#SSDEL Headstart Higher – Speed Dating & Startups Hiring

Headstart Higher

Last saturday (9th June, 2012), I and 250+ startup enthusiasts came together to be a part of Headstart Higher – India’s first speed dating session for startup hiring. This unique event, organized by the Headstart network, was held at American Center in New Delhi, India.

If not all, most entrepreneurs would agree with me when I say hiring for a startup is one of the biggest challenges. Why? Well, the reasons are in abundance.

Headstart Higher

Two speed dating sessions were held in total. Each of them spanning over one hour, with each startup dating over 25 prospective candidates.

Startups from varied fields such as education, design, e-commerce, travel, social media, microfinance and internet marketing enthusiastically participated to hire candidates for Programming, Sales, Design, Social Media, Content Development, Operations among many more.

outside american center ssdel

SSDEL

Startup enthusiasm

It was a lively event with high levels of energy resonating through the entrance and the lobby. If the above pictures could serve as visual examples, it’s easy to notice the enthusiasm.

“The hiring event was a great success for us. I’ve never seen so much enthusiasm for working in Startups. We found some really awesome coders whom we are meeting next week. Great work by Headstart guys!” – Ankur Singla, Akosha

“Professionals are finally understanding the advantage of working in a startup. Met so many enthusiastic candidates who want to create value more than just take home a fat pay cheque. We need more of such events.” – Deepikah Arora, Sparklin

“Never met so many startup JOB enthusiasts ever. Was a brilliant event. Kudos to Headstart guys for pulling off such a show. I was able to short list 15 out of 30 candidates. I wish it happens more often!” – Ashish Tulsian, Posist

“With several sources of early stage funding coming up, we have been noticing that hiring is becoming the number one challenge for growth of startups. We also know that there are a number of people who are interested in working for startups. So, this is essentially a matchmaking problem. Within the constraint of a regular 3-4 hour startup saturday, speed-dating was the most suited solution.” – Arpit Agarwal, Headstart Network, on how the idea of Headstart Higher came about.

  • 55 startups
  • 820+ dates over the 4 hour event.
  • More than 2500 interactions.
  • 30% conversion rate, startups found the most efficient resource for hiring.

If you’re present at Headstart Higher, we’d love to know your feedback/suggestions in the comments section below.

Startups & candidates, how often would you like to attend such an event?

Originally posted on Pixelonomics by Himanshu khanna

By Annkur Agarwal

Annkur P Agarwal is the co-founder of Pricebaba & SahiGST. Pricebaba is a product research engine that helps you research and shop consumer electronics. SahiGST is a SaaS platform for Indian SMEs to effectively manage their GST compliance.

3 comments

  1. Thats amazing to know. Please conduct such events at Bangalore. We badly need them.

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