Company: Haystack, Newcastle upon Tyne,
Company Description: Founded in 2020, Haystack is a careers and insights marketplace focused on providing opportunities for tech professionals. Haystack’s algorithm matches roles with users based on their interest values and tech stack. Haystack is an award-winning UK tech start-up.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Tech Startup of the Year- Software
 Nomination Title: Haystack
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since 1 January 2020, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 181 words used.
Founded in 2020, Haystack is a careers and insights marketplace focused on providing opportunities for tech professionals. Haystack’s algorithm matches roles with users based on their interest values and tech stack – to ensure employers aren’t provided with unsuitable candidates, and users aren’t shown unsuitable opportunities. There is a widely renowned problem that great companies struggle to hire top tech talent. Small companies struggle with budgets that recruiters demand for top talent, and large companies can struggle with attracting top tech talent, due to poor employer brand image. Techies are therefore often victims of shady recruitment tactics. The reality of the digital era is that they hold the cards, but they have no way of playing them. Currently, there is no solution to this, until Haystack. Haystack was founded in 2020 by three co-founders and a lead investor, and since then has grown exponentially with over 15,000 users and 17 full-time employees. Haystack has ambitious growth plans and subsequently secured another round of funding at the beginning of 2021 - and officially announced £1m in seed funding in March 2021.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 247 words used.
As Haystack was only founded in 2020, all of the achievements since Haystack’s inception, should be considered in this entry - but we’ll highlight just a few. Since launching, Haystack has secured a number of launch partners and has experienced a huge uptake in paying clients across several regions of the UK, including huge names such as Sage, bottlepay, and Lloyds Banking Group.
Goodlord, one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech scale-ups said: “I’m a big fan of Haystack. I like that engineers have control on the platform and so they’re more likely to engage if they know they aren’t going to get bombarded by recruiters which I think is key. Haystack is by far the most cost-effective tool we’ve used and has given us a very healthy ROI so far.”
Haystack’s offering isn’t out of the box. Within 12 months, Haystack had to develop its own custom-built piece of software that sits behind the app to provide the matching system to techies and employers. Alongside the app, the team launched an accompanying employer dashboard, so employers can completely self-serve their accounts. The team had to build a solution that was scalable and based on internal data - without wasting resources on features that steered the vision and goal away. Gaining industry recognition, Haystack won Newcomer of the Year at the North East Business Awards, and were finalists for Tech Nation’s Rising Stars award and two further awards, for Emerging Talent Award and Innovator of the Year.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 233 words used.
Haystack is a mobile-first solution, as it was designed for browsing opportunities on the go - which has been a hit with users as well as appealing to clients. Our users are at the heart of everything we do - and we constantly listen to them for feedback on features/suggestions and make communication a key pillar internally, and externally. As a result of requests, and in line with business goals, a web app is being built in-house to support and compliment the app, so users can browse how and when they like.
For users - Haystack allows anonymous browsing and a no recruiters zone. Users won’t get bombarded with messages and unsuitable opportunities. Techies are in demand - and this is often the case across different platforms. From a commercial aspect, Haystack differentiates itself on the combination of tools that employers can harness. Haystack allows employers to build their employer brand, build their own talent pools and get access to smart tech matching. If candidates are acting like consumers, employers need to start hiring like marketers. Haystack brings together hiring managers and prospective candidates but leaves the entire recruitment process up to the employer to do as they like.
Often, recruitment solutions are expensive - leaving them inaccessible to smaller start-ups and scale-ups, but with Haystack the fees are reflective of a companies’ hiring needs, meaning it’s accessible to companies of all sizes.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 44 words used.
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