Greylock talent partner Holly Rose Faith, who works with startups to find, recruit, and place executive team members, outlines smart strategies to deploy when checking references. From having a plan of what you are looking to validate at the outset, to the specific questions depending on the role or stage of company, all hiring managers should go into referencing with a reliable, repeatable, formal system in place. This episode is part of Greylock's Brain Trust series. You can read a transcript of the interview here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/holly-rose-faith-greylock-executive-reference-checklist/ Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:00 Difficulty of Reference Checking 2:11 How to Approach Reference Checking 4:15 Diverse Array of References 6:41 Using Time Efficiently 9:08 Question Guidelines 11:32 Zeroing in on Specific Skills 15:25 The Reluctant Reference 17:09 A Holistic Process 20:21 Character and Personality