2018 IT Recruitment Newsletter for startups


Welcome back and we hope your 2018 year finished with a bang and that you have set yourselves up for 2019 success. One of the key elements for a successful startup, regardless of industry, is to make sure you have a unique value proposition and that you have a product or service which is truly fixing a need, gap in the market or an inherent business pain, something that is broken or in need of bettering or automating to make more efficient.

Some of the best and most interesting times in the life of a startup, although time consuming but really fun, is pitching for business which can take the form of getting in front of new potential customers but also in front of active VC and PE firms looking to invest in seeded funding.

So to that end make sure you have thought really carefully about your target audience and ensure you have a TAM (Total Addressable Market) of at least $20bn as VCs and Private Equity firms will be looking for 5×5 ratios which means 5% in a $20bn TAM would see their return on investment become $1bn which is the unicorn they all after and will make your proposition more appealing to them.

Your industries regulation is also a very important factor to think about. A prime example is FinTechs in the current climate of the royal commission where banks and financial institutions are getting heavy penalties levied against them and possibly not being trusted as much as they have in the past. I am not talking about what the current regulation is in your industry for 2018/2019 but what it could possibly look like for startups, FinTechs and online banks 5 or 10yrs from now. You do not want to be setting up a FinTech without thinking about this as there could be an equivalent Royal Commission of sorts for online banks and FinTechs 10yrs from now and I know this is tough to gauge but as a business startup director/owner you need to think about the possibilities of what this may look like and safe guard yourself and your business.

From a recruitment viewpoint, pre-Series A funding means you are probably like most, building an MVP (minimum viable product or Service) on a shoestring of a budget. It probably means too that you are just ensuring your website and portals are ready for external customers and clients to use and therefore hiring full stack web  developers. With Sydney and Melbourne now becoming the new silicon valley with companies like Atlassian, Campaign Monitor, Canva and many others getting in the Australian limelight on a global stage, sticking out is becoming more and more difficult. Sourcing the right candidates into your business will make a remarkable difference in the long run so use a recruitment firm who is flexible and not set in the traditional ways of how the recruitment industry works. You may not want to pay fees of any kind however we have witnessed how hiring the wrong talent at such an early stage can be detrimental in the long run to a startup.

Startups should look at as much media exposure as they can, VC and PE firms look at this closely when doing due diligence and using analytics tools to validate potential investment opportunities and are keen on companies with an already well placed media presence – check out

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/advice/pr-pro-how-to-get-media-coverage-startup/

We are always keen to hear from startups so if you looking for further information, need recruitment advice or looking for further market information, please give us a call. Till next time!

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