Rapid execution and high growth; startup growing pains
Pros
When I joined Candidate Labs I was impressed by the caliber of the founding team (founder + first 5 hires or so). I remember walking away thinking that I don't know much about the recruiting industry, but I knew in my bones that that group of people were going to execute. Over time I think that the team has proven that out scaling the business in a thoughtful, predictable way. Since joining we have met our financial forecasts and plans even through a Global Pandemic and a remote work pivot. In particular, I have appreciated the emphasis on building a sustainable business from the start at Candidate Labs. I have built a career mostly working at Bay Area start ups and it's always refreshing to work at a start up that has a core business already with product market fit and healthy revenue growth. Reaching a $10 million run rate and a 50 person head count on just a seed round isn't unique, but it's rarefied company in my experience. As of end of 2021, it's an exciting time to be a part of Candidate Labs as we are just starting to turn the corner from early-stage into growth-stage. There are more people, but there is still a lot of personal growth opportunity as there is still plenty of opportunity (and frankly need in some cases) to wear multiple hats. One last thing, since Candidate Labs is a tech-enabled recruiting agency rather than a strictly "tech" company, it's the first time I have worked in a PDE organization that has been so close to users. It's been a great experience having invested users taking an active role in product feedback rather than be in a SaaS situation where user research is scarce and lots of features are ultimately experiments to try and drive a needle up. + Proven core business model with product market fit. + High personal growth opportunity. Still growing and you'll wear lots of hats. + Interesting work with tight feedback loop with invested users. + (Personal opinion) Going to be successful, only question is degree of success.
Cons
For all the pros of Candidate Labs, it is still fundamentally a start up with the downsides that entails. - Limited benefits. Health insurance is decent, even good, but other benefits like 401k are missing. - High paced environment. We work on weekly sprints for engineering and sometimes tasks/work can shift on a daily basis. For the agency, I have limited direct experience but it seems like everyone is working hard. - Growing pains. We are rapidly hiring, but some areas still feel under supported and others like there are onboarding friction. Overall, if you are comfortable working for startups which usually are high paced and have limited benefits, then Candidate Labs would be a great place to consider. Oh and at time of this writing, some of the lack of benefits is made up (in typical start up fashion) with equity. And having been able to build revenue so early, Candidate Labs is still seed (at time of this writing) and will additionally likely have favorable dilution terms in the future.
