A publicly traded electric vehicle maker growing from under 300 people to more than 1,700, hiring in North America, Europe and Asia at the same time. I made 408 of those hires myself.
Territory Studio, the London motion studio known for the screen graphics in films such as Blade Runner 2049 and The Martian, built full-CG sequences for each model so every reveal landed like a major product launch. Their reel for the event is below, and the film frames in the vehicle galleries come from it. Territory set the reel to play only on their own site, so it opens there in a new tab.
▶Watch the reel on territorystudio.com
Ronin, PEAR and Alaska, each with its own film, cut for the stage in Huntington Beach.
A company that stages a reveal like this is competing for the same engineers, designers and operators as the established automakers. Every candidate I spoke with saw the ambition on stage. My job was to match it with a hiring process that ran the same way in Manhattan Beach, Graz, Munich and Shanghai. Fisker competed on mature compensation packages, base salary plus restricted stock units and stock options, so presenting the whole package clearly, from the first conversation through the offer, was a large part of the close.
↓Fisker press kit, July 2023 (PDF, 6 MB)
The press kit Fisker handed to media at the Ocean drive event, weeks before Product Vision Day.
Fisker Inc. was founded by Henrik Fisker, the designer behind the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9, with a stated mission to create the world’s most emotional and sustainable vehicles. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2020 and built its first vehicle, the Fisker Ocean, with Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, the contract manufacturer that also builds for Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar.
The Ocean was an electric SUV with a solar roof, a rotating center screen, recycled and vegan interior materials, and an EPA-rated range of up to 360 miles on the Ocean Extreme, among the longest of any electric SUV on sale at the time. Deliveries began in 2023 in Europe and the United States.
From 2022 to 2024 the company grew from under 300 employees to more than 1,700, with teams in Manhattan Beach, California, Graz, Munich, London, Shanghai and Chennai. In August 2023, at Product Vision Day in Huntington Beach, it showed what came next: three more vehicles on one stage.
Product Vision Day, Huntington Beach, August 3, 2023. Select any photo to view it full size. Event photography courtesy of Fisker Inc.; launch film frames by Territory Studio for Fisker.
The Fisker Ocean was the production vehicle, the one customers were taking delivery of while the rest of the lineup was being revealed. An all-electric SUV designed by Henrik Fisker and built by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, it launched in 2023 in Europe and the United States in three trims: Sport, Ultra and Extreme.
The details were the point. A SolarSky full-length solar roof that could add range from sunlight. California Mode, which lowered every window and the rear glass at once with one button. A 17.1-inch center screen that rotated from portrait to landscape when parked. Interiors made from recycled fishing nets, rubber and polyester, with no leather. The Ocean Extreme carried an EPA-rated range of up to 360 miles, among the longest electric SUVs on sale, and a dual-motor output of 564 horsepower.
At Product Vision Day Fisker also showed the Ocean Force E, an off-road package for the SUV: lifted suspension, reinforced underbody, 33-inch all-terrain tires, roof rack and auxiliary lighting, aimed at the overland market. The black Force E on stage is in the photos below.
PEAR stood for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution: a compact five-seat EV for cities, revealed for the first time at Product Vision Day with a targeted starting price of $29,900. It was the volume play, the vehicle meant to take Fisker from a premium SUV maker to a mass-market brand, with production planned at Foxconn in Lordstown, Ohio.
The engineering idea was simplicity. Fisker said the PEAR used about 35 percent fewer parts than a conventional car through a steel structure it called SLV1, which kept the cost down without giving up the design. The signature feature was the Houdini trunk: instead of a tailgate that swung up, the rear glass and panel slid down into the body, so the car could be loaded in a tight parking space with nothing swinging out. Inside, a front bench seat option made room for six, and a lounge mode folded the cabin flat.
Every photograph below is of the car shown on stage in August 2023, the blue PEAR.
The Alaska was Fisker’s entry into the electric pickup market, built on a stretched version of the Ocean platform and promised as the lightest and most sustainable electric pickup on the market. The targeted price started at $45,400, with a range of 230 to 340 miles depending on the battery and a 0 to 60 time as low as 3.9 seconds.
The trick was the bed. A sliding rear wall between the cab and the bed, which Fisker called the Houdini partition, let the 4.5-foot bed open into the cabin to carry 7.5 feet of cargo, and a further 9.2 feet with the tailgate down. The details were pure Fisker: a cowboy hat holder in the cabin, the largest cup holder in any production vehicle, and recycled materials throughout.
The orange Alaska on stage and in the photographs below was the first time the public saw the truck.
Named after the 1998 film, the Ronin was the flagship: the world’s first all-electric four-door convertible GT, a five-seat grand tourer with a folding roof, doors that opened like a supercar, and targets that put it in the company of the fastest cars on the road.
Fisker set the targets at more than 1,000 horsepower from three motors, 0 to 60 mph in about two seconds, and a range of up to 600 miles, with the battery integrated into the structure of the car. The interior used sustainable materials in place of leather, and the targeted price was $385,000, with production limited to 999 cars.
The silver Ronin on the turntable in August 2023, and in the photographs below, was the concept that showed where the brand wanted to go.
Global hiring multiplies everything that can go wrong in a search: time zones, local markets, different candidate expectations, and hiring managers who may never have met. At the pace Fisker was moving, a search that depended on one person remembering what happened next did not survive. The key to scaling hiring across countries was the process, and the better and more efficient the process was at every stage, the faster the company could scale.
I owned searches across engineering, ADAS and autonomy, vehicle operations, quality, supply chain, finance, people operations and leadership, in the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and Germany. Four hundred and eight of the hires were mine, about 17 a month for two years. In 2023 alone, the hires I made myself were about 18 percent of all of Fisker’s hires worldwide.
The clearest signal came later. Five Fisker hiring managers hired with me again at Sony Honda Mobility of America, including two who each had me build their teams at both companies. That story continues on the AFEELA project page.
What the hiring manager needs, written down before the search opens, so a role in Germany and a role in California start from the same standard.
Direct outreach and a consistent first conversation, so every candidate is measured the same way wherever they are.
Loops scheduled across time zones without losing days between steps.
A defined path from final interview to signed offer, with base, RSUs and options explained in full, so strong candidates are not lost at the end.
Truly the best recruiter that I have worked with in my 20+ years in the automotive industry.
Carey GammonDirector, Vehicle Operations, FiskerLarry is by far the best recruiter I have ever worked with. His enthusiasm for the company sold me.
Lori CampanaroCompensation Design and Administration, FiskerI have worked with Larry across two separate organizations, Fisker and Sony Honda Mobility of America. Larry delivered superstars both times.
Jonathan ChavarriaManager, Digital Customer Growth, Fisker and SHMAThe process that held at 17 hires a month for two years is the one I bring to the next launch.
