About our team
Andrew Blancato
After spending over a decade as a people & recruiting leader for companies like Kickstarter, Etsy, Casper & more, Andrew Blancato founded Purpose Talent to focus on helping high-impact companies succeed through people. His focus now is on building a talent business that provides high-touch and reimagined talent services that help both clients and people thrive.
Andrew works with our clients as a partner in building executive teams and boards, an advisor on all things people & talent, and as an investor in a number of early stage startups. Over the last several years he has led searches for multiple early stage Co-Founders, CEOs, Board Directors, Product & Engineering Leaders, General Counsels & more.
Russell Elliot
Russell Elliot serves as VP of Talent Strategy and Consulting, bringing expertise in full-lifecycle recruiting, culture and communications, and people & talent strategy. Prior to working with Purpose Talent, during a five-year stint at Kickstarter PBC, Russell led recruiting efforts—hiring across all areas of the business, across five countries, and at all levels. A trusted people leader, he headed the employee experience team that managed internal communications, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and culture building through the shift to virtual-first work. His team was directly responsible for a few first-of-their-kind projects for Kickstarter including launching company ERGs, planning an annual executive strategy summit, and authoring/embedding guiding principles to shape culture and decision making throughout the org.
Russell’s work across various disciplines and industries is unified by an excitement for companies who earnestly want to make the world more equitable, vibrant, sustainable, or efficient. He works across a wide spectrum of people, talent, culture, and communications engagements.