How Top AI CEOs Hire Their Executive Teams | Michael Cullen, Founder of Bleecker Street

Resumes mean less than ever. Here's what top AI CEOs hire for instead. Michael Cullen recruits executive teams for some of the fastest-moving AI companies in the world. We sat down in person at Kit Studios in New York City to get into how the exec hiring playbook has changed: why marketing should come earlier than you think, what happened after the forward-deployed engineer mania, why big-company leaders rarely translate to startups, and the overlooked signal he looks for on resumes. We also get practical about how he actually interviews, why he hires for decisiveness over perfection, and how to close a candidate who has five other offers. 00:00 Intro 00:41 Comic Con and why New York is a place to build 01:55 The Iron Man moment: AI is the suit, you're still the human 02:40 The exec who crushes the interview, then gets fired 03:12 Why you should hire marketing earlier 04:58 Copycat products: features collapse, story wins 06:07 The age of the generalist 07:32 Resumes vs mindset 08:31 What happened to forward-deployed engineers 12:37 The overlooked resume signal 13:35 Hire for slope, not experience 15:25 Big company to startup: who actually translates 17:18 Make a call: why 100 decisions beats 20 18:54 How he interviews: pick apart the narrative 20:01 How to close a candidate with five offers 22:31 Why you can't judge culture over Zoom 24:04 Back in the office, and the end of 996 25:35 Why build in New York MICHAEL CULLEN   / cullenmm   https://bleeckerstconsulting.com/ KEITH COWING   / keithcowing   https://keithcowing.com EXECUTIVES UNPLUGGED https://execs.tv