Hiring in 27 Seconds: Luke Marshall on Growth, Gen Z & Video-First Recruitment with UseVerb

Episode SummaryCan a 27-second video replace a cover letter?In this episode, Alan sits down with Luke Marshall, Head of Growth at UseVerb, a startup reinventing the way frontline teams hire with short-form video job applications. Luke shares his journey from big-budget media agencies to lean startup teams, the lessons learned from building and rebuilding UseVerb, and why Gen Z is redefining how we think about recruitment, content, and connection.You’ll hear why UseVerb is doubling down on portrait video, how they’re targeting multi-location retailers and hospitality groups, and what their experiments in landing pages, email outreach, and TikTok-style branding have revealed so far.If you’ve ever tried hiring at scale or building a startup in a noisy market, Luke’s insights on growth, product-market fit, and trust-based hiring will hit home.Time Stamps02:02 – Childhood dreams, Jurassic Park, and marine dinosaurs03:12 – From media agency life to the startup world04:34 – The origin story of UseVerb and what went wrong the first time07:41 – Rebooting the startup: What’s different now08:40 – The power of a 27-second video job application10:57 – Why Gen Z gets video — and how that’s a hiring advantage12:07 – Who UseVerb is built for (and how to reach them)14:37 – Why TikTok changed everything for startup marketing16:46 – UseVerb’s omnichannel growth strategy18:18 – Creating content for portrait video vs landscape: Lessons from Gen Z22:43 – Personalised landing pages: Too creepy or just right?24:39 – How UseVerb uses AI to write emails that don’t sound like AI29:25 – Why diversity in case studies matters for conversion31:34 – The heartbreak of bounce rates and browser tab 7633:26 – Final thoughts + a callout for user research participantsResources Mentioned🙋🏻‍♂️ Luke’s Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshwah/🗣️ UseVerb – https://www.useverb.com/🧊 SmartLead – https://smartlead.ai/ – tool for cold outbound🕸️ Make.com – https://www.make.com/ – no-code automation for landing page generation📋 Microsoft Clarity – https://clarity.microsoft.com/ – session replay for landing page behaviourSponsors:Pick My Brain is supported by our wonderful sponsors:🦙 Vanta automates up to 90% compliance, getting you audit-ready quickly and saving you up to 85% of associated costs. Join 10,000 global companies like Cipherstash, Handle and Indebted that use Vanta to build trust and prove security in real-time.Get 10% off - http://dayone.fm/vanta/brain The Day One NetworkPick My Brain is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders. Mentioned in this episode:Vanta PMB May 2025_01

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