John

Founder, @joincreo // 16 years of recruitment experience // Former Director Talent @qolopayments , @mediamath , @meetwagmo // sharing recruiting insights, etc

[John @Indiveri_]

Hi! Just a quick intro! Recently came back to using X, I’m founder of @getrookhq (launching soon) and a former head of talent & people for various startups. 17 years in recruitment now building a platform for fractional & solo recruiters. I also run a photography business!

[John @Indiveri_]

Let’s fucking goooooo! Champs!

[NEW YORK KNICKS @nyknicks]

for the boroughs and Knicks fans around the world 🏆

[John @Indiveri_]

@insideFPL I am getting SO SICK of the nearly daily power surges and/or outages. You’re killing my A/C and other appliances. Do better.

[John @Indiveri_]

"XYZ is not a good company, so we're going to pass on your candidate" Is not sufficient feedback. It's more of an opinion. An opinion on a company. We've all worked for companies that may not be that great. That doesn't mean the employee's are bad. This is the problem with startup recruitment with leaders that have maybe a year or two of job experience.

[John @Indiveri_]

@randomrecruiter It’s HR saying “not enough experience” when they do not have any clue what the “right” amount of experience is. Had they said “if we bump them up in title and comp, then we may have to do a complete right sizing of our salaries” working that dept then I’d see their point.

[John @Indiveri_]

I'm working with a A round startup that built an AI platform automating end-to-end tax prep for CPA firms. Backed by a16z, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla, and more and are now hiring their first in-house recruiter.

This is a true 0→1 recruiting role reporting directly to the CEO — owning full-cycle hiring across engineering, AI, product, GTM, and ops while building the recruiting foundation from the ground up. 125k-200k + equity, on-site in NYC. If anyone is interested, or knows someone that is, feel free to ping me.

[John @Indiveri_]

@wesselsHQ Guess this is the inflection point of feeling “old”

[John @Indiveri_]

I don’t disagree with Ryan’s move. HR - real traditional HR - tend to cause more friction than streamline the workplace, in start ups specifically. When I was heading people at Qolo, we ensured the right policies were in place and were “people first”. Some things you need (parental leave policy, code of conduct, handbook etc). But what you don’t need is HR hamstringing execs, creating pointless programs, etc.

[Ryan Breslow @ryanbreslow]

I can confirm. We did get rid of our HR team. Anyone who loves creating problems vs solving them has no place at a startup. Bolt is now operating once again as a startup and at Lightning Speed. Thank you Fortune for having me as your keynote speaker ⚡️

[John @Indiveri_]

Took 10 days off to recharge (sort of..as much as you can when visiting family lol) in NC. Rented a house in the Neuse River in New Bern, NC and it was a gem of a spot.

[John @Indiveri_]

Amazon is getting into the RecTech space. AI scoring, analytics, dashboards, ai interviews. Thoughts?

https://t.co/VHqAjOnTnd

[John @Indiveri_]

@sridharfyi @hthieblot Thank you! To many systems are bloated when they don’t need to be.

[John @Indiveri_]

Interesting and crazy story. I’m curious as to why no one said to him during these interviews while sitting with the truck: “hey let’s turn this thing on and see it go”.

[Jeremy @Jeremybtc]

A man with no working truck convinced Wall Street he had built the next Tesla. His company hit $30 BILLION. All he did was push it down a hill with no engine.

> Trevor Milton founded Nikola in 2014, named after the same inventor as Tesla.

> The goal was to build hydrogen powered trucks that would make diesel obsolete. He had no trucks.

> In 2018 he released a promotional video called Nikola One In Motion. It showed a sleek semi truck accelerating smoothly down an open highway.
Investors went wild.

> What nobody knew was that the truck had no engine, no fuel cell, and no propulsion system of any kind.

> Milton's team towed it to the top of a hill, tilted the camera to hide the slope, and let it roll.

> He spent the next four years doing the same thing with words. On podcasts, television and social media.

> Investors were told Nikola could produce its own hydrogen. It could not. They were told the trucks were ready for production. They were not. They were told orders were flooding in. They weren't.

> In June 2020 Nikola went public. Within days the company was worth $30 BILLION, more than Ford.

> Milton's personal stake hit $7.3 BILLION overnight.

> A $32.5 MILLION ranch in Utah followed. A record for the state at the time.

> In September 2020 Hindenburg Research published a report calling Nikola "an intricate fraud" built on "an ocean of lies." Milton resigned within ten days.

> A federal jury convicted him of securities fraud and wire fraud in 2022. Sentenced to four years in prison the following year.

> He never went. He was free on $100 MILLION bail pending appeal.

> He and his wife donated $3.2 MILLION to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.

> In March 2025 Trump gave him a full pardon. The pardon erased $168 MILLION in restitution to defrauded shareholders.

> Nikola filed for bankruptcy the following month, leaving thousands of investors with nothing.

The company never had a product. The only thing that was real was the $30 BILLION valuation, the $7 BILLION that landed in his pocket and the pardon that made sure none of it had to be returned.

[John @Indiveri_]

Another day, another tech layoff. This has been fairly consistent for the past 6 years.

[LayoffHedge @LayoffAI]

LAYOFF ALERT: PAYPAL 🚨

20% of workforce cut. 4,760 jobs.

New CEO Enrique Lores: "becoming a technology company again."

This is not Elon's PayPal anymore.

[John @Indiveri_]

This is pretty awesome. Taking what can be a lonely and stressful period of time and turning into community.

[John @Indiveri_]

That’s the way it should be on LinkedIn. The amount of connect requests I get or inmails just going right into the hard sell is annoying. And most are just blasts, have no idea what I actually do. It pays to be very specific in your reach outs. And also at least try to develop a repor.

[John @Indiveri_]

Getting to photograph the spin doctors was super nostalgic! Apart from building Creo and being a recruiter, I’m also a professional photographer. It’s a creative outlet that gets me thru some stuff.

Shot for Festival Management Group

[John @Indiveri_]

@steventey I’d be ok with FedEx going away lol

[John @Indiveri_]

Another company, another layoff. At least they are honest in saying it’s driven by ai.

[Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong]

This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase:

Team,

Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the future.

Why now
Two forces are converging at the same time. We need to be front footed to respond to both.

First, the market. Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we've managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, we’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth.

Second, AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day.

All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.

What this means
To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it. What does this mean in practice?

- Fewer layers, faster decisions: We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles.

- No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams.

- AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.

In short: AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs.

To those who are affected
I know there are real people behind these decisions — talented colleagues who have poured themselves into this company and our mission. To those of you who will be leaving: thank you. You’ve helped build Coinbase into what it is today, and I am sincerely grateful for everything you've done.

All impacted team members will receive an email to their personal account in the next hour with more information, and an invitation to meet with an HRBP and a senior leader in your organization. Coinbase system access has been removed today. I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information.

To those affected, we will be providing a comprehensive package to support you through this transition. US employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA. Employees on a work visa will get extra transition support. Those outside of the US will receive similar support, based on local factors and subject to any consultation requirements.

Coinbase prides itself on talent density. Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters.

How we move forward
To the team that is staying, I know this is a difficult day. We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you've been in the trenches with. But here’s what I want you to know as we move forward together:

Over the past 13 years, we have weathered four crypto winters, gone public, and built the most trusted platform in our industry. We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission. This time will be no different – nothing has changed about the long term outlook of our company or industry. And most importantly, our mission has never been more important for the world. Increasing economic freedom requires a new financial system, and we’re building it.

The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission.

Brian

[John @Indiveri_]

I’m not a swifty by any means, but I do admire her from a thought and business perspective. What she did to get the rights to her music back is admirable. And her thoughts energy and where it’s spent is spot on here.

Unless it makes sense for me, I’m not jumping on a quick call with someone that randomly reaches out.

I’m not going to argue back and forth with someone on social media that disagrees with my post. If you’re rude I’m just blocking.

As business owners, parents, caretakers etc - time is currency. Only invest in what gives you the better returns.

[John @Indiveri_]

@mhp_guy 110%. I’m all for having a chat with someone but only if it makes sense to do so.