end user, to the end client, it's like okay, I can go into the system, I can go into the ecosystem, I can pick, I can say background tracks or whatever behavioral aspect whatever the bit is.

Speaker 1 5:41

And there's options and they're all deeply integrated with Greenhouse. It's like that's just one last thing I have to go do.

Speaker 2 5:47

Right, and it's an interesting. I think the intention from the beginning was to make Greenhouse the center of, let's say this, a hub, if you would.

Speaker 2 5:57

And all these other functionalities kind of plug into the hub and to do that and to do that, well, you need to remove as much of the friction as possible, and so, right from the beginning, open API. That was the route that we chose, and, with a kind of top quality customer base, some of the best companies and the most innovative technologies wanted to be part of Greenhouse, so that kind of really drove the success. But one of the things that we learned along the way is that there is a special tier of partners, if you would, and these are the partners that our customers prefer to use often and actually tell us that they love being a customer of that company.

Speaker 1 6:35

That's right.

Speaker 2 6:36

And that the integration between that company and Greenhouse makes the total experience so much better.

Speaker 1 6:41

That's right.

Speaker 2 6:42

So our customer-preferred partners is like one of the things I really feel good about because oftentimes. What is that saying? If you hire McKinsey, you can't get fired. If you hire McKinsey?

Speaker 1 6:51

You can get fired or a hybrid show. We're named your favorite consultant brand right.

Speaker 2 6:56

But if you choose a customer-preferred partner, you know with confidence that you are using a service that others have tried and that we'll really work and deliver what the outcomes that you're looking for.

Speaker 1 7:06

So go ahead, we'll finish up. One more thing.

Speaker 2 7:08

But I think where we're going to go next is to say we have this very dynamic ecosystem. Potentially there should be a little bit more of a proactive recommendation, because we've seen a few things. We understand what good looks like. We see what our customers really need to be paying attention to. So in the future we might be thinking about being a bit more of a sort of a proactive recommender, if you would have. If you want to achieve these outcomes. You may want to look at these three partners.

Speaker 1 7:41

That kind of direction. It would help them in so many ways that they don't go to Google Right and you don't go that route.

Speaker 2 7:47

Well, that's the value add to our customers, right? I mean, we are sitting on this side of the equation and thinking here's how you achieve that candidate experience that you're looking for. Here's how you achieve the efficiency that you're looking for. I love that. And so here are the partners' best position to be able to do that for you.

Speaker 1 8:02

So, as a recovering marketer, I have to ask you what's the hardest part about marketing now? In this marketer today, as opposed to years ago, you could do content marketing. You could do this, that the other, and it would just kind of work. You know you get 1000 people to a little webinar. This and the other, now maybe not as much et cetera. What's the challenge?

Speaker 2 8:28

It's a fascinating question. I think there's two things In this totally noisy environment. Brand has never been more important, because the notion of a differentiated brand still is the thing that will make you stand out, but the challenge that I think is more intense than ever is the difference between content and valuable content.

Speaker 1 8:52

There's so much content around, right, it's like everyone is speaking to you. Everyone is this. Everyone is this.

Speaker 2 8:59

You can generate more content and you know what to do with. But the point is what content is worth my time, what experiences will truly translate into value, and how do I signal that to my customer? And so this is not a new word, but if you belong to the greenhouse community, we're going to do some of that work for you.

Speaker 1 9:19

We're going to go like you know, trust us.

Speaker 2 9:21

here is four pieces of content, two experiences, one conversation that you must have, because this is going to make you a better hiring manager, this is going to make you a better recruiter.

Speaker 1 9:31

And bring the value. You're sitting on the data. It's by sitting on the metadata, but also sitting on their data. You can give them something that Generative AI can't.

Speaker 2 9:40

See the patterns exactly. Yes actually, the thing that Generative AI cannot yet do is, I think, effectively reveal the insights, and that's where I think we bring a tremendous It'll never be able to bring the insights inside of four walls of what you're doing, right, it can't get to it, right right.

Speaker 1 9:58

Like you can get to this stuff on the internet great, cool, but they can't get to these things that you see in the restaurant industry Right, and companies under 500 employees this they can't get to that.

Speaker 2 10:09

The surface level stuff is easy.

Speaker 1 10:11

Like the real depth stuff is not.

Speaker 2 10:14

I use Chanchi PT quite a bit Me too, and so, like I've asked them about greenhouse or how would you describe, like you know it's amazing the amount?

Speaker 1 10:22

of content we put out there. I've had my obituary. We're using it differently. Yes, clearly.

Speaker 2 10:27

I plan itineraries and things like that and occasionally greenhouse marketing commentary.

Speaker 1 10:35

What do you think about HR Tech? Y'all did it big this year. I mean, you've done it in different ways through the years that y'all really, y'all really did it big.

Speaker 2 10:44

A lot of parties, a lot of things, a lot of activities.

Speaker 1 10:46

You interact with a lot of people in different ways. I see you wearing a friendship or anything.

Speaker 2 10:50

Yeah, that was what I was saying.

Speaker 1 10:52

Like I like that. I told Daniel and John the same thing. I was like I like that because I just like that you, it's a big spend. I know that y'all spend a ton of money Like I get it, but I really appreciate it. But what did you think about HR Tech?

Speaker 2 11:09

Well, I think the first thing. I have a lot of thoughts about HR Tech, but the first thing I want to say is I really want to do a shout out to Trenton Kanagi, who's our. He's a VP of brand at greenhouse and the vision of what it is that we're doing here at HR Tech is very much Trenton's vision, and I think it's born from the fact that we've been at HR Tech a few times and learned how easy it is to be invisible 100% 100%.

Speaker 2 11:36

Number two understand a little bit better who the people are that come to HR Tech and what it is that they're looking for. And so what we decided to do is bring our brand in all its full splendor and greenness and just speak to the needs of the folks that we want to meet here and so and the third thing that we were doing is, I love the fact that the booth is like a greenhouse, because you have to, like, live your values right, but we also wrapped a brand campaign around this. So, as you're on the floor, as you're in Las Vegas, as you're commuting and traveling in and out, there were many opportunities to actually see the brand and come alive. So what's the sum total of that story? If you want to make an impact, you have to go big. That's right.

Speaker 2 12:23

What do I think about HR Tech? If you're into work tech, this is the place to be. There's just so much and the market is moving so fast. Clearly, all of the vendors who are on the floor are interested. They're willing. It's not only about swag, but it's about really good conversations. You've seen some really interesting things walking the floor, but I also think that there is a there's still a lot of energy from people being in person and that creates a level of value that you don't have to have a booth for that, just create the opportunities for people to hang out a little bit. It helps that you can be with a great view over.

Speaker 1 12:59

Las Vegas, my goodness, yes.

Speaker 2 13:03

And so I put a bunch of really passionate people together in a room and you get incredible conversations.

Speaker 1 13:09

It's like the Great Gatsby. That's what reminded me last night. It was so fun. It's like the Great Gatsby. It's like interesting people add alcohol.

Speaker 2 13:19

Common interests.

Speaker 1 13:20

Common interests and then just kind of let it go.

Speaker 2 13:23

Oh, and one other thing A feeling that we can change the world by doing great things, and so this hiring space is an opportunity to do great things. It makes me joyful every day, and you know, just having the opportunity to do this, and I know that my team shares that perspective 100%.

Speaker 1 13:41

I can tell you I interact with a bunch of them. Yes, they do Jobs. Mike walks off stage. Karen, thank you so much for carving out time, Thank you.

Speaker 2 13:48

I know you got a million things to do today. It was great to be here and you dragged me into this. I was like what?

Speaker 1 13:54

But I enjoyed speaking with you.

Speaker 2 13:55

Thank you for making the time.

Speaker 1 13:57

Always, always, and thanks for everyone listening, Until next time.