Startup Connect: recruiting re-imagined
Two weeks ago, we hosted Neo Startup Connect, the first-ever personalized career fair, to bring together America’s top Computer Science students with the tech industry’s top startups. The results exceeded expectations: each company on average received 25 exceptional candidates, and students rated the experience with a staggering 85 NPS score.
Untapped potential
Unfortunately, many of the world's smartest engineers graduate from college to join big corporations instead of maximizing their impact at a fast-growing startup. Even students who want to join a startup often lack the experience or confidence to evaluate them, can't find time for all the coding tests and phone screens, and feel pressured by deadlines to join big companies.
Startups also struggle to recruit college students. I've led recruiting at various startups, and I've seen companies spend thousands of dollars on ineffective channels that failed to yield many hires. While a large corporation can afford to visit multiple campuses and interview hundreds of candidates, this is cost-prohibitive for a startup.
At Neo, we set out to change this paradigm with three innovations to encourage students to choose the more adventurous path. Specifically, we introduced:
a common application process for students, so candidates who excel are fast-tracked by all participating startups
the first-ever personalized career fair, where each candidate had a private schedule of 1:1 meetings with founders, CEOs, and CTOs of a curated group of companies, instead of standing in line at booths
a cooperative interview framework for startups, where each company interviewed 5% of the candidates and got access to feedback on all the rest
Bringing America’s top CS students together with fast-growing startups.
Almost 1,000 college students applied to our competitive program. We sourced candidates via multiple channels, investing extra effort to go beyond the top schools and to attract groups that have been historically underrepresented in tech. Each candidate had to complete a standard, rigorous process consisting of an application and two technical assessments. We ultimately chose 120 exceptional candidates.
Meanwhile, we curated 30 fast-growing startups to participate, roughly 1/3 from our own portfolio and 2/3 from across the tech industry, informed by dozens of nominations from leading VC firms. We received no compensation from the companies: our only goal was to select companies that would be ideal places for students to maximize their potential.
Each startup sent senior leadership to our event (generally founders or CTOs) and committed to fast-tracking candidates based on their prior technical screens. This enabled both candidates and companies to get the maximum impact for their time.
It’s no small task to administer technical interviews to hundreds of candidates. We accomplished this by convincing the startups to collaborate and interview candidates for the collective benefit, and to share feedback with each other. Each startup did 5% of the work and shared 100% of the results.
Neo Startup Connect: much more than a career fair.
Our program spanned several weeks, with daily activities culminating in a final event. We brought students and companies together with an engaging combination of virtual gatherings, Q&As, personal mentoring, and online community. Students received curated suggestions and ongoing advice to help them select startups, and companies held info sessions online and reviewed candidate profiles to select the ones they wanted to meet.
Before the final event, we matched students and companies based on mutual interest. Company leaders received comprehensive candidate profiles where they could learn about each student’s passions, review their interview notes, and see their code. Candidates could see detailed profiles on each company, including bios of leaders and links to contact other students who have previously worked there.
On the big day, almost 200 people came together (virtually) for the first ever 1:1 career fair. Each attendee had a personalized schedule of 15-minute private meetings, with students meeting company leaders based on mutual interest. In a few hours, we enabled almost 600 scheduled private meetings, and we sent each company 25 students on average.
“I wish all career fairs used this format!”
The event exceeded our expectations. Candidates and companies alike raved about the event:
“It was magical! I can’t believe how we had the opportunity to actually talk to so many amazing people in leadership positions in our companies of interest 1:1 or 2:1. When I first saw the schedule, it blew my mind, and the event itself surpassed any expectations I may have had. Yesterday was an incredible day of compelling conversations and valuable introductions.”
“Thank you for organizing the Neo event! We’ve participated in a few virtual recruiting events recently and we were really impressed with the creativity, organization, and caliber of the students from Neo.”
The (adventurous) path forward.
A lot remains to be improved in the university recruiting landscape. Startup Connect addressed some big impediments that have historically discouraged young people from joining startups. We’re not alone in this endeavor: while Neo focuses narrowly on the top ~100 CS students in America, other organizations such as Human Capital and Contrary Capital are also doing great work to connect more students to startups.
Since 2017, Neo has been committed to helping others maximize their potential. We can’t wait to see today’s students grow into the next generation of tech leaders.