EVENTS

Finding and keeping the right people is one of the biggest challenges facing founders today. Whether you’re making your first graduate hire or looking to diversify your growing team, getting talent decisions right can be the difference between momentum and missed opportunity.

In this one-hour lunchtime session, Alan will share practical insights drawn from working with hundreds of venture-backed start-ups across the South West and beyond. The webinar will cover three key themes:

• The Talent Landscape in 2025 – what’s drawing candidates in (and pushing them away), and how start-ups can compete without over-hiring.
• University & Emerging Talent – how to attract graduates, post-grads and PhDs; framing roles so they resonate; demystifying start-up life.
• Practical Diversity – simple, founder-friendly steps to design fairer hiring processes, write better specs, and make stronger, more inclusive hires.

The session will close with a live Q&A, giving attendees the chance to ask specific questions about their own hiring challenges.

Who should attend

Founders, leadership teams, and talent leads at early-stage and scaling start-ups (pre-seed to Series B).

Resources for attendees

All attendees will also receive ISL Talent’s Founder’s Guide to Hiring – a 35-page practical playbook covering job specs, interviews, culture and values.

Meet the speaker

Alan Furley, CO-Founder of ISL Talent

Alan runs ISL Talent, a specialist recruitment and talent partner for venture-backed start-ups. He helps founders hire well – from their first engineers and product leaders to commercial and executive roles. Alongside ISL’s hands-on recruitment work, Alan advises start-ups on role design, salary benchmarking, and inclusive interview processes. He has supported organisations including members from SETsquared and Science Creates, and delivered workshops to the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Shott Scale-Up programme.

 

About ISL Talent 

ISL Talent is a recruiter and talent partner for VC-backed start-ups. They support founders from pre-seed to Series B, helping them hire across roles in tech, commercial and leadership.

They help founders build the teams they need via its TALENT methodology, which covers talent planning, role design, positioning and ongoing team retention.

 

 

 

Don’t miss out – reserve your spot now! To register for this event, you will need to be a member of our Innovation Platform. Click on the register button, and if you’re already a member, you will be taken to the event page, or be prompted to create an account if you’re not already a member.

Register via the Innovation Platform