Recruitment agencies play a crucial role in helping companies find the right talent. However, for many startups, especially in the early stages, hiring an external recruitment agency may not always be a feasible option. Now, a Chennai-based startup, YourTribe, is stepping in to help other startups identify and secure suitable candidates for their job roles.
Deepak Subramanian, founder of YourTribe, may not have a background in tech, but he brings 21 years of experience in the recruitment industry. AIM spoke to him to understand how he is trying to make a difference in the talent marketplace, and just how impactful YourTribe has been for startups it collaborates with.
What is YourTribe Doing Exactly?
According to Subramanian, YourTribe is a talent marketplace built specifically for startups and emerging brands. He highlighted that these two categories of employers require employer branding. Typically, they have no brand recall. On the contrary, mature startups that have raised funds get popular, and their name floats in the market, with jobseekers recognising them.
Subramanian pointed out that startups between the pre-seed and Series B funding stages often struggle with limited public relations (PR), making it difficult for job seekers to discover them.
This is where YourTribe comes into the picture, combining employer branding and AI to enable employers to hire talent. The company revealed that it uses AI-driven CV-matching combined with human intelligence. The use of AI for CV-matching aims to eliminate human bias and yet give the best matching resumes to the employers.
Subramanian shared some stories of success achieved by certain startups through their platform. Notably, Prudent AI, a Chennai-based bootstrapped startup, managed to scale from 10 members to an 80-member team. They were the first to adopt YourTribe’s recruitment as a service model, with a subscription-based pricing system. Subramanian highlighted that the startup saved at least 55% of investment compared to a recruitment agency.
YourTribe has also helped certain non-startups seeking expansion in India. Subramanian mentioned supporting companies like Zitro Games, a Spanish slot machine manufacturer.
He revealed that the top job roles in demand include full stack development, product management and go-to-market (GTM) roles.
The revenue model for YourTribe is subscription-based. Subramanian said startups can buy job roles or resumes. If they buy a job role, it is an end-to-end experience in which YourTribe helps them post their job and handle the job seekers until the interview is completed and the employee is onboarded. If startups buy resumes, YourTribe gives them matching and qualified leads.
Subramanian shared that the lifetime revenue from 2022 until present is about ₹9.7 crore. Moreover, there are plans to close at around ₹4 crore this year.
YourTribe’s Debut on Startup Singam & Funding
YourTribe recently raised their seed round on a new show called Startup Singam, a Tamil equivalent of Shark Tank which is streaming on JioHotstar. The company raised ₹4 crore with investors from the show.
Currently, the company is aiming to use the funds to hire senior staff and has plans to go back to the market for fund-raising after executing the planned tasks.
Subramanian disclosed that they are looking to raise ₹35-₹40 crore in series funding for a valuation of ₹150 crore.
What’s The Future of Employer Branding in the Age of GenAI?
“I think employer branding is going to be the key for any employer to hire in the coming years, especially with the age of GenAI,” Subramanian said.
He added that many people will ask ChatGPT about employers, where to go, and how to apply. Without a strong employer branding, companies may lose out on the opportunities to hire the right talent.
