Discover How a People-First and Human-Centric Start-up Found 5 New Stars for Their Product Team
Growth
5 New Hires
Software Engineers from Both Backend and Frontend Technologies, Alongside a Product Designer
From Scratch
1
Building a Product Design Team from Scratch: Hiring the First Talent
Efficiency
11 Days
Average Time to Get to Know Candidates
Welcome to our journey with Packiyo, where the chaos of recruitment transforms into an amazing growth and appreciation of their company’s value and work culture. Join us as we uncover incredible talent for new roles across various locations, redefining our approach and having fun along the way. Ready? 🏃♂️
👋 Our Partner
Packiyo 📦 is a about a two-year-old SaaS startup based out of the US. They mainly focus on software for logistics so it is software specifically for e-commerce businesses and fulfillment providers to basically manage inventory and ship orders.
We needed to find the right people both in terms of skill set and experience but also to Maintain that Chemistry and develop the culture
Nicholas Daniel-Richards – CEO Packiyo
🚀 The Challenge
They aimed to scale the team without any dedicated resources like an HR department, so they started out by posting on LinkedIn and Indeed. What they found was that they were quickly overwhelmed with the huge number of applicants flooding in through these platforms, the organization of the interviews, the follow-up and finding the right talent all at the same time.
Initially hesitant due to previous experiences with recruiters across various businesses, they found the recruitment model often impersonal and mechanistic💔.
This is typically something our partners share, and we know that everyone has a horror story or two to recount about recruitment processes. Sometimes, there is a lack of knowledge or time, leading to impersonalized processes that ultimately result in a poor experience for both hiring managers and candidates.
👷♀️ The Solution
We knew we had to find the right people for our partner’s work culture, a practice we universally apply with all our clients but in this case, it was one of the most—if not the most—critical consideration.
The mindset they aimed to foster around values and cultural fit were just as crucial as technical expertise, career histories, or any other factor, and it’s lovely to see.
We contacted individuals from diverse backgrounds and locations, designing an interview process specifically focused on their unique needs. We sought technical knowledge, cultural fit, and a business perspective. We delved into professional motivations, work style preferences, and past examples of proactive engagement—those willing to ‘raise their hand’ and get involved.
Throughout this journey, we encountered candidates with impressive CVs but perhaps not aligned with our partner’s work culture. This doesn’t reflect poorly on them; some might prefer more structured environments with established processes and that was not the environment of a Start-up.
Our partner actively participated in the initial interview questions, and, spoiler alert, we achieved amazing results! 😊
💜 Results
We were able to find five amazing people for the team, including frontend and backend developers, as well as product designers from two different locations. Adding three new members from Brazil, which was a new location for the team, brought in some local flavor like Carnaval to spice things up 💃
Adding new roles that were completely new for the team and did not exist before. They focused not only on understanding the technical backgrounds but also on grasping the expectations and motivations of these roles always having the work culture as one the top priorities.
This approach allowed them to see candidates holistically — their skills, backgrounds, and how they could contribute to the Packiyo culture💗- that is amazing BTW.
This depth of understanding was a game-changer in how they approached recruitment, transforming it into a genuine partnership. .
Growing the team can be exciting but also one of the most stressful situations. Why? Because there’s a lot more than just filling a role. It involves many goals, expectations, and ideas, all while dealing with uncertainty. It’s not rocket science, but it does require careful handling, energy and time, the most important and limited resource.
We’ve added numerous people to our team. We’ve been able to grow much more confidently, much more intentionally and there’s not such a panic about finding the right people.