Rich Ha
Sequoia Capital
“I fell into recruiting not exactly knowing what it was.”
Rich Ha has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing the 100 most exceptional leaders and practitioners in talent acquisition. Honorees are selected by the Talent 100 committee from thousands of nominations and candidates across the industry, chosen for the impact of their work, the depth of their craft, and their influence on the future of recruiting. This is Rich's story.
Rich Ha, Head of Talent at Sequoia Capital, discovered recruiting through the very phone calls that would define his career: mysterious out-of-state numbers pitching entry-level sales jobs that weren't even for the companies calling him.
Fresh out of college and hunting for work, he kept fielding calls from different parts of the country, all of them about roles at other companies entirely. Somewhere in that steady stream of unfamiliar area codes, it clicked: there was an entire industry built around connecting people to opportunities, and nobody had ever told him about it. He researched the field, moved, and landed his first job at a recruiting agency.
"I fell into recruiting not exactly knowing what it was," he says. He has been in love with it ever since.
Learning From Great Leaders
Two leaders shaped how Rich thinks about building talent organizations, and the first was Scott Lee, who managed him at both Uber and Asana. Scott was a sharp business thinker who pushed Rich to see recruiting from multiple angles, but what stood out most was how deeply he cared about his people.
"He showed me what is the best way to think about building talent orgs, what is the best way to work with your stakeholders," Rich recalls. Just as important was what Scott withheld: the impulse to dictate. He gave Rich space to grow into his own leadership style, even when their opinions diverged. "He never felt like, hey look, you have to do it this way," Rich says. That freedom to develop his own voice as a leader stuck with him.
Recruiting as a Craft
The second formative influence was Matt Murnane, most recently head of talent at Pear, who managed Rich at Instacart in a professional relationship that evolved into a lasting friendship. Matt helped him see recruiting as a true craft and a strategic business function rather than a support role, and he modeled it at scale, leading Instacart's talent organization through explosive growth from ten recruiters to fifty or sixty during the company's product-market fit phase and throughout the pandemic boom.
What made the example durable was its range. Rich watched Matt operate across multiple contexts: as a leader, as a consultant, as a venture partner. "He helped me quite a bit with my transition," Rich says. "Somebody that I owe a lot of my career success to."
The Product Mindset Shift
The AI wave sweeping through business has not left recruiting untouched. Every company seems to be building something AI-related, with new tools launching every twenty-four hours. For Rich, though, the most consequential shift is not the technology itself.
It is that AI has forced recruiting and talent professionals to think like product people. The old recruiting workflows were sales-funnel oriented, built around moving candidates through stages. The discipline now demands a different kind of strategic thinking entirely.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Rich. We are honored to welcome Rich Ha to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Rich. Welcome to the Talent 100.
About the Talent 100
The Talent 100 is an annual list spotlighting the leaders who push HR and talent acquisition forward, organized by Noon AI. Honorees are selected through peer nominations and independent selection committees. Selection is entirely merit-based, with no fees or pay-to-play requirements.
