Affinity Circles provides a trusted and secure, member-based, online community that helps college students and alumni stay in contact. Dramatic growth, the need to scale, and a unique culture guided the specifications for the recruitment of the Vice President of Engineering.
The Challenge |
The
Solution |
The
Results |
Essential Solutions
Value-Add |
Vice President of Engineering
Social Networking Sector
Experience in building scalable architecture
Good cultural fit to lead compassionate, competitive, young engineering team |
Immediately provided group of “calibration candidates” to fine tune the specification
Searched internal network and far beyond to provide exceptional candidate pool
Systematic approach accelerated search process
|
Exceptional candidate fitting the tight spec, Ajay Bansal, accepted Affinity Circles’ offer 35 days after the start of the search |
Fast: Vice President of Engineering position filled in 35 days
Focused: Essential Solutions’ deep focus in Web 2.0 (along with wireless, semiconductor, communication/net-working, software and related technology) provided a key advantage in identifying highly qualified candidates
Experienced: Intuition and experience allowed Essential Solutions to identify candidates with both a specification fit and a cultural fit
Refined Search Process: Essential Solutions’ refined search process provided a systematic approach to developing and managing the large candidate pool and a reporting process that kept the team up-to-date on the candidate selection process. |
The Challenge
Affinity Circles began as a Stanford University student project for an exclusive, on-line, social network for Stanford students and alumni. In 2003, the founders began marketing the private, web-based social networking program to other alumni associations. In the last six months of 2006 the employee team grew from 50 to 80 employees.
To support and accelerate its dramatic growth, Affinity Circles needed an experienced engineering vice president who could both lead the development of its scalable application architecture and provide leadership to the young, growing engineering team.
“We had a very hands-on, young, and enthusiastic team of engineers,” said Steve Loughlin, President and CEO of Affinity Circles. “But, we needed more than passion to hit our development goals. We needed an experienced manager who could balance supporting the current system with building better products.”
The Solution
Loughlin turned to Board Member Tae Hae Nahm, General Partner of Storm Ventures, and colleague Brent Dusing, CEO of Cellfire, for a referral to an executive search firm that could quickly provide exceptional candidates. Both Tae Hae and Brent recommended Essential Solutions.
Once signed on, Tom Crawford, partner at Essential Solutions, quickly provided calibration candidates to tighten the specifications. Then, within a week, he presented a highly qualified field of candidates.
Essential Solutions not only quickly located qualified candidates, but also candidates that were a good fit for the growing company’s personality and style. “Affinity Circles has a strong culture,” Loughlin said. “Tom was able to understand the sort of personalities that would work within our culture, versus what someone looks like on paper.”
“Essential Solutions provided a good selection of prospective candidates right off the bat,” said Loughlin. “When we first saw Ajay’s resume, we were very impressed. He was very close to spec and had experience solving problems that exactly matched the ones Affinity Circles needed to solve.”
“In addition to Tom’s personal touch, Essential Solutions is incredibly organized. They are extremely diligent in how they manage the candidate pipeline and the details. They have a system… and their system works,” Loughlin continued.
The Results
In just 35 days, Affinity Circles selected Ajay Bansal to join the team as Vice President of Engineering. Ajay brings more than 20 years of software and hardware development experience including a decade of hands-on work in Internet and e-commerce development and management. In addition to meeting the position specifications and fitting with the culture, Ajay’s impressive lineage will be a positive influence in attracting engineering talent and raising capital.
“Retained recruiting is a tough business and Essential Solutions does a great job,” Loughlin said. “Tom took our search very seriously. He understood our core needs, and then searched inside and outside their network to make sure the management pool was as large as possible. Essential Solutions comes in with high marks for matching and managing expectations and delivering results. We have recently recommended them to another firm,” Loughlin concluded.
Essential Solutions Value-Add
- Fast: Vice President of Engineering position filled in 35 days
- Focused: Essential Solutions’ deep focus in Web 2.0 (along with wireless, semiconductor, communication/networking, software and related technology) provided a key advantage in identifying highly qualified candidates
- Experienced: Intuition and experience allowed Essential Solutions to identify candidates with both a specification fit and a cultural fit
- Refined Search Process: Essential Solutions’ refined search process provided a systematic approach to developing and managing the large candidate pool and a reporting process that kept the team up-to-date on the candidate selection process
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