Attracting Talent: Experiences of Start-Ups in India

Abstract

Attracting the right talent is a key to the success of any business entity. Be it any organisation, young start-up or a matured company; it is always the “People” who drives the whole organisation. For a new and inexperienced organisation which are called start-ups in the existing ecosystem, the task of hiring and attracting the right talent seems to be a tough one. The present paper intends to understand the importance of hiring the right talent for start-ups and learning from various startup founders and co-founders with regards to their journey and strategy in attracting the best in the industry. The study is exploratory and descriptive in nature using the case study methodology. The secondary data has been used to analyse the best practices. The paper concludes that attracting the right talent is critical for young start-ups to build a strong foundation from the beginning. It is also one of the utmost challenging tasks; founders have to manage, of formulating a right blend of the team. Social media, specific job portals and founder’s network are some of the most prominent sources tapped into by start-ups to attract talent these days. The paper also concludes that for a startup with less or no money, showing a broad vision, future growth, offering ESOPs, creating vibrant organisational culture etc. are some of the strategies that are followed for attracting talent.

Keywords: Start-ups, Attracting Talent, Entrepreneurship, Founder, ESOPs, India

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