Is this a story of resilience? Or is it simply that of reality?
For us, as it would be for many startups, it’s unequivocally the latter.
Change, as we’ve learned, is the only constant. The manner in which a company navigates this change, leveraging both business acumen and organisational mettle, truly defines its journey. TurboHire’s five-year saga encapsulates just that – a relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence amidst ever-evolving landscapes.
What does not kill you, only makes you stronger. The Journey of our last Five Years today sets us on the path of becoming a Unicorn by enhancing customer value across the Globe.
– Deepak Agrawal, CEO & Cofounder
The Genesis and the First Pivot
TurboHire began with a vision to leverage AI in revolutionising hiring processes. The initial foundation of TurboHire was built on enriching and giving meaning to data points in a CV, in a way that hiring decisions by recruiters became significantly faster and much less biassed. However, we soon recognized a pivotal market truth – the deep AI we were building was a little ahead of its times, considering the market was still struggling with the very basics of integrating AI in recruitment processes. More importantly, the market needed much more than just an intelligent resume parser – recruitment is a lengthy, complicated process with multiple tasks and stakeholders, and the entire system needed solutioning. At the same time, the world of business as we know it was going through a paradigm shift brought on by the COVID pandemic, highlighting the importance of AI in adapting recruitment practices to new realities.
Navigating through these circumstances, we embraced our first major pivot: evolving from a singular AI resume parser tool to a comprehensive AI-powered recruitment platform. A platform that was built with automation across the hiring process. This strategic shift was not just about product evolution, it was about aligning our solutions with the market’s readiness and demands.
In the dynamic landscape of technology and business, adaptation is not merely an option, it’s a necessity. We have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of embracing change, especially when it involves integrating AI into recruitment practices. This shift wasn’t without its challenges; but it also was fueled by a deep-rooted conviction in our team’s capabilities and the untapped potential of our AI technology.
Maturing for the Big League: The Second Pivot
The journey towards widespread adoption introduced us to the startup hustle, a path familiar yet unique to every entrepreneur. This phase was characterised by our efforts to engage mid-market customers, to build our AI dataset, and to massively increase the breadth and depth of the solution in the HR Tech space. Being highly user-centric from the very beginning, TurboHire saw hiring as an experience to be enhanced for all stakeholders – i.e. not only for the recruiters but also the candidates, interviewers, approvers, and leadership – through an innovative hiring solution built on top of AI and automation. It was during this hustle that we encountered a critical juncture, prompting us to introspect and ask the hard questions. With a focus on building experiences and doing deep solutioning for all use cases, from automation for grey- and blue-collar hiring to cutting edge AI for white-collar hiring, TurboHire was now ready to solve hiring across industries. We then embarked on our second pivot – focusing exclusively on large enterprise accounts. This move, while daunting, was instrumental in shaping our path forward.
The decision to pivot towards large enterprises was not made lightly. It required a deep-dive into our company’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the market’s dynamics. Imaginably so, there were moments of hesitation – fueled by doubts and apprehensions because of the risks involved. Would we be able to meet the stringent demands of enterprise clients? Were we equipped to handle the scale and complexities associated with servicing large organisations? These questions lingered, casting shadows of uncertainty over our strategic shift. Yet, amidst the doubts, there was a glimmer of conviction – a belief in our team’s capabilities and the transformative potential of our technology in revolutionising hiring to create business impact.
At the heart of our strategic shift lies a fundamental understanding of the needs of enterprise clients – scalability and stability. Recognizing the demand for robust solutions capable of handling the complexities of large organisations, we invested heavily in optimising our platform for high scalability and stability. This wasn’t merely a technical feat; it was a testament to our commitment to delivering excellence at every touchpoint.
As Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” With this philosophy ingrained in our approach, we set out to redefine the hiring experience for every stakeholder involved. From candidates to recruiters, hiring managers to approvers, interviewers to leaders in need of reports – our mission was clear: to enhance the experiences of each individual involved in the hiring process.
Our platform isn’t just about streamlining workflows or automating tasks; it’s about fostering meaningful connections and empowering organisations to make informed decisions. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and a deep understanding of human-centric design, we’ve created a solution that transcends traditional boundaries, elevating the hiring experience to new heights.
And over these 5 years, it isn’t only the TurboHire platform that has evolved. It has been driven by the team’s commitment to deeply solve the very crux of hiring issues while addressing modern user expectations. Both the engineering architecture of the platform and the final user’s experience have been carefully built over the years. As a result, today, this is creating the right outcomes for companies such as Tata Motors, Ola, Britannia, ICICI, PwC, GreyOrange, and a 100+ others.
A Testament of Resilience and Growth
Through the years, TurboHire’s resilience has been tested and proven. Navigating through the challenges posed by COVID waves, industry hiring freezes, funding winters, and a competitive tech-talent market, we emerged stronger, more agile, and ready to thrive. This resilience was not just about survival; it was about growth, made possible by consistent effort, action, and an unwavering belief in our vision.
The foundation of TurboHire’s journey has been the deep commitment and trust from our ecosystem – our employees, investors, customers, and vendors. Our team’s accountability and drive stand unparalleled, supported by leadership that fosters autonomy and growth. This collective commitment has been pivotal in our journey, propelling us towards achieving significant milestones and delivering value to our clients.
Over it’s five years, TurboHire has shown remarkable resilience in navigating external challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, industry shifts, and a competitive landscape. Through unwavering dedication, innovation, and strategic adaptation, we have not only survived but thrived, continuously evolving our offerings to empower organisations with effective solutions that enable business. This success is a testament to our resilience, strategic vision, and customer-centric approach, positioning us as a leader in the enterprise solutions space poised for continued growth and impact.”
– Rakesh Nayak, VP Engineering & Cofounder
Looking Ahead: The Road to Becoming a Market Leader
As we stand at the five-year mark, TurboHire – having grown into an enterprise business enabling solution, that is solving hiring problems at a whole system level, and creating significant (~500+%) RoI for its users – is at a critical inflection point. Globally, we are now in the top trinity of players that are solving for hiring across all industries and types of hiring. We are a vertical and horizontal solution for every type of hiring problem. This along with TurboHire’s ability to seamlessly integrate with HRMSs such as SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, Darwinbox, Workday, and Taleo is now making us the most preferred solution for Enterprises’ hiring digital transformation. The future is ripe with opportunities for us to further our impact, driven by continual innovation, market insights, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.
As we celebrate this milestone, our journey forward is illuminated by the values of passion, introspection, courage, ambition, and humility. These values, which have guided us through the past five years, will continue to be our north star as we navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead. With a vision set on redefining the recruitment and HR technology landscape, TurboHire is poised for the next chapter of growth and innovation.
Navigating the complexities of the enterprise hiring landscape, our journey is far from over. But with resilience as our compass and adaptability as our guiding light, we’re confident in our ability to chart a course toward success. In the words of Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” At TurboHire, innovation isn’t just a buzzword – it’s our ethos, driving us forward as we continue to shape the future of hiring for enterprises worldwide.
TurboHire’s five-year journey is a narrative of overcoming challenges, embracing change, and driving innovation. As we look towards the future, our story is far from complete. Armed with lessons from the past and aspirations for the future, we are excited to continue our journey. TurboHire is redefining hiring processes and will revolutionise the way modern users experience hiring.
In Deepak’s words – “TurboHire is synonymous with Hiring Experiences on top of HRMS in an Enterprise, like that of GooglePay on top of your bank account. Our endeavour will always be to enhance the Hiring Experiences of Candidates, Recruiters, Interviewers, and Approvers through state-of-art AI and Automation, fused seamlessly through intuitive Design.”
At the 5-year mark, TurboHire is now a global force as an enterprise business enabling solution. With its unmatchable breadth and depth, it is amongst the only platforms that solves for every type of hiring problem, across industries and roles, giving its users unmatched value add.
Right from day one, our product foundation was built natively in AI, unlike the patchwork of AI now being added by platforms desperately. This AI, along with the deep focus on improving the whole experience of hiring across users, has made TurboHire a formidable presence it has shaped into today.
The future belongs to the modern user, who expects extremely high efficiency and simplification in his/her experience of technology. TurboHire has made this possible and revolutionised the very space.
This was possible because of TurboHire’s ability to move aside the clutter and trends, to really understand the problem deeply, and to solve it in the right way.
This article was co-authored by Ridhhi Sanghi, VP of People Success and Head of Finance; and Gaurav Kumar, CTO and Co-founder, at TurboHire.
