What’s one common pain point in technology-led companies? It is finding the right talent to drive business. As technology permeates every industry and digital transformation becomes a necessity, the talent sector is experiencing a surge in demand for tech talent, not just restricted to IT firms, but across various industries.
According to a study titled ‘Future of Work: Global Talent Crunch’ by management consulting firm Korn Ferry, which examined the demand and supply of technology talent across countries and continents, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people by 2030. This shortage could lead to about $8.5 trillion in unrealised annual revenues.
To solve this very existential crisis for businesses that are functioning in a highly competitive ecosystem, in 2018, Harsh Singh, an alumnus of the Indian School of Business Hyderabad, partnered with Gautam Sethi, his childhood friend, and startup enthusiast, to set up QuilinX, a tech platform that aimed to build a developers’ community to serve startups and organisations looking to engage skilled tech talent for building tech solutions.
For developers, this is the platform to find work that would excite them and expose them to ample career growth opportunities – a perfect match made in the talent marketplace. This is also the right opportunity to leverage India’s talent market, as indicated by the Korn Ferry study, which suggests that India could become the next tech leader and have a surplus of more than 1 million high-skilled tech workers by 2030.
Helping businesses grow from the roots
Technology primarily depends on the people who make it, according to Gautam. “Reliable, dependable resources are floating in the market, and there is practically not any particular place where you can go for them. Thus, Harsh’s experience of rendering talent for startups, and my experience of working with the entire talent space have helped in forming QuilinX,” he adds.
Simply put, QuilinX focuses on recruiting tech talent, or Quilin’ians, as they would like to call themselves. Through various engagement models, they are placed in the product engineering teams of multiple high-growth brands across India to bring their product vision to life. So, be it fintech, crypto, e-commerce, e-pharmacy, hospitality, or logistics, Quilin’ians have displayed their skill and talent in every domain.
“Every month unicorns are being formed, and thus they need highly focused and targeted people to work for them. We try to empower talented developers by providing them with relevant experience at fast-growing startups based on technical skills and their aspirations. We also provide technical training using standard training products if we observe a skill gap,” says Harsh.
Harsh also clarifies that they are not by any means supplying technical contractors and freelancers. “The positioning itself is different, as 80 percent of our candidates are from tier-1 educational backgrounds, having appropriate vitality, attitude, and skills, promising them opportunities to work with top startups and MNCs. Besides, they have to spend a year at QuilinX post which they are open to a host of opportunities. We just aim that any Quilin’ian working for whichever company should have the ability to do better than its in-house engineering team and create value for our customers,” he explains.
Seeking tech talents
The tech talent space today is suffering from two major problems – lack of qualified engineers, and secondly, even if an engineer is good, he might find it hard to get into his desired workplace. “So, bad engineers can’t do the work, and the good ones are in relatively high demand. Thus, the age-old problem of demand-supply mismatch prevails throughout the system. However, this mismatch is also the sole reason why our business exists,” says Harsh.
QuilinX has also launched the ‘Bar Raiser,’ a developer community for prominent, funded startups to match brilliance to opportunity. This was meant to challenge engineering capabilities and provide resourceful candidates to high-growth startups.
Commenting more on the system, Harsh adds, “This model is immune to the ups and downs that are synonymous with the functioning of startups; if one industry shows signs of recession, the developer can easily move to another startup working in another industry.”
“Our people are the best PRs we have, and our success is reflected in them. We showcase our people, and would rather indulge in targeted marketing, and that’s how we are differentiated from our competitors,” he says.
Citing testimonials from Quilin’ians, Harsh shares, how Aadil Shakri, B.Tech – IIT Roorkee, Ex. CGI achieved his professional goals of working with the fintech sector without going through cumbersome assessments. “I get to work on top-tier projects that have provided me with huge exposure and helped in my skill development,” said Aadil.
Hamshini Raman, Ex. Infosys, also added, “I am a working mother and have looked for remote opportunities that allow me to contribute professionally, yet allow me more time with my family. QuilinX has provided me with the best possible support and I am able to focus on my work and contribute to the best of my ability.”
Finally, Tumati Jagadeesh, SDE -2, Ex. Amazon exclaimed how QuilinX ensured him opportunities to work with top-notch leaders, teams and technologies from the finest fin-tech corporations in India. “I got an opportunity to work in one of India’s top fintech, working and learning from some of the smartest people of this domain,” said Tumati.
Talking about their strong referral program, Gautam shares, “For instance, we have someone from IIT Roorkee working with us, and he would be more than happy to refer us to his friends and batchmates, as he is getting his desired salary. So, once someone becomes successful, the referral program helps us to spread the word as far as the talent pool is concerned.”
But, how did QuilinX step out as a brand amongst the primarily funded startups looking to scale quickly? Initially, QuilinX as a brand got its identity through word-of-mouth publicity, through its ISB Alumni network. “Apart from LinkedIn, our people who belong to the top engineering colleges have also helped us in gaining momentum. Of course, PR is a very strong medium we have used and would continue to do this every quarter,” adds Harsh.
Future roadmap
QuilinX’s growth model was initiated in 2018 and is still in trial form. “We need to understand how the tech startup market is rapidly shaping, as right now a lot of investments are being directed towards the startup space. Thus, we gradually want to grow across borders, and look at international expansions, and also focus on certain larger organisations which have their R&D and technology wing, especially the product companies that are known for their innovation and technology work,” says Gautam.
