In an arms race that features the likes of deep-pocketed Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed, and others, ZipRecruiter isn’t throwing in the towel. It’s sponsoring the most popular podcast in the world, getting serious about mobile, and raising a truckload of cash, to name a few.
What’s next? Adding some big names to its board of directors, that’s what.
Announced last week, ZipRecruiter has added Blake Irving, Cipora Herman, and Emilie Choi to its board of directors. If you don’t recognize the names, you’ll certainly recognize the companies they represent or the things they’ve achieved. Here’s a breakdown.
- Blake Irving most recently served as CEO of GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, from December 2012 to January 2018. During his tenure, the company expanded into over 60 international markets, grew bookings from $1 billion to $2.5 billion, and successfully IPO’d on the NYSE under GDDY. He has also held senior leadership roles at Microsoft and Yahoo. He currently serves on the board of directors at Docusign as well.
- Cipora Herman may be best known for leading Facebook’s IPO when she was the company’s vice president of finance and treasurer. After that, she became the first female CFO for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, a position she held until April 2016. She currently serves on the board of directors of MINDBODY, a personal wellness platform.
- Emilie Choi was LinkedIn’s vice president of corporate development and was there most notably for the $1.5 billion purchase of Lynda.com. She sits on the board of Naspers, a tech investor, and is vice president of corporate and business development at Coinbase, a cryptocurrency platform that just hit an $8 billion valuation after a $300 million raise.
“We are incredibly fortunate to have Cipora, Emilie, and Blake join our board,” said Ian Siegel, CEO at ZipRecruiter. “Their skills and experience will be instrumental in helping accelerate our growth as we expand our mission of actively connecting employers and job seekers to new markets around the world.”
If you’re looking for a common thread here, aside from each new board members being undeniably influential and smart, they all have some level of core competency going public and/or raising significant amounts of money. Also, folks like this who join boards like ZipRecruiter’s do so because there’s the potential for significant upside.
Big moves, big money, and big brains. Would anyone be surprised to see ZipRecruiter file for an IPO in 2019? Me neither.