After repeated requests for Vettery to expand to Los Angeles, we're excited to announce that the time has finally arrived. Launched last week, Vettery is now live in the LA market stocked with hundreds of candidates and employers ready to rock and roll.
We're thankful for the continued support as we now work with over 2,000 of the top companies in the world. With ongoing success in New York and San Francisco, we're fired up for our expansion, with several new markets coming soon!
If youâre looking to hire talent, visit us here and weâd be delighted to get in touch. Looking for your dream job instead? We got you covered here too.
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Small Talk on our Awkward Orange Sofa with Steven Tiller, Founder of SeaVees
Vetteryâs Clark Winter sat down with Steven Tiller, Founder of SeaVees to discuss the growing interest in casual culture, the inspiration for his company, and why he loves shoes. Based in Santa Barbara, SeaVees is a menâs shoe brand from the 1960s that pioneered the original way to go casual. While dormant for almost 50 years, SeaVees has been restored creating a vintage shoe in todayâs surging sneaker culture.
So I am intrigued⌠it seems the story goes something like this. You were working in Boston designing shoes for Cole Haan and at the drop of the hat, you flew to Japan to be inspired by the wayward shoe brands of our past, when you stumbled upon a pair of SeaVees shoes and decided to resurrect them to their pinnacle as an iconic surf culture shoe. Am I on the right track?
You are more or less on the right track. I had actually started my career at Cole Haan in Maine where I thought Iâd learn the ropes for a few years before moving to California and starting my own brand. Cut to 18 years later and I was still in New England (working for Sperry Topsider in Boston) and not any closer to realizing my dream. With doubt and disenchantment setting in, I began to search in earnest for the right opportunity. Ideally a sneaker brand with a heritage, a once-proud brand in need of a resurrection. It was behind glass in a secondhand store in Tokyo where I found my first pair of SeaVees.
I love casual shoes more than most, in fact I even wrote a post about them (âKicksâ). Unfortunately I didnât know much about SeaVees at the time⌠tell me why I should add them to my quiver.
You are not alone. This brand was off the radar for most after going dormant in the early 1970s. I was an obsessed aficionado of the category and even I had never heard of SeaVees. I soon discovered SeaVees was born in 1964 and was the original casual sneaker. With a groundbreaking advertising campaign throughout the 1960s, SeaVees pioneered the transformation of the sneaker from gym shoe to casual shoe. To âShow Up In SeaVeesâ meant you could enjoy the comfort of a sneaker with the sophistication of a more refined footwear choice. Today we honor the brandâs 1960s origin with a "vintage vibes meets modern tech" mantra by making contemporary amendments to classic design. The result is a timeless sneaker of exceptional quality and comfort that you can confidently wear in any social setting.
California seems to be an woven into the fabric of the SeaVees story (and you for that matter!). What is it about California that resonates so much with you and the vibe of the brand?
California provided the creative origin of the brand back in the 1960s when the Golden State in its golden age defined the coastal casual lifestyle. As a landlocked kid growing up in Oklahoma, I always aspired to be from California so I understand its powerful magnetic pull. Most of us have a reverence for the escapism that is promised with the warmth of the sun. Responding to that lifelong yearning is what resonates with me, is what SeaVees means to me.
A wise man once said, âYou spend most of your time in your bed or on your feet, so itâs important to invest in both.â If we opened up your closet, what shoes would we find in your assemblage?
SeaVees. Youâd be shocked by the number of shoes in my closet. I definitely have issues - there is literally a sea of SeaVees. I have a pair of Nikes for trail running and a pair for the gym. And I have held on to a pair of Prada Chelsea boots for so long they have now officially taken on vintage status. Other than that I show up in SeaVees everywhere I go, for every occasion.
How do you think about your competitive landscape-- is your target demographic currently wearing Vans/Converse or are you hoping to be the first foray into fashionable sneaker for the guy wearing his fatherâs crusty old New Balances?
Both. Come one, come all. Todayâs consumer has grown up in sneakers, and unlike the generations before him, heâs not being told at some point in his life to get out of those smelly gym shoes he wore as a kid. Still, while he respects the brands he grew up wearing, at some point in his early adult life heâs looking for something a little more evolved. A clean and sophisticated design he can easily dress up or dress down and look appropriate for most any occasion. As he comes of age and develops his own sense of style, heâs willing to pay a little more for the quality, comfort and class offered by SeaVees.
Menâs style has certainly has become more casual these days. How do you see that fitting in with the SeaVees brand?
As the category creator of the casual sneaker, this movement truly hits the core of our brand. Todays athleisure or everyday casual style is just a modern day translation or evolution of what SeaVees was initiating back in the day. With the discerning modern sneaker consumer our heritage grants us an authentic voice in this movement.
There is a certain cool factor that permeates throughout the SeaVees brand. In fact, Iâve read that you said, Â âCalifornia in its golden age was the certified hub of all things cool, so Iâm equally inspired by Steve McQueenâs hot-rod culture, Jack Kerouacâs San Francisco Beat scene and Richard Neutraâs Desert Modernism.â Who or what in todayâs society inspires you/represents all things cool?
I am most inspired by new music and travel. Iâm on an undying daily quest to discover my next favorite band. I spend way more time reading music blogs and deep diving on Bandcamp then I do studying the latest fashion trends. And since the day I was dropped in Paris at 19 years old with a backpack, $500 in American Express travelers checks, and not knowing a word of French, Iâve been addicted to the adrenaline rush of foreign travel. Somewhere along the line I converted culture shock to a familiar comforting pang that never fails to inspire.
How would you describe your personal style?
Smart casual or dress casual. I tend to twist the traditional in a thoughtful way. I subscribe to the over/under rule of style. When the occasion calls for casual attire, I will err on the side of being slightly overdressed. For a dressy occasion - when Iâm certain most guys will be wearing dark suits and wingtips - Iâll make a less serious statement by slightly underdressing. Iâll leave the tie at home and have my pant leg cropped just-so to show an irreverent bare ankle - and of course to show off my SeaVees. A classic, relaxed elegance is what Iâd like to always represent.
What is your favorite SeaVees shoe?
My favorite SeaVees style is the 06/64 Legend. Itâs our most iconic style as it celebrates the original brandâs launch in June of 1964 and is the shoe featured in the old advertising campaign. This style is a re-creation of the shoe I discovered in Tokyo, so it holds special emotional status for me. I feel it best defines SeaVees today as it appeals to both modern and classic tastes. Itâs familiar in styling but its high sidewall gives it an aggressive edge.
Looking to the future, does the SeaVees brand extend beyond footwear into a fully fledged fashion/lifestyle brand?
I certainly envision a SeaVees future that embraces the 1960s coastal casual lifestyle across multiple product categories. But honestly weâre focussed on improving within our core competency before we move on to other things. Our womenâs business is still in its infancy, our international business (with the exception of Japan and Korea) is totally untapped. And while Iâm very proud of the progress weâve made to date, I know we still have a great amount work to do to restore the brand to its rightful place on the top shelf of heritage sneaker brands.
Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
If you could see the battery usage on my phone, youâd see that most of my power is spent on Spotify and Waze. What if they did a collaboration and provided you with a personalized playlist based on where you are going, when you are going and the duration of your drive. It would know your taste based on your Spotify history and could sense your mood based on where and when you are traveling (i.e. Friday afternoon build up for a coastal drive versus Monday morning chill out for the dreaded commute).
What is favorite social media account to follow?
Instagram is my platform of choice and I tend to gravitate toward photography - especially a group of Santa Barbara area kindred spirits that includes @willadlerphotographs, @morganmaassen, @deweynicks, @nick_presniakov, and @bluegabor.
Welcome to our first edition of TEX Tips, courtesy of our helpful talent executives. In this ongoing series weâll touch upon various job search and interviewing words of wisdom to guide your professional journey.
âAfter any call or on-site with an employer, it's generally a great idea to send a follow-up email to the team thanking them for their time and expressing enthusiasm at the opportunity. Although it may not significantly improve your candidacy if you do send a note, some hiring managers regard it as a strike if you donât send one. Like sending out an annual holiday card, better to just send one and be safe than sorry!âÂ
- Ali
âAs soon as you walk into an office to interview ask them what kind of holiday cookies they have. You can learn a lot. Also, be prepared to be flexible. Employers are often looking to make hires before a holiday and start fresh with some new faces afterwards, but unfortunately that means they have to find time to talk to candidates whenever they can.âÂ
- Mike
âIf you're emailing with anyone before the holidays, let them know what days over the break you won't be checking email. This gives you leeway to browse your inbox while you're off work and only respond to the most important emails.âÂ
- Emma
âIf you need a little extra cash for holiday gifts, refer your friends to Vettery and we'll pay you once we find them jobs!âÂ
We know. Another holiday gift guide. But Vettery isnât your typical recruiting technology, so weâve got a very atypical list for you, jam-packed with goodies inspired by the many stellar companies we work with.
Away
Itâs the holiday travel season, which means oodles of disgruntled travelers recklessly reclining their airplane seat straight into your freshly poured ginger ale (the preferred drink at 40,000 feet). Confrontations may happen. Elbows may be passive-aggressively nudged on armrests. But you know what will always calm a ruckus? A beautifully crafted and tasteful carry-on suitcase. And our friends at Away have just the one for your gift recipient to turn heads and pacify unruly passengers - think of it as Adeleâs âHelloâ in luggage form.
Warby Parker
A brief list of things that are better in fours: classic rock band members, Mario Kart 64 players, curse word letters, and of course, eyes. And if youâre going to rock the four-eyed look, how better than Warby Parker? Classical and modern designs at an approachable price, a new pair of glasses or sunglasses will give your gift recipient so much added spring in their step youâll wonder where the winter went.
Harryâs
Usually when we think of razors and the holidays, itâs usually in the context of âbought that gift with a razor-thin margin of time leftâ. A gift of Harryâs high quality razors and shaving kits is the kind of present you video record the recipient opening because their unrestrained proclamations of sheer joy will likely be the material of YouTube memes.
Nebia
The Nebia shower system is the perfect gift for individuals that enjoy getting repeatedly, but gently, sneezed on by a choir of angels. Using technology that âatomizes water into millions of dropletsâ, Nebia creates 10 times more surface area than a regular shower and uses 70% less water, a feat that surely violates some law of physics. Although still only available for pre-order, we think that the gift recipient wonât mind, and may even savor, the suspense.
Knot Standard
In perhaps the greatest sartorial worldplay since Menâs Wearhouse, Knot Standard provides stylish, bespoke menâs suits and shirts at seamingly (three can play this game) incomprehensible prices. Your gift recipient can now bid a fond adieu to that department store suit bought off the rack for their first interview and instead suit up in the equivalent of a fabric Ferrari.
Jack Erwin
You can always determine the true measure of a person by what shoes theyâre wearing. While the last sentence isnât particularly accurate, what is accurate is that high-quality, affordable menâs dress shoes are pretty darn challenging to find. Thatâs why a pair from Jack Erwinâs will make your gift recipient feel ridiculously warm inside, maybe even approaching the internal temperature of a fresh Hot Pocket.
littleBits
Although itâs true that the holiday classic Home Alone wouldnât work in modern times, why leave it up to chance? With littleBitsâ electronic modules your gift recipient will be well-prepared to construct a home defense system secure from any bandits. Whimsical, inventive, and clever, littleBits are a superb choice for tinkerers and creatives.
Casper
Remember your childhood and how disappointed you were that those dinosaur sponge toys didnât expand to monstrous sizes when exposed to water? Well itâs 2016 now and Casper has managed to satisfy our expansion dreams by fitting an entire mattress in a box. Thatâs literally Merlin magic right there. Oh, and did we mention the mattress is so comfy your gift recipient will probably be fine that you didnât get them the $150,000 Hastens bed this season...
CourseHorse
A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one likes a terrible gift, of course, of course. Thatâs why this season, why not impart the everlasting gift of knowledge and skills? A gift card to CourseHorse allows your gift recipient to enroll in established local classes, covering topics including cooking, art, yoga, design, finance, and more.
Blue Apron
Itâs been said that âa good compromise is when both parties are dissatisfiedâ, but we like to say that a good gift is when both parties benefit. Blue Apron is such a gift. Your gift recipient will get fresh ingredients with clever recipes delivered to their door and you get to reap the rewards of knowing an improving chef taking their skills to new heights. Michelin star, here we come!
SeatGeek
Couldnât score tickets to âHamiltonâ this year? We feel you. Good thing SeatGeek is here providing a top-notch ticket search engine that aggregates listings for live sports, concerts, and theater events and helps you identify deals. Find something enjoyable for you and your gift recipient to attend, booked from the comfort of your home without the lines - or duels.
GLAMSQUAD
Any company whose name is spelled in all capital letters deserves attention in my book. In this case, itâs the premier service to book beauty services and appointments straight to your home, office, or hotel - which, if youâre a Kardashian, could all be one and the same. Treat somebody to a gift certificate to GLAMSQUAD and they (and you) wonât regret it.
ClassPass
Donât look now but New Yearâs resolutions will soon be made and working out more often will likely be at the top of many lists. But no one wants to receive a Snapchat everyday in front of the same old treadmill (which may have been repurposed from a coal mine) at the local gym. Give the gift of variety with ClassPass so that you can receive a snap of the gift recipient boxing one day and lifting bags of rice the next day.
SoulCycle and Peloton
Sweating over what gift to get? How about turning the tables and making your gift recipient sweat instead with a gift card to SoulCycle or Peloton? Theyâre the two best and brightest in the cycling space, offering different formats and experiences, but the same great feeling of âyes, I just crushed thatâ.Â
Postmates
Civilization has flourished for thousands of years thanks to many key developments, including specialization of labor and really comfy, permanent homes. Postmates is the pinnacle of these two developments, allowing your gift recipient to skip cooking and bask in the joys of being inside thanks to the gift card you can grant them this season.
Uber
Letâs face two cold hard truths of life: 1) Carly Rae Jepsenâs âCall Me Maybeâ can still get a party going in 2016 and 2) you will never get free Uber credit by sharing your referral code because everyone is already a user. This is precisely why your gift recipientâs excitement will surge 2.6x when you get them an Uber gift card.
Minibar
Are you one of those people thatâs just bad at giving gifts no matter what you do? Wine not lift some spirits by being the beerer of cherished presents for once, thanks to Minibar, the on-demand alcohol delivery service? No one is ever disappointed to receive the gift of liquid joy, that is unless Smirnoff icing comes back...
At Vettery, weâve had the joy of speaking with thousands of candidates looking to make their next professional move. Weâre constantly impressed by their experiences, intrigued by their goals, and inspired by their passions. But the hard part is helping to summarize these fascinating individuals into a single sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. After reviewing more rĂŠsumĂŠs than the hiring manager for a bacon taste tester position, weâve come to some data-driven findings.
If you want to get a job at a startup, use a serif typeface on your rĂŠsumĂŠ.
In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol.âââWikipedia
The chart below shows the relative performance of a job seeker with a rĂŠsumĂŠ using a serif typeface (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond) compared to a sans serif typeface (e.g., Verdana, Helvetica). Basically, unless youâre a full-stack developer or a data scientist, youâre going to get more interview invite activity from hiring companies on the Vettery platform with serif typefaces.
Looking at the typeface preference by candidate background reveals that sans serif is most common among all startup roles, save for those in Data Science. Meanwhile, those with roles that are traditionally more user-facing, such as Design and Front-end not only had the highest percentage of sans serif typefaces but also appeared to be the most comfortable combining serif and sans serif into one rĂŠsumĂŠ.
What about rĂŠsumĂŠ length? Based on the data, until you have six or more years of experience, most people stick to one page.
And finally, the optional âInterestsâ section. Less than 1% of rĂŠsumĂŠs listed interests. But for those that did, can you guess which are the most popular to list? Try out this guessing game before peeking below.
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So whatâs the key takeaway from this? Well, not much! Like venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguzâs analysis of which first letter to choose in naming your startup, the relationship between typeface choice and your likelihood of interview success is likely correlational, not causal. Just donât use Comic Papyrus.
Thanks to Pete for putting together the charts and Clark for reviewing.
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Introducing Halite, Two Sigmaâs AI programming challenge
Vettery is proud to announce our sponsorship of Halite, an artificial intelligence programming challenge developed by our friend and client Two Sigma, a leading technology company focused on finding value in the worldâs data.
First built for internal use, the game has become so popular among Two Sigma employees - both developers and non-developers alike - that itâs been released to the public for new challengers to compete. With as little as 10 lines of code but with immeasurable room for creativity and complexity, players can build a bot to vie for resources across a 2D grid. You can view yourself on the leaderboard and see how you compare to others!
Small Talk on our Awkward Orange Sofa with Ariel Nelson & Lane Gerson, Co-Founders of Jack Erwin
Vetteryâs Clark Winter sat down with Ariel Nelson & Lane Gerson, co-founders of Jack Erwin, to discuss the changing landscape in menâs fashion, how millenials think about direct to consumer products, and why they love shoes.
Based in New York, Jack Erwin is a menâs shoe brand creating well crafted, honestly priced menâs dress shoes. While driven to keep their retail pricing down, they are unwaveringly committed to quality materials and to the labor intensive, age-old craft of fine shoe making.
Iâve heard this story beforeâŚtop of the line product retails at $500+ with the alternative being a terrible quality option at bargain prices. In the shoe market, you are making shoes for $90-250 and selling them direct to consumer. Tell us the story here?
It was fall 2012 when Lane and I (Ariel) were walking in New York in need of a pair of dress shoes for a wedding. Everywhere we looked we were finding ourselves compromising on something; good quality â crazy price, comfortable fit â poor design. So we asked ourselves âhow is there nothing out there that we actually like?â
So we decided to do it ourselves. The idea was to make beautiful menâs dress shoes for $100 and sell them for $200. We wanted to make shoes that were well made, beautifully designed, and not outrageously priced. So thatâs what we did.
Iâve read that part of the inspiration for Jack Erwin was the question, âWhere did the simple men's dress shoe go?" What do you mean by that?
At the end of the day we believe in great product. We have always been drawn to simplicity and elegance. There is true beauty in something made well, with the highest quality materials, with design audacious enough be simple and clean.
The menâs shoe market today is crowded. And as everyone tries to get involved we have seen quality and design suffer the most. As a result we are bombarded with over stylized, lower quality, bizarrely priced products that donât actually reflect what most men want.
To date it seems you are focused exclusively on Menâs shoes. Is this an intentional brand angle or just phase one for the company?
First it is important to note that we also love womenâs shoes. Women tend to appreciate great products and have actually responded quite positively to our brand. In fact, an interesting side note is that a significant number of women have bought our menâs styles for themselves.
However, remaining a menâs shoe brand is something we have been very intentional about. We believe men are caring more and more about what brands they align with and how it informs their personal style and identity. This is an exciting time to build a brand for men and the opportunity is only getting bigger. Our goal is to be a brand men can relate to that provides products they actually want.
A wise man once said, âYou spend most of your time in your bed or on your feet, so itâs important to invest in both.â If we opened up your closet, what shoes would we find in your quiver?
Both Lane and I love shoes. For me, you would see 5-6 pair of Jack Erwins, my Chuck Taylors, and a pair of Nike running shoes. For me our brand provides the best option for almost any occasion outside athletics. However we are also inspired by those brands that we were brought up with. From Chuck Taylors to Stan Smiths to Nike trainers, between the two of us we cover each base.
How do you think about your competitive landscape-- is your target demographic currently shopping at the Cole Haans/Allen Edmonds of the world, or are you hoping to be the first foray into fashionable dress shoe for the guy who wears squared toed loafers?
We know this sounds like a phony answer but we really donât look at any specific brand as direct competition. Hereâs what we do know, that there are very few brands speaking directly to men in a way that truly resonates. We aim to be that company.
Menâs style has certainly has become more casual these days. How do you see that fitting in with the Jack Erwin brand? Do you envision me wearing your shoes with a t-shirt?
The short answer is yes. The more involved answer is a bit more nuanced. Personal style, especially for men, is evolving in new ways every day. We are challenging what it means to be formal vs. informal. We (men) are looking for products that allow us to be dynamic in life and in style. A beautifully made shoe can be worn with anything. Itâs not our job to tell customers how to dress; itâs our job to make the best shoe that you can make you own. Thatâs our approach.
How would you describe your personal styles?
Lane: Classic, always classic. Usually jeans and a T.
Ariel: Classic, with an element of formal. I like a clean button down, jeans and great pair of shoes.
Branding is having an ever greater presence on our mind share of how we learn about things. You guys created a beautiful âHow We Make Our Shoesâ video. How do you think about this transparency and authenticity as a way to connect with your customer?
We are proud of how we make our product. We spend a tremendous amount of time and energy to ensure we practice what we preach. For us, the design, sourcing of materials and manufacturing process is baked into our brand DNA. So to let our customers see into that process is both authentic and, we believe, important to helping them understand who we are.
What is your favorite Jack Erwin shoe?
Lane: Joe in black (Oxford cap toe)
Ariel: Ellis brown suede (Chelsea boot)
Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
Uber meets Open Table. Fully integrated restaurant booking and car service. This could/would pick up all attendees, book table, and return them home after.
What is favorite social media account to follow?
We are not on social media however we do check the Jack Erwin instagram account pretty regularly
Lastly, what does the name Jack Erwin mean?
The name is a combination of our fathers names. My dadâs name is Jack and Laneâs is Erwin. We thought, if we can make a product that both our fathers would buy, that would be a successful business.
Vettery was created with the idea of improving a manual, slow and antiquated recruiting process. The integration with Lever is a continuation in that direction. Â Now, not only will employers be able to access the best candidates via the Vettery marketplace, but they will then have the ability to immediately pull those candidates into their applicant tracking system â in other words, recruiters will not have to manually enter candidate information, upload resumes, or create profiles for new candidates in their hiring pipelines.
Since integrating with Greenhouse last year, Â weâve had hundreds of companies take advantage of the integration. As we have continued to grow and due to the strong demand from our clients, weâre excited to announce the additional integration of Lever to continue helping hiring managers and recruiters find and hire talent as seamlessly as possible.
Hereâs how it works:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Our integration with Lever is just another step in making your hiring process easier and more dependable than traditional recruiting tools and it is driven by our desire to ensure that Vettery is a useful tool for every employer's workflow processes. Expect to see more announcements in the near future as we partner with more ATS providers to continue making the hiring process easier and more efficient.
We started Vettery because everybody wants a job they love, but the process of actually finding one is a difficult and outdated process. The Vettery marketplace has helped multitudes of people find happiness and it has become part of our DNA to help people find a path they love. If your dream job is being an entrepreneur, weâd love to help out with that too: today we are making public the investment deck that played an important role in our journey of raising $9 million co-lead by Greycroft Partners and Raine Ventures.
We didn't do the dry, standard Problem and Solution approach. Instead, we decided to describe the problem through a user story. We told the story of how a hiring manager struggles to find talent, and how Vettery solves this problem. We immediately backed up our story with traction stats to validate our words. The deck contained two slides that were key to winning over investors: our vision and traction. Our vision was to grow a massive company in a huge market, and our traction made it easier to believe that we could do it.
Whatever direction you take in your pitch, you will need historical financials and projections and strong customer references. Vettery has over 1,500 customers and we're very fortunate that they were willing to take time out of their busy days to walk the investors through our product from their perspective.
In January I heard Charles Schwab speak and yes he is a real person. Chuck told the story of how he started his company back in 1971 and how he got to where he was today. One part that stood out was how he said that everyone looks at his company now as a big success, but doesnât see the years of hardship and grit it took to get there. Itâs these struggles, whether youâre building the next great brokerage or something else incredible, that all entrepreneurs face that we hope sharing our slides will help with.
Weâre proud to announce that Vettery recently raised $9 million in capital, led by Greycroft Partners and Raine Ventures with meaningful participation by angel investors. This investment gives Vettery the fuel we need to pursue our vision of bringing efficiency and transparency to the recruiting landscape.
We launched Vetteryâs marketplace 18 months ago because the traditional job search process is awful. Job seekers know the struggle of filling out dozens of applications only to never hear back. Employers know the hassle of combing through hundreds or even thousands of unfiltered applications. There had to be a better way. So we built it.
Today there are over 1,500 companies actively hiring on Vetteryâs talent marketplace and weâve experienced 30% month-over-month growth in 2016. While weâre proud of what weâve done so far, we know that the hard part is ahead of us. This latest round of funding is simply a means to an end and shouldnât be celebrated as if weâve reached the finish line. Weâve merely acquired the proper running shoes. Now the marathon begins.
Thereâs a lot to look forward to in Vetteryâs future. We plan to expand to new geographical markets as well as other industry verticals. Weâll continue to improve the experience for job seekers and hiring managers that use the marketplace with new features and capabilities. Basically, if you loved Vettery before, you ainât seen nothing yet.
Weâre fortunate to have so many supporters help us along the way. The job seekers who trust us with their rocketing careers. The employers who rely on us to find their perfect candidate. The investors who have confidence in us and our ambitious vision. The friends and family who encourage us through late nights and weekends. Thank you for believing in us.
Although weâre off to a tremendous start, we still have so much to learn, build, overcome, and accomplish until we fully upend the recruiting industry. But no road is long with good company. If youâd like to join us on this adventure at Vettery, weâre looking to add people from all backgrounds and skills to the team. Letâs make great things happen together.
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Small Talk on our Awkward Orange Sofa with Phil Nguyen, Founder and Editor of The Daily Water Cooler
Vetteryâs Clark Winter sat down with Phil Nguyen, founder and editor of The Daily Water Cooler, to discuss the changing media landscape, how millennials consume content, and what the process is to summarize the morning news.
Based in New York, The Daily Water Cooler is a delightful morning newsletter designed to summarize the dayâs news across a variety of topics to make sure youâre never left behind in conversations. With thousands of daily readers, the newsletter has attracted a loyal following through word-of-mouth.
Millennials seem to care about getting a snapshot of the world from a different lens: "things that are trending". With that in mind, why am I giving you two minutes to give me a snapshot of whats happening in the world vs. somebody else?
People read The DWC because they like the format and the personality. The information itself is not particularly exclusive but the key is careful curation. Information and news is so plentiful these days that people are looking for just the highlights, as well as to be entertained. The DWC optimizes for this.
The bullet point layout is the same everyday and covers four important topics: Business, Politics, Sports, and Culture. This makes it easy for readers to skim over quickly and if they decide they want to learn more I always provide a link to the source article.
In addition to the format and curation elements I try to inject a little personality into the newsletters too, typically with one-liners or interesting related links. At the bottom of the newsletter I always include a To Share section because people love to share great content with their friends.
I've been told you create the DWC in the wee hours of the morning to hit our fresh eyes when we wake up. Walk me through how a daily issue of the newsletter comes to life.
If I have some free time the night before, I'll try to find a few funny or provocative pieces to go into the To Share section. Sometimes I also write about a Sports or Culture news piece too. In general though most of it is written the morning of delivery because much of it is impossible to write earlier.
I have a list of approximately 50 sites and sources that I visit to each morning starting around 5 or 6AM ET. I choose these specific sites because I trust their content and find them high quality. I typically write the sections in the same order everyday: Sports, Culture, Politics, Business, and lastly, To Share.
I choose Sports first because it's the most straightforward and helps get my brain going in the morning. Then I take a quick swing through Culture, generally focusing first on pop culture/celebrity media then on "harder" topics such as science. I'm about warmed up by now so Politics is next because it takes significantly more comprehension and analytical energy to wade through that news. I'm not always familiar with the background situations of certain stories so I have to do additional reading in order to properly distill the current news appropriately. Afterwards is Business, which I tackle at the end because early morning announcements can happen and I'd rather not miss out on those. Last is the To Share section, because it's the most fun and also the easiest to scale back if I'm running low on time.
After that's all done, I'll try to do a quick spot check for glaring errors, though regular readers will know that I'm not so good at that! I still maintain that typos show personality and that the newsletter was written by a friend rather than a robot. Then I'll press send (hopefully around 7:30AM ET), hope I didn't miss anything or make too many mistakes, and eat breakfast.
Social media is having an ever greater presence on our mind share of how we learn about things. Do you foresee us ever receiving The Daily Water Cooler via Snapchat stories or the like (Ă la Ian Bremmer's "The World in 60 Seconds" Facebook videos)?
I suppose it's a possibility during the inevitable path towards The DWC's initial public offering (ha!), but in the short to medium-term, no, not likely. Twitter is a strong candidate to have an improved presence on but as for other channels I typically have a negative view of video content and the like. It's time-intensive and expensive to make, plus from a userâs perspective it's not easy to consume (impossible on the go and gutsy at work) and challenging to skim over quickly. You pretty much just have to watch the entire thing and ain't nobody got time for that.
What is your favorite topic/article that you have discussed in The DWC?
This will sound odd, but one of my favorite topic was the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike at the end of 2015, which was the first increase in nearly a decade. I liked it for a two main reasons. First, it was a topic that had far-reaching implications but one that most everyday people would not really know or care that much about. Second, it was a real challenge to make the subject entertaining and engaging. How many jokes can you really make about interest rates?
Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
Chatroulette + Facebook, but anonymous and text-only. So basically you would get paired up with a random Facebook friend in a chat and you would both be anonymous. There could be daily prompts of conversation topics to get the conversation started. It would be a great way to learn more about your friends, as well as an interesting use for all those Facebook friends you have that aren't really friends or you haven't spoken to in a long time.
What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?
On Instagram I enjoy @CoffeeCupsOfTheWorld, because I love coffee and design, as well as things that have standard forms but can be differentiated in creative ways (e.g., business cards, rĂŠsumĂŠs). Also big fan of accounts that use the grid on their profile page in neat ways, such as @GeometryClub and @MicahNotFound.
I'm a heavy Twitter user, mostly for news and surfacing interesting articles. But one account I'll mention is @RecruiterBro, which I find hilarious since I work in that industry.
Lastly, what caused this obsession with GIFs?!
I love GIFs because in many ways they're the perfect medium of communication and surprisingly complex. GIFs are the ideal blend for mobile consumption - more expressive than still images but less committal than video (see my comments about video above). Superficially, they're just entertaining and a stellar way to end the newsletter on a bright note.
What I think makes them powerful is that they're instantly relatable given that many GIFs are derived from pop culture, giving GIFs a nuanced context and history when used properly. The act of cleverly reappropriating something recognizable into a different situation is what makes GIFs so engaging for viewers.
Weâre delighted to announce that weâve added Greenhouse integration for clients! Now whenever a candidate accepts your interview invitation on Vettery their information will instantly and automatically be imported to your Greenhouse applicant tracking system.
Integration is simple - all you have to do is visit your Vettery Preferences, click âIntegrate with Greenhouseâ, and login to verify. Thatâs it!
Have any questions about setting up the integration with Greenhouse or still have any leftover Valentineâs Day chocolates? Feel free to send us an email and weâll be happy to assist.
Small Talk on our Awkward Orange Sofa with Alex & Mike Faherty, Co-Founders of Faherty
Vetteryâs Clark Winter sat down with Alex & Mike Faherty, co-founders of Faherty, to discuss turning a life long dream into a family company by bringing the unique skills of twin brothers together to create a special clothing brand.
Based in New York, Faherty is a lifestyle brand dedicated to creating premium products for lifeâs great moments at the beach and all those times when you wish you were there.
What was version one (season one) of your product like? And compared to your latest season?
Our first season was solely men's and women's swim made from our signature recycled polyester material. Three years later, we have a full ready to wear collection. For men we offer indigo and cotton knits, outdoor pieces, sweaters, canvas jeans, chinos, flip-flops, and a wide variety of woven shirting. For women, our collection includes tomboy flannels, silk shirts and dresses, embroidered shorts, cozy sweaters, and ethnic jackets.
Have any tips you would give to someone who wanted to work for your company?
The people we hire all have five of the same characteristics: (1) super ambitious, (2) a can-do positive attitude, (3) a self starter, (4) extremely passionate, and (5) extremely kind and a team player.
The last is likely the most important. We're a tight knit team, so bringing people onboard is like hiring a family member.
If you weren't at your current company, which other startup would you love to work at? Why?
Honestly, we couldn't possible imagine being at a place other than here. It's been our dream to create this company since we were kids.
Describe your perfect day?
Get up early, surf, eat a homemade omelet with cold brew, head to the office and work for a few hours to touch base with the team, and end the day with a rum punch and a big family dinner.
Given your shred travels far and wide, what is your favorite surf spot you have visited?
To this day, we love surfing at our home down in Spring Lake, NJ. The waves are good, the water stays warm till November, and there's never a crowd.
What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?
Oh man, we're constantly inspired by so many. Anything that showcases good waves, cool cabins, and vintage trucks.
If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
It would be awesome if there was a Airbnb type app that you could look at an inventory of surfboards in a specific area (when you're traveling) and be able to rent and then have something like Lyft be able to drop the boards off at the beach for you.Â
Photos from Vettery x Uberâs Women In Tech panel discussion from Thursday, January 21, featuring Alexandra Wilkis Wilson (Co-Founder of GLAMSQUAD, previously Co-Founder of Gilt), Ana Mahony (General Manager at Uber), Sutian Dong (VC at Female Founders Fund and FirstMark Capital), Kate Shillo (Partner at Galvanize Ventures), and moderated by Adam Goldstein (Co-Founder of Vettery)
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Small Talk On Our Awkward Orange Sofa with Peter Maglathlin of HourlyNerd
Vetteryâs Clark Winter discussed with Peter Maglathlin, co-founder of HourlyNerd, about turning a school project into a viable business, forming a team with non-technical founders, and cold emailing Mark Cuban.
Based in Boston, HourlyNerd is the leading software helping businesses generate differential outcomes when facing ad-hoc challenges and opportunities using the power of data. HourlyNerd leverages a technology-driven delivery model to create a new market for readily available elite expertise with client-friendly pricing structures and data-vetted, market-tested quality. HourlyNerdâs network boasts over 15,000 independent experts, including top MBAs, elite business advisors, and industry experts from leading corporations, serves more than 8,000 companies, ranging from startups and small business up to nearly 10% of the Fortune 1000.
HourlyNerd is a marketplace that connects businesses with independent consultants for project-based work-- what does that mean exactly?
The nature of work is fundamentally changing, and the evidence is everywhere you look. The freelance economy is booming â itâs clear that people want more control over their lives. Oneâs job neednât dominate oneâs existence any longer. Relatedly, technology, Â is enabling people to connect like never before, which has fueled the hyper growth of the on-demand economy. Our business model plays into both those themes. At HourlyNerd weâve built software that connects elite business consultants with companies of all sizes. Every day weâre helping businesses tackle challenges using the power of data, weâre enabling our consultants to work on their terms.
HourlyNerd arose from a team section competition at HBS. At what point did you realize that this had the potential to be a real business and not just a school project?
The first light switch really went off when we went out to the streets of Cambridge and Boston and started talking to potential customers. While the responses were varied, it was clear there was a need for what we were offering and that SMBs would be willing to engage. Their current solution of leveraging a friend or doing something themselves when a project arose was highly ineffective.
The second light switch went off when got exposure to the HBS executive education program. We had the opportunity to pitch dozens of leaders from growing, typically multinational businesses, and the response was incredibly positive. It was at this moment we realized there was a need far beyond the traditional SMB market, and that sophisticated business leaders were starving for high quality, on-demand talent.
I've read that you cold called Mark Cuban at a point when you were considering going on Shark Tank. What did you say (or make him believe) to convince him to basically invest on the spot?
We actually cold emailed him, a cold call would have been an entirely different level of bravado. The note we sent Mark was brief, but included what we felt was the necessary information to wet his appetite: who we were as founders, the pain point we were addressing, the compelling market size, and that our offering is unique â no one else is doing what weâre doing. When he responded I honestly thought someone was playing a prank on us given he got back to us so quickly with such a positive response. He responded with a bunch of follow-up questions and from there we were off to the races. Iâm thankful every day that Mark took the time to read and respond to a cold email from a bunch of first-time entrepreneurs currently in school.
HourlyNerd was started by four non-technical co-founders. How did you go about growing a tech team and culture as you built out your marketplace? What advice do you have for someone non-technical looking to join a tech startup?
Iâd by lying if I said it was easy. It was really fâing hard. It took us two rounds of investor capital and a significant amount of traction for us to convince our CTO to join (who has been a god-send). Two things made the process very difficult. The first is that we had very little idea what we were looking for and how to evaluate engineering talent. The second was that non-technical founders carry a stigma that tends to keep strong technical folks away, for whatever reason. It was only once we convinced institutional VCs that we were solving a problem worth solving, and we raised a Series A, that the technical community started to take us seriously.
My advice to a non-technical founder is to leverage your network to every extent possible when seeking technical folks. Our CTO ultimately came in through our network, and itâs critical to lean on network connections for introductions, help evaluating tech talent and help in selling tech talent to join your company.
When it comes to growing a tech team, itâs been very important that we make it abundantly clear that we are a technology company first, and the way weâre going to win is with superior technology. That tech emphasis not only attracts great engineers but forces employees on the business side to view everything through the lens of technology. Lastly, we continue to try to solve really hard problems in our space with technology, which tends to attract the brightest engineers who are always seeking that unsolvable challenge.
MBAs bring with them a preconceived notion of aptitude and capability. Given that your marketplace is mainly comprised of MBA students, how do you look to expand that going forward as demand continues to grow--- do you allow other backgrounds into your supply of talent?
Itâs a great question, and one we think about a lot. As an MBA myself, I understand that there is a limit to the business expertise that comes with an MBA. Many of our clients are looking for data scientists, as well as other more technical experts, which we have already begun building into our network, which now comprises over 15,000 people and is incredibly deep and diverse. We also recently hired a Director of Supply to help us better understand how to build our network in a way that is consistent with our clients needs. From an expansion standpoint, weâve deliberately chosen to play in the arena of business consulting, and intend to remain there for the time being, because that market alone is massive and weâre only in the early innings of penetrating it. That said, we continue to round out our skill base to ensure weâre able to staff basically anything that resembles a business consulting project.Â
If you weren't growing HourlyNerd which other startup would you love to work at? Why?
As a sports fanatic, I think Gametime, which is an app for last minute sports tickets, is a very cool business. Â Itâs also attempting to disrupt a market thatâs occupied by an incumbent (StubHub) that hasnât innovated much lately and gouges customers on price, so itâs a worthy endeavor.
If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
Drizly and LeanBox, a vending machine for booze!
What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?
Biz: TechCrunch; Sports: Bill Simmons. Chubbies Instagram handle is pretty fantastic too.
Lastly, I have to ask, who came up with the name HourlyNerd?
I actually conceived of the HourlyNerd name, but honestly it came down to the availability of the URL. The original business name was Rent-A-Nerd which luckily wasnât available. Thank god we didnât go that route!
Small Talk On Our Awkward Orange Sofa with Zach DeWitt of Drop Messages
Vetteryâs Clark Winter discussed with Zach DeWitt, co-founder of Drop Messages about leaving the typical path of corporates and business school, the importance of integrating with third party services, and the use cases of location-based data.
Founded in 2013, Drop Messages is an award-winning app that alerts you when you are near friends and photos from accounts that you follow. They recently pushed a new version so check it out today!
Drop users leave location-based messages for friends and other users where upon users can see them when they are at the location. I've heard you say that the idea for Drop messages originated from an email you sent to your roommates to take out the trash (which they subsequently forgot). Is this true?
In 2013 I was living with 3 friends in San Francisco and somehow I was the responsible one of the apartment. I would email and text my roommates to help with simple tasks when I was traveling for work like drag out the trash in the morning or record a football game. They would often forget as I would text or email them when their mind was on something else. I wanted to create a virtual sticky note that I could leave at our apartment so whenever they got home next, they would be reminded of the ask and wouldn't have an excuse for forgetting.
Beyond the fun element, tell us about some of the more practical use cases for leaving Drop messages?
Drop Messages has evolved a lot over the past two years. Our mission is to help you know what is going on around you. Now, you can open the app at anytime and see which friends are the same venue as you or are nearby. For example, if you go to a concert, you can check out which friends are also at the concert. We also send you alerts when friends are nearby and when geo-tagged photos from friends are nearby (either from Instagram or Drop). A practical use case that just happened to me was I was having dinner at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco which is a large restaurant with multiple rooms. I got a push that my sister's two best friends were near me and it turns out they were having dinner in the next room over! It was such a fun coincidence and was great to see them.
You are clearly very driven about the future of Drop. What was the tipping point for you to postpone your second year at HBS and move to SF and dedicate yourself full-time to Drop last year?
We launched in November 2013 and a few hours after launching, we pitched in front of a thousand people at the TechCrunch Boston Pitch-Off and somehow ended up winning. We were on the cover of TechCrunch.com for the weekend and this gave us conviction that location-based content is important and worth pursuing. When I deferred my second year of HBS, they told me that 90% of people that do this don't come back so hopefully I can keep pursuing Drop Messages for the foreseeable future.
You left the corporate world to launch a startup, what advice do you have for someone looking to join a startup but comes from a non-traditional background? Both on the technical side and the non-technical side.Â
Be as proactive as you can and be a social sponge. Coming from private equity, I needed to learn a new skill set quickly. I tried to read as much as I could and I had to be more proactive in pursuing small ideas. Nobody was telling me what to work on anymore so you have to grow into a more self-directed role. With the startup community, everyone seems to be very friendly and loves talking about what they are working on so try to attend as many meetups as possible and learn from others who have made the same mistakes you are making!
Integration with other social media seems crucial for creating virality. How important is it to you to incorporate the location craziness of users on other social media apps such as FB, Twitter, and in particular Instagram?
Facebook is the passport to the internet now so it was very important to allow Facebook login because it is quick and trustworthy. We recently integrated with Instagram because we realized that when a millennial takes a photo, it is either staying on their phone, being posted on Instagram or being sent on Snapchat. We realized we couldn't compete at point of capture with Instagram so we made the decision to work with their API and give our userbase location-based context: when they try a new restaurant or explore a new city, we will alert them if their friends have posted at those locations before!
If you weren't growing Drop, which other startup would you love to work at? Why?
I would work at Yoshi. Two of my best friends, Nick Alexander and Bryan Frist, co-founded the company. Yoshi delivers gas to your car every week when parked at work. It is a great idea and saves the average driver ~10 hours a year while filling up at the pump. If they can figure out how to get the price of gas below what is being served at the pump, I think it can be a unicorn of a company!
If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?
This is an awesome question and a great brainstorming prompt for new startup ideas! I love people and I love hearing people's background stories -- where they came from, what they care about and where are they going. I would combine Shazam with Facebook so I could shake my phone and quickly learn about someone before I meet them.
What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?
@historyphotographed on Instagram. Amazing photos -- recently they posted a pic of The Rock's dad from 1981 and he was probably even larger than The Rock. Â
Lastly, what your favorite Drop you have come across?Â
I traveled to China with my family this summer and we were visiting a Tea House in Hangzhou and my friend had been there before and posted a photo. Was very cool to feel like I was walking in his shoes and it was a complete coincidence. Â