Feb 10 2025 52 mins 1
Connecting with Alice Hehman, a "SWAT team" startup leader who’s built recruiting and operations playbooks for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. An under-the-radar operator, you need to know. Alice knows what it takes to scale operations across borders, from leading domestic recruitment for Facebook to moving to Sydney to build regional teams across Asia–Pacific. Following great people led her to Bret Taylor's startup Quip (a competitor to Google Docs), where she ran business operations, including the USD $750M Salesforce deal and post-merger integration into the Salesforce ecosystem. We get real on keeping your head on straight through hypergrowth and focussing on what we can control through these big business transitions. These days, she's teamed up with Molly Graham (if you haven't read Lessons on Substack, you should) at Glue Club, helping startup leaders be better—and feel better—at work. We discuss what makes a great operational leader, why "glue people" are the backbone of scaling companies and US lessons to shortcut operators in Australia and New Zealand.
Find Alice Hehman:
Alice Hehman’s Northstars and Frameworks:
- Learners vs Guides: Building Your Leadership Team
- Lessons by Molly Graham
- The Glue Club (Leadership Development Program)
- The Four Tendencies Framework by Gretchen Rubin
- Sparketype Assessment
- StrengthsFinder, now CliftonStrengths
Operators—Ones to Watch:
Other Folks Mentioned in the Episode:
A note from your host, Laura:
My goal for Calling Operator is to open-source stories from startup operators across various functional areas and learn how they excel at building and scaling companies. As a Chief of Staff, I often find myself in (virtual) rooms with people facing similar challenges and reinventing the wheel. I want this podcast to open a line for operators across Australia and New Zealand to learn from fellow operators. Each episode shares personal stories, the execution behind big ideas, career-defining moments, successes, failures, and lessons.
Guest ideas?
Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn.
Never miss an episode:
Subscribe on your favourite platform:
