New Year, New Lane
Hi there,
When I launched this site, I shared my desire to write more candidly about recruiting — the good, the messy, and the parts that don’t fit neatly into LinkedIn soundbites. What I didn’t fully unpack was why I decided to go independent in the first place.
So let’s talk about that.
Midway through 2025, I felt a noticeable shift in the market. Roles were opening and sitting unfilled for 90+ days. Founders were frustrated. Candidates were exhausted. At the same time, the broader conversation felt stuck on a few familiar themes: AI is replacing recruiters, hiring should be fully automated, and speed should come at the expense of substance.
Here’s what I actually see day to day.
AI is a powerful tool. It can surface data, screen at scale, and remove friction from early stages of the funnel. But recruiting, at its core, is still about people — and people don’t show up as static inputs on a résumé. Their priorities, risk tolerance, timing, and motivations are constantly evolving.
Active vs passive. Remote vs in-office. Startup vs big tech. Cash vs equity. Risk tolerance. Timing. Burnout. Curiosity. Ambition. Life stuff.
Layer that on top of companies that all interview differently, optimize for different signals, and move at wildly different speeds, and you start to see the problem.
When did recruiting become so transactional?
I’ve never been great at playing by the traditional rules. Early in my career, I was objectively terrible at cold calling and handling rejection. What I was good at, though, was treating every interaction like it mattered. I followed up. I paid attention. I remembered details. I didn’t assume the first “no” was the end of the conversation.
The work has always been about planting seeds and letting them grow over time. Rarely does a meaningful relationship start and finish in one call. I’ve never approached recruiting as a pure volume game. What’s always set my work apart is intention; the goal isn’t to push roles — it’s to translate. To understand both the candidate and the company deeply enough to see where alignment actually exists, and to move decisively when it does.
That philosophy has held true whether I was hiring at Coinbase, working inside fast-scaling teams, or partnering with Series B+ companies going from 1 to 100.
That’s why I’m here now. Independently. By choice. This model allows me to stay close to the market, move quickly, and partner with founders who value clarity, collaboration, and a more human approach to hiring — without sacrificing speed or outcomes.
If that resonates, I’d love to meet.
— Michelle
