Our story is one of the underdog and we definitely haven’t done it any justice by keeping it to ourselves. To be quite honest, we didn’t start Lightci — it kind of started us. We just listened to tech colleagues, and along the way found out how to build something that truly has the potential to disrupt the way every company in the world thinks about building teams and getting great talent. Little did we know that the idea would lead to a $112.5M valuation in only 8 months, from some of the heaviest hitting VCs in the world.
Here’s 3 key learnings that contributed to our success.
Strive to be different and challenge the norm
Disruption is tough. Adoption takes time.
In order to dethrone the incumbents, you need to do something much better than the way it’s already being done (and align them to channels/distribution via PMMC). This starts by constantly trying to challenge core assumptions that everyone has about the way things currently are. It’s folks who want to go against the grain and challenge preconceived notions that will ultimately change the way things are for the better.
What’s the ideal way to do this? Actually talk to and listen to the folks you’re trying to help. Just genuinely be curious, absorb what they’re saying, digest, challenge, think, and ideate. For example, could there be an Amex for poor people, not just the rich? Is scrolling through a map on a web app the best way to find a home to move into? Why can’t we reuse rockets that we send to space by landing them back the way we launched them?
Our data on Engineering talent was clear. It’s hard. There is no shot that a 47 day average acquisition period for Engineering talent is okay, not even for big publicly traded companies. They simply just accept this because it’s the way things are. Great Engineers also don’t want to do 8 rounds of Leetcode interviews, especially since they could go out and build their own cool thing while still holding a job. Then, you tack on all the risk of things going wrong during integration, resulting in firing then rehiring. This creates unnecessary delays for companies and a bad experience for great talent.
So there’s a few things we’re challenging in the current meta. 1 — time, hiring Engineers takes a while; 2 — quality, it’s hard to consistently get great Engineers; 3 — cost, Engineers are super expensive; and 4 — you need an internal HR function to handle admin tasks like onboarding, payroll, taxes, benefits, staff issues, firings, rehirings.
Know Your Magic (Value Prop)
Each time you meet someone at a networking event or a social gathering, you get asked what you do. Articulating your value proposition is essential to spreading awareness about your business. To develop a strong position, you have to become obsessed with your target audience. Learn their workflows, challenges and successes. See where gaps exist and map your solution to address those.
We have seen great results because we are, quite literally, our target audience. We are engineers hiring engineers. You’d think this approach would be normal, but this is actually quite rare. Oftentimes, recruiters with non-technical backgrounds are sourcing engineering candidates. The ability to relate to the engineers we hire and our customers has been a big differentiator.
Based on pain points we’ve gathered from talking to folks in the industry, we’ve created a solution that has completely de-risked hiring talent. Clients we work with no longer have to make any trade-offs when it comes to quality, cost, and time to hire. Not only do we do all the talent sourcing and quality vetting as Engineers with context, we’ve designed a model where companies don’t need to think about handling operational and administrative tasks to integrate a new employee. We handle ESOP/RSU allocations, payroll, benefits, employer taxes, and HR issues. Basically, our clients simply get great talent by approving a budget, and don’t have to deal with any of the accompanying noise.
The most important part of knowing your value is being able to quantify results. Our quality is high because we have a 100% talent retention and client satisfaction rate and have built long lasting friendships with our clients and the talent we place. We’re cheaper (20–25% compared to major metro-area US Engineers), and we place talent fast (9.5 days on average, compared to the industry average of 47 days).
We’re disrupting the talent model for engineers. With all the layoffs and budget cuts, companies and talent are looking for peace of mind. The companies we work with simply need to approve a budget and we do the rest. On the talent side, we vet for quality and align them with companies that are building intriguing products. And if things go wrong either side or it’s simply not a great fit, we bear the downside financial risk, so both our clients and talent have a sense of security and trust. So far, our talent retention and client satisfaction rates are at 100%. We’ve received lots of praise for being able to de-risk the model while building a full end-to-end solution for both sides.
Lastly, social proof is king. We’ve pitched Lightci to lots of senior stakeholders in both growth stage startups and Fortune 500. You know you’ve got something magical when you see their reactions and hear them ask “how come no one else is doing this?”
Making Great Friends Matters
Why “friends” and not “network”? It’s because the latter runs counter to establishing trust. Most people approach networking from a highly self-interested point of view. How do you feel about buying a used car from a random salesman, compared to buying one from your best friend?
Everything moves at the speed of trust. Even if you don’t have anyone you can help in your network, your friends may know people you can help. There’s 3 key subpoints here:
1 — Don’t be afraid to ask for introductions. They take 30 seconds and can be a game changer for both you and their connection to who they introduce you to. Think about it this way — there’s only upside and no downside. You never know until you try, so don’t discount your network of friends.
2 — Legitimately try to help others. Don’t push or just try to make a sale because it serves you well. Constantly think about how you can set someone else up for success.
3 — Assess your friendships. As two guys whose doors are literally always open personally and professionally, we like to expect an attempt to help when asked. If nothing materializes or there’s no value in their help, that’s still awesome. You can only optimize for inputs, not results.
The strength of our team’s network saw us bring in 8-figures of revenue within our first 8 months. We did no marketing and no cold outreach — in fact, we didn’t even have a website, a name for the business, any online or social presence, and didn’t even know that we were going to become big players in the Eng talent industry. We simply focused on who we knew and how we could help.
It’s much easier to sell something to someone you know, and much easier to scale an inbound and outbound strategy now that we have credibility and tangible results.
Moving Forward
It’s an exciting time to be in the engineering talent space and we’re glad to have folks following along on our journey.
Any chance you’re a Talent or Engineering director looking to hire great Engineers?
Or a fellow tech founder looking to scale your team and business?
Drop us a note at david@lightci.com and zain@lightci.com and we can chat about whether we can legitimately get rid of any of your headaches on tech talent acquisition.
Interested in learning why companies like Google and Brex love working with Lightci?
Check out our website at https://lightci.com/.
