US-based recruiting platform HeadRace announced that it raised $6M in seed funding from Greylock, Susa Ventures, and Breyer Capital with Packy McCormick, Kindergarten Ventures, and Blue Lion Global participating in the round. The company also announced that its technology platform is now available to any recruiter or employer who wants to use it.
‘Bringing the value of network effects’
HeadRace was founded by three former members of the Marketplace team at Uber: Laszlo Korsos (CEO), Kevin Brinig (COO/CPO), and Amos Barreto (CTO). HeadRace aims to bring the value of network effects to the recruiting industry. After collectively hiring hundreds of employees across multiple functions and companies in their careers, the founders experienced the challenges of recruiting, and how the experience and economics of recruiting agencies were locked in the 1970s.
“Employers are always looking to lower costs on hiring, but they don’t want to sacrifice on quality.”
“As an economist, the thing that always struck me about hiring was that the experience and economics were woefully inefficient”, said Laszlo Korsos, CEO of HeadRace. “Employers are always looking to lower costs on hiring, but they don’t want to sacrifice on quality. We believe there is an opportunity to democratise the hiring process with technology, and that’s why we started HeadRace.”
Curated recommendations
Employers who use HeadRace get access to a network of tenured recruiters via curated recommendations or by posting an opportunity for recruiters to discover and bid on. “HeadRace offers two key features for employers unique to their platform”, the company states. “First, HeadRace is the only technology platform that shows employers recruiters’ placement records, to give them added confidence that they are working with quality recruiters with vast networks. And second, HeadRace helps recruiters collaborate with one another, often lowering the time it takes to fill open roles.”
‘Employers are frustrated with the recruiting agency model’
For recruiters, HeadRace offers a technology platform that provides the best opportunities to connect with new customers and earn. Whether they have a 20-year track record, or are just starting out and want to earn extra income on the side, HeadRace looks to help them expand their business. In addition, HeadRace’s software aims to independent recruiters save on overhead costs like legal and payment processing — supporting everything from retained executive, container, or contingent searches, to even finding new opportunities for amazing final-round candidates.
“The recruiting agency model is outmoded, broken and expensive.”
“Employers are frustrated with the recruiting agency model – it is outmoded, broken and expensive”, said David Thacker, Partner at Greylock. “HeadRace offers businesses access to a network of experienced recruiters with proven results, a streamlined product experience, and the power to name their own price.”
‘A total game-changer’
For the past few months, HeadRace has been in private beta, helping companies place people in a wide range of roles like COO, CMO, Software Engineer, Account Executive and Data Scientist “HeadRace has been a total game-changer for our team”, said Nathaniel Manning, COO of OurKettle, a HeadRace customer. “Not only have we been able to scale faster than before. but it’s created significant cost savings versus every imaginable alternative.”
