hyrd

Why did you start your start-up, which problem do you address and how do you solve it?

Social background still plays a major role in individual career opportunities and leads to great inequalities in the application and recruiting process. Our goal at hyrd is to democratize access to career opportunities by ensuring a transparent, simple and fair application process for all graduates, no matter where they come from, who they know or what their parents' background is.

hyrd accompanies students throughout their careers and helps them to find a well-fitting and targeted job. We make sure that students do not miss any job opportunity and provide them with the tools and support they need throughout their career path, from job search to contract signing.

How did you get the idea to start your start-up?

In our previous jobs as bankers, we were particularly involved in the recruiting process of young talent. We noticed first hand the inefficiencies and limitations in the companies' recruiting processes. On the other hand, we learned what students find most difficult and annoying when it comes to mastering the application process.

This also reminded us of our own situation at a time when we were faced with opaque, unfair and stressful application processes. The more we thought about the situation, the more we were convinced that technology had the potential to solve these problems and create a fair and efficient application process.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

hyrd is the only platform that guides and supports students at every step of their career path, from finding the right job to signing the employment contract, without leaving our platform at any step. As the first career platform with a fully integrated and harmonized application process for all jobs, the hyrd platform offers students intelligent tools to master the entire application process.

In addition, we offer students a comprehensive and well-structured job market overview and ensure that they never miss an opportunity. With this integrated process we are able to support each and every student in this incredibly important step of life and ensure equal career opportunities.

What were the biggest challenges you faced at the beginning?

When starting a start-up, one of the biggest challenges is finding the right balance between building a product and building a company. On the one hand, it is essential to create a great product that people love, but on the other hand it is also important to lay the foundation for a successful and scalable company. Of course, this balance is not set in stone, but has to be adjusted according to the current state of the business.

What was the most valuable advice someone gave you during the start-up phase?

Talk to your customers/users: Many great people we spoke to encouraged us to approach our user base and get their feedback on our product. It is extremely important not to build an entire product based solely on your own assumptions. You will get the best results not if you build a product for your users, but with your users.

What has been your biggest success so far?

We have worked intensively with students throughout the Stealth phase to get first-hand feedback. After the release of the hyrd beta version we received overwhelming feedback from the first users. It is a great success to hear that what we have built really adds value to the students and makes a big difference in their career path, one of the most challenging and exciting journeys of their lives.

What would you recommend to other founders?

Talk to your clients/users. We believe that many companies cannot communicate effectively with their customers. We have worked very interactively with our users to get a better understanding of how we can best respond to their needs. Listening is a very powerful tool to find out what you can do better and how you as a company can make your customers happy; because in the end that's all that matters.

Where did you get to know each other as a team?

We worked together for a few years in our previous jobs - in different teams, but in the same department. During these years we became good friends and spent a lot of time together. That's how we got our idea: to help students get the right job, turn it into a concept and later into a company. Especially when you work as a company in a very small team, the dynamic between the founders is absolutely necessary for the success of the company.

What was the biggest rejection you ever received in a pitch?

We once spent a lot of time and effort preparing for a pitch. We tried to perfect every detail of the pitch book and the message we wanted to convey. After all, we were extremely well prepared and ready to pitch. Then our scheduled 1-hour meeting was turned into a 15-minute call, which didn't really give us a chance to get our message across. Sometimes such events feel very frustrating, but it is important to leave them behind and focus your energy on what comes next.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years?

We see hyrd as a grown company, with a great culture, serving students and companies with passion and market leading technology.

Do you still have a real social life since the foundation?

We are both passionate about our product and enjoy working hard to make it better and take it to the next level. That's why work doesn't really feel like work most of the time. We have a great team with whom we also spend a lot of time, and we love to have a few after-work drinks after work every now and then, including a Frankfurt apple wine sometimes.

Do you have a role model and if so, who is it?

Hasso Plattner and Dietmar Hopp: You have created a great company that has completely changed the way companies interact internally and externally. They have smoothly improved their customers' processes by offering "the" operating system to the hardware they already use. Intelligent processes are, in our opinion, the key to successful organizations, but they are also very important for each individual.

If an investor gave you 500,000 euros, what would you do with the money?

At the moment we are well financed, but in the long run we would like to make additional investments in new people to accelerate our growth and further improve our technology.