Talent Service
About the Company
TalentService was created as a developer-focused recruitment platform aimed at improving the hiring experience for IT professionals. It focused on "reverse recruitment," where companies had to prove their value to potential employees rather than the other way around. The business quickly attracted talents from the CIS region, Eastern Europe, and India, while companies from the US, Germany, and the UK actively used the platform. Despite being short-lived, TalentService changed how IT talents approached the recruitment process by giving them more control over their job search and employer choices.
The company’s business model hinged on matching talent with companies through a streamlined, AI-assisted process, ensuring that both parties had a clear understanding of each other's needs and expectations. This approach helped build a loyal user base among IT professionals and established TalentService as a credible name in the tech recruitment space.
Idea Behind Company
Pavel came up with the concept for TalentService after over a decade of experience in IT talent acquisition. He noticed that the recruitment process was inefficient, with IT specialists frequently changing jobs due to dissatisfaction. Companies were struggling to retain employees because they focused more on fitting talent into their culture rather than ensuring their workplace was a good fit for the candidate. Pavel’s experience with educational programs and university partnerships helped him realize the need for a platform that catered more to IT talents’ preferences, sparking the creation of TalentService.
In 2021, while working on a collaborative research project, Pavel had a pivotal conversation with a Java developer, which revealed the overwhelming number of non-personalized job offers that IT talents receive. This insight led him to create a recruitment model where companies had to prove their worth to candidates, a model that would later become the foundation of TalentService.
Creating the Company
The first step in creating TalentService was gathering data from both IT talents and companies to better understand their recruitment challenges. Pavel and his team tested the concept with a simple Google Form, sending it to 30 talents who passed it on to recruiters. The overwhelmingly positive response from companies confirmed the potential of the idea. With a clear understanding of the problem and positive initial feedback, Pavel and his team began developing the platform.
They focused on building a matching algorithm based on four key factors: team, company processes, tasks, and motivation. Technical skills were given less importance, as these were to be evaluated later in the hiring process. The goal was to reduce the time spent in interviews and make the process more efficient. With the prototype working well, they proceeded to develop the software and launch the TalentService platform.
Launching the Business
TalentService officially launched in January 2022, and within three months, it had attracted over 3,500 IT professionals and 400 companies. Pavel's team focused on marketing to both talents and companies, using a combination of online advertising and social media campaigns to build awareness. The platform’s unique value proposition of allowing IT talents to choose companies that matched their values and needs set it apart in the competitive recruitment industry.
The business quickly gained traction, and by April 2022, they had established an assessment center for companies, launched a job catalog, and were working on developing more features, such as a job seekers directory and recommendation system. While the company saw early success, Pavel noted some early mistakes, such as relying on opinions rather than testing when making initial marketing decisions.
Earnings
Although TalentService was not monetized through the platform itself, the recruitment component—where they acted as a recruitment agency—proved to be profitable. By mid-2022, the company was generating $15,000 in monthly revenue. Their customer acquisition cost was $1.80 per lead, and they aimed to reach 50,000 IT talents by the end of summer 2022.
Despite its short-lived journey, TalentService demonstrated the potential for innovation in the recruitment industry. The company’s reversal of traditional hiring models and its focus on improving the candidate experience made it stand out. While TalentService was ultimately acquired and shut down in 2024, it left a lasting impact on how IT talents approach job hunting.
