From 3-Year Plans to 90-Day Sprints: Quince's CPO on Building Teams in the AI Era

If you're thinking about the counteroffer only after you've made the offer, you've already lost.

In this episode of Notable Perspectives, Jen Holmstrom and Christina Pasanen sit down with Matt Jahansouz, Chief People Officer of Quince. Quince has crossed $1 billion in revenue and a $10.1 billion valuation by rethinking the end-to-end consumer and e-commerce model — selling $50 cashmere sweaters and premium bedding by cutting out middlemen entirely. Matt brings the people leadership playbook behind that growth: how to close elite talent in a bidding war, why workforce planning past 90 days is largely wasted time, and what it actually means to build a team for an AI-driven world.

Join us as we explore:

• Building an AI-first culture: How Quince has woven AI practice into its weekly all-hands — and why the earliest movers will have a compounding advantage.
• The closing playbook: Why getting someone to accept an offer is only the beginning, and how to get ahead of the counteroffer before you've even made the original one.
• Lean team advantage: Why top performers actually seek out leaner organizations — and how leaders can make that a recruiting asset rather than a liability.
• Workforce planning in flux: Why 90-day forecasting horizons have replaced three-year plans, and how ruthless prioritization is the only thing that makes it work.

Chapters

00:00 — AI as the New Standard: Why Resistance Is a Hiring Red Flag

00:38 — Building Quince: Reinventing Luxury Retail in the AI Era

01:06 — The First Critical Hire: Why Founders Need Senior People Leaders Earlier

03:08 — Workforce Planning in Hypergrowth: Prioritization Over Prediction

05:21 — The 90-Day Shift: Building Teams for the Company You’re Becoming

06:44 — Founder Leverage: Stop Solving 2X Problems and Start Solving 10X

08:22 — Lean Teams, Big Impact: Why Top Talent Thrives in Smaller Organizations

09:00 — Winning the Talent War: How to Recruit and Close Elite Candidates

11:39 — Counteroffers and Closing Strategy: The Details That Decide Top Hires

13:28 — AI Inside the Organization: Embedding Adoption Into Company Culture

15:48 — Global Hiring in the AI Era: Why Local Context Still Matters

17:22 — Rapid Fire: Hiring Mistakes, HR Processes, and the Future of Teams

19:01 — Why People Are Joining Quince: Building a Once-in-a-Generation Company