Matt McFarlane

FNDN Series

Business EN ↓ 40 episodes

Join discussions with Heads of People, Founders and experts in and around startups, to explore the topic of compensation and broader people practices.

Author

Matt McFarlane

Episodes

The HR Leader That Brings Therapy to Work with Isidora Torres, VP of People at Beehiiv 03.07.2026 57:02

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup people and compensation practices with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Isidora Torres, VP of People at Beehiiv, we explo...

How Shapes is Building for the HR Role of the Future with Shani Brisilovsky, AI Product Lead at Shapes 13.06.2026 36:12

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Shani Brisilovsky, AI Product Lead at Shapes and behavioral economics ...

One List Every Head of People Needs Before Their CEO Says to Use AI with Ben Langer, Global HR Executive 30.05.2026 48:34

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Ben Langner, Global HR Executive, we explore the evolving role of AI i...

The Wellbeing Strategy for Any Stage of Company with Phil Wolf, Founder at Connects Health 16.05.2026 50:48

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Phil Wolf, Founder of Connects Health and workplace wellbeing specialist with over ...

The HR Infrastructure Gap No One Is Talking About with Jessie Schofer, Founder at Stakkd 02.05.2026 52:54

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Jesse Schofer, Founder of Stacked and leading voice in HR tech, we explore the crit...

This Company’s Compensation Cycle Takes Five Minutes with Rowan Savage 18.04.2026 1:04:00

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Rowan Savage, Former CTO & Co-Founder at Runn, we explore how unconventional compen...

Steal Big Tech's Playbook For The Worlds Best Comp Practices 07.04.2026 1:02:39

Welcome back to the FNDN Series. In this episode, we sit down with Arif Ender, Director of Compensation at Palo Alto Networks and former compensation leader at Meta. We unpack the strategic differentiators tech giants use to scale from 5,000 to 50,000+...

Everything You Know About Paying Fairly is Wrong | With What Pay Costs' Author James Seechurn 21.03.2026 1:35:38

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with James Seechurn, author of What Pay Costs and Nothing Left to Take Away, we challeng...

It's Time to Talk About the Menstrual Cycle with Carmen Amador, Founder at The Cycle Method 21.02.2026 55:31

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Carmen Amador, Founder of The Cycle Method and business psychologist, we unpack the...

What HR teams could learn about Brand and Community with Lachlan Bradford 14.02.2026 59:03

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Lachlan Bradford, Community Content Manager at Sked Social and Co-Host of the Funny...

Reverse Engineering Burnout with Nav Rao, CTO at Spoony 07.02.2026 58:40

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Nav, Fractional CTO at Spoony, we explore the often-overlooked topic of burnout amo...

Building Leadership from Scratch (for yourself, and for others) with Shelley Johnson, Founder at Boldside 24.01.2026 57:28

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Shelley Johnson, Founder of Boldside and former HR leader, we explore ...

The Tough Pay Conversations (And How to Actually Have Them) with Sarika Lamont, VP of People & Culture at Vidyard 20.12.2025 26:33

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Sarika Lamont, VP of People and Culture at Vidyard, we tackle the most challenging ...

Custom Comp: Getting Personal During Downturns with Sarika Lamont, VP of People & Culture at Vidyard 06.12.2025 25:51

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Sarika Lamont, Vice President of People & Culture at Vidyard, we explo...

AI's Impact on the People Function with Sarika Lamont, VP of People and Culture at Vidyard 22.11.2025 29:01

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, join us as we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Sarika Lamont, VP of People and Culture at Vidyard, we explore ho...

Designing Your First Compensation Cycle with Vaso Parisinou 03.11.2025 17:14

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Vaso Parisinou we tackle one of the most challenging aspects of early-stage people ...

Why The Best People Teams Think Like Product Teams - Part 2 with Shirley Baumer Co-founder at Dream Team 25.10.2025 34:06

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Shirley Baumer, Co-Founder at Dream Team, we explore how to transform people's team...

Why the Best People Teams Think Like Product Teams - Part 1 with Shirley Baumer Co-founder at Dream Team 18.10.2025 31:34

Why the Best People Teams Think Like Product Teams - Part 1 with Shirley Baumer Co-founder at Dream Team Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup people topics with industry leaders from across the star...

Don't Use Engagement Surveys for Comp with with Andrew Bartlow, HR Expert and PE Operating Partner 11.10.2025 16:00

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Andrew Bartlow, HR Executive and Consultant with 30 years of experience, we tackle ...

How to Do More with Less: Comp Edition with Andrew Bartlow, HR Expert and PE Operating Partner 27.09.2025 20:42

Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Andrew, an HR veteran with 30 years of experience including CHRO roles at S&P 500 c...

How Private Equity Uses Ownership to Incentivise with Andrew Bartlow, 13.09.2025 24:04

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Andrew Bartlow, a seasoned HR professional with 30 years of experience...

You've got your compensation philosophy. Now what? 05.09.2025 28:47

Most startups treat their compensation philosophy like a finished product once it’s written. But what happens after the doc is done? In this episode of the FNDN Series, Matt McFarlane speaks with Vaso, Chief People Officer at Ravio, about the real work...

Your Compensation Philosophy Probably Sucks (Here’s Why) with Aubrey Blanche-Serrellano, Founder of The MathPath 30.08.2025 14:30

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In third conversation with Aubrey Blanche-Serellano, Founder of The MathPath and former VP at C...

Will AI Fix Compensation — or Just Make It Worse, Faster? with Aubrey Blanche-Serellano, Founder at The MathPath 16.08.2025 21:38

Will AI Fix Compensation — or Just Make It Worse, Faster? with Aubrey Blanche-Serellano, Founder at The MathPath Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across t...

The Gender Pay Gap Isn’t What You Think It Is with Aubrey Blanche-Serellano, Founder at The MathPath 02.08.2025 19:20

Description: Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Aubrey Blanche- Serellano, Founder of MathPath and former VP at Cultur...