Making payroll: an inside guide to first hires
Making payroll: an inside guide to first hiresStartups’ first hires, inside the raise – Fluid, growth company gazette +More
Making payrollIt is not easy for startups in the current climate, so making the right employment decisions is more crucial than ever. Here, we find out how startups make that all-important first hire. Hiring into the whirlwind: More startups closed down in 2023 than ever before, according to software provider and adviser Carta, which describes it as “the most difficult year for startups in at least a decade”. It predicts another two or three quarters of increased insolvencies and a depressed fundraising climate to continue. But founders’ gonna found new businesses and all would be in agreement that their people are their key asset. So, how do you go about putting people on the payroll? Outsource or die: it is possible to outsource almost everything, from sales and marketing to software development and engineering, and more traditionally outsourced areas such as legal services and finance.
Serial entrepreneur Steven Matsell’s White Coral Group is a next generation low-cost specialist law firm built on the founding principle that startups generally invest their money in product development, sales and marketing, and not on lawyers.
Typically, company founders will be relying on their own networks: on previous colleagues and clients, on strategic advisers, investors and board members, rather than recruitment agencies or job boards. Investors can help with contacts and they can also provide an objective voice that helps sell the founders’ dream to recruits. But what do you recruit first? Know your business: Future Anthem founder and CEO Leigh Nissim says it boils down to “understanding what your DNA is – keep what is key in-house”. For Future Anthem, the DNA of the company is data science, and that made a chief data officer, Chris Conroy, a crucial early hire.
Know your own strengths: Often the founder is a good salesperson, because they need to sell the vision to investors and clients, and in technology businesses they will be partnered by a co-founding CTO. Matsell, therefore, would advise emerging businesses to focus on managerial infrastructure. “The COO is the absolute epicentre of your business,” he says. “That person is key. They need to be the right-hand of the CEO. The CEO needs to look out to the market and consider what could happen to the company, not be dealing with day-to-day problems. That is the job of the COO, who can see the company’s weak points and solve them.”
Others would suggest finance can wait, but echo Matsell’s sentiments when it comes to making that hire. All agree that early hires need to be flexible, energetic and to really understand and buy into the business’s USP. “These first hires will define what the culture becomes,” says O’Neill. Trust the process: Trust is such an important issue – for employers and employed. With 20% of startups failing by the end of year two, nobody knows whether the venture will be successful. Ponesse advocates a “try before you buy strategy, otherwise known as consulting”.
Sportsbooks! Checkout some of Matchbook’s latest quotes across NFL, NCAAF, MLB & NBA: NFL: NY Giants/LV Raiders O37.5; $107k @1.95 NCAAF: Marshall +3.5 (vs Appalachian State); $34k @ 1.83 MLB: ARI Diamondbacks ML (vs TEX Rangers); $36k @ 1.99 NBA: NO Hornets +12.5 (vs DAL Mavericks); $170k @ 1.90 Matchbook pricing and brokerage service is your connection to the sharpest pricing and global liquidity, helping you to manage risk and fortify your margins. Stop being forced to limit customer stakes due to market liability. Stop being caught out by stale prices and one sided markets. Matchbook B2B, because the best price is for everyone. Find out more at http://www.matchbook.com/promo/b2b or email b2b@matchbook.com +More StartupsThe month’s transactionsAustralian-based OSB startup Picklebet has announced a A$15m (~$10m) Series A funding round led by Discerning Capital, with participation from Drive by DraftKings, Manifest Investment Partners and wagering and media investor Jeff Sagansky. Jumping through hoops: The micro-betting supplier nVenue has sold a stake in the business to the NBA for an undisclosed sum. As part of the deal, head of gaming and new business ventures at the NBA, Scott Kaufman-Ross, will join the nVenue board as an observer.
Takeout: Fantasy sports and betting content provider FTN Network closed an oversubscribed $3m seed funding round led by businessman Perry Gershon and with involvement from the TechStars investment fund.
The artists formerly known as: Parimutuel betting platform Sparket secured strategic investment from former NBA champion Metta Sandiford-Artest, formerly Ron Artest and who now goes by the name Metta World Peace. Yes, really. The Malta-based VC fund focused on early-stage iGaming startups HappyHour has made a strategic investment in digital wallet and cashier solution Fluid (see Inside the Raise below) Growth company gazetteThe Betting Startups podcast has teamed up with Smarkets’ Jason Trost to reignite the Business of Betting podcast. The pod will restart with a series of weekly episodes released every Friday. Underdog Fantasy has launched an initiative to find startups with original ideas around responsible gambling. The GuardDog initiative will see Underdog Fantasy backstop an effort to accelerate early-stage startups with $1m in initial funding. Sports-betting/player trading mash-up Mojo appears to be in trouble after it was announced it was laying off 20% of its workforce. Inside The Pocket has partnered with HotSpotBet to launch HotSpotJogos, a localized website offering F2P games, as it looks to boost its customer acquisition and retention in Brazil. HITSqwad has teamed up with Black Cow Technology to utilize the latter’s OGA Jackpots platform to build custom, secure jackpot engines that support unique in-game and reporting features across its portfolio of slots and games. Sports-betting and iCasino development company The Unit has unveiled a designed and developed front-end system for data odds provider TXOdds. Want to unlock new revenue using sports-betting tools engineered by an experienced team of data scientists? Our real-time API provides accurate predictions & actionable insights at your fingertips, covering more than 15 sports and in excess of 20,000 events each year, each of which is simulated over 10,000 times Inside the deal – FluidLiquid refreshment: The link between HappyHour and the digital wallet and cashless solutions provider go back to when Fluid founder Roberto Rubio sold his previous company Betit to GiG, previously the home of HappyHour principals Robin Reed and Ben Clemes.
Rubio says Fluid was looking for “strategic money”, with HappyHour able to bring not just money to the table but deep industry knowledge and guidance on how the company can attempt to “redefine the digital transaction space in the gaming industry”. Under the hood: For HappyHour, partner Ben Clemes says, “if there is a critical point of success or failure in any online gaming operation, it is payments,” but it is a fragmented space, and the potential offered by Fluid to develop an “agnostic cashier” that could integrate into a website was too good an opportunity not to miss.
Full potential: The plan from here is to launch with live customers in Q1 of next year. “We will use our traction iGaming to refine the product and discover the full potential of our machine-learning algorithms,” says Rubio. “Later down the road, we plan to explore other industries outside of gaming.”
A helping hand: Rubio will be leaning into HappyHour’s collective experience as a central part of its strategy. “We have a great network of people who are always willing to test new products out, give feedback and in many cases be early adopters,” says Clemes.
The month in focuses
BettingJobs is the global leading recruitment solution provider for the iGaming, Sports Betting, and Lottery sectors. Backed by a 20-year track record of successfully supporting the iGaming industry, it's no surprise BettingJobs is experiencing rapid growth and outstanding results. Does your company plan to expand its teams to cope with strong demand and growth? Contact BettingJobs today where their dedicated team members will help you find exactly what you are looking for. An +More Media publication. For sponsorship inquiries email scott@andmore.media. |
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