The costs associated with recruiting, training, and onboarding a new employee who turns out to be unsuitable can be as high as 50% of that person’s first-year salary.
According to Anastasiia Kuzmenko, head of talent acquisition at Flyer One Ventures, “The biggest difference between hiring in a healthy economy and hiring now is that there’s no room for error.”
Hiring the wrong person can cause a cascade of failures within an early stage startup. That’s why she recommends founders focus on three essential metrics to “take a more data-driven approach:”
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- Cost per rental
- Time to rent
- Employee turnover
In her article, Kuzmenko shares formulas for calculating each metric, along with tactical advice for setting benchmarks and helping managers stay tuned to employee morale.
Thank you for reading,
Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, ukbusinessupdates.com+
@your protagonist
How to build a representative sales development strategy that will fill your B2B pipeline
Image Credits: camp patisena (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Marketing teams deserve all the credit for creating innovative campaigns that cut through the noise: convincing someone to try a new product or service takes real skill!
In practice, however, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) do most of the work needed to bring in new customers, “making cold calls, writing emails, or sending outgoing mail,” says GTM strategist Mike Tong.
Because it takes “about 15 touches for a prospect to want to see a demo,” Tong wrote a TC+ guide for CEOs who need guidance on how to hire and nurture SDR teams.
“Generating pipelines at early stage companies is expensive and time consuming, often more so than the sales process itself. That said, it’s probably the most important thing you can do for your business to get it right.”
YC’s winter class is bustling with AI companies
Image Credits: Getty Images
In a move that reminds me of servers in restaurant chains who have been instructed to wear flair pins, 34% of early-stage startups in Y Combinator’s newest class “say they’re an AI company or have AI in some way.” way,” reports Rebecca Szkutak.
“You can’t blame the YC companies for leaning into AI,” she writes. “If you saw VCs dumping dollars — in a tougher fundraising market, no less — into a technology like AI that you could implement in your own company, why not do it?”
6 VCs explain why embedded insurance isn’t the only hot opportunity in insurtech
Image Credits: Lightspring (Opens in a new window) / Shutterstock (Opens in a new window)
Now that consumers can hedge their bets against everything from canceled flights to dropping a new cell phone, built-in insurance is having a moment.
Still, several VCs operating in the space told Anna Heim that other insurtech startups can still push through if “they can build a sustainable business model.”
For our latest investor survey, she asked the following investors where the industry is headed, whether ChatGPT could impact the industry, and how Apple’s potential foray into health insurance affects their thinking:
- Florian Graillot, co-founder, astorya.vc
- Helene Falchier, partner, Portage
- Stephen Brittain and Robert Lumley, Directors and Co-Founders, Insurtech Gateway
- Nina Mayer, Headmistress, Earlybird
- David Wechsler, lead investor insurtech, OMERS Ventures
Pitch Deck Teardown: Northspyre’s $25 Million Series B Deck
Image Credits: North Spyre (Opens in a new window)
Last month, proptech startup Northspyre raised a $25 million Series B led by Charles River Ventures.
The company, which helps developers manage commercial real estate projects, shared its winning pitch deck with Haje Jan Kamps after “it removed some of the most financially sensitive slides:”
- Cover slide
- Problem slide 1
- Problem slide 2
- Product slide
- Market size slide
- Solution slide
- Value proposition slide
- KPI slide (marked as “financial” slide)
- “The Question” slide
- Team slide
- Scrolling user testimonials
- Funding history slide
- Thank you and contact slide
Ask Sophie: What to do if selected/not selected in the H-1B lottery?
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/ukbusinessupdates.com
Dear Sophie,
After three attempts, I finally got selected in the H-1B lottery this year! What do we do next?
— Wonder Winner
Dear Sophie,
I’m on VOTE OPT. My employer placed me in the H-1B lottery for the third time this year, but I was not selected again! What shall I do?
— Lottery loser
