When it comes to the obstacles faced by companies operating in the digital economy, it’s easy to think about attracting technology talent. Founded by two Brazilian women, Anywhere, a Silicon Valley-based startup, positions itself as an ally in the search of qualified professionals for global organizations.
The high demand for technology professionals is a reality around the world, as well as the difficulty in finding these people. In Brazil alone, there is an average annual demand of 159 thousand professionals, and only 53 thousand people trained in the area per year, according to data from Brasscom (Association of Information and Communication Technology and Digital Technologies Companies). And failure to fill that talent gap could result in an $8.5 trillion annual revenue loss, according to Korn Ferry‘s Future of Work: The Global Talent Crunch report.
Anywhere was created to help companies that had to recruit technology experts in a total digital and global way to face the challenges that have arisen with the pandemic. The company, which calls itself a TAtech (a technology company focused on talent acquisition), aims to support the recruitment process and help its clients improve their practices on this front.
“It is difficult to hire technology professionals. When we open connections with other countries to increase the talent pool, it is possible to hire people faster and invest time in more strategic tasks”, says Anywhere’s co-founder, Nathalya Nascimento, in an interview with Startups.
“Our goal is to bring innovative and humanized solutions to companies that want to empower themselves and develop their recruitment process. We can impact several areas and bring more diversity to these businesses with more inclusive processes,” adds the entrepreneur.
Growing amidst the crisis
Anywhere’s operations started in early December 2021. Since then, the company has attracted a portfolio of more than a dozen customers. The list of clients includes Brazilian startups Neon, Sympla, Cora, and so-called traditional companies that recruit technology professionals intensively, such as cosmetucs giant Grupo Boticário. Besides supporting Brazilian companies to attract global talent, Anywhere also serves North American companies that want to hire Brazilians looking for remote work and says it has worked with more than a thousand candidates since its founding.
With over a decade of experience as a recruiter from internship to C-level, Nascimento has worked at Brazilian giants iFood, Nubank, and Movile, for whom she worked in the United States before founding Anywhere. Aline Gonçalves, who worked as an account manager in the premium segment of banks such as Itaú Unibanco and Bradesco, is the other co-founder, responsible for the commercial area of the company. Both of them live in San Francisco.
Speaking of the commercial department, Anywhere has had encouraging results in that area. According to Nascimento, besides their own time and expertise, the founders did not invest a penny in creating the business. However, the company generated revenue of R$ 1 million (around $200,000) in five months. The goal is to triple its revenue in 2022 and double the customer base.
The startup’s offer ranges from customized solutions to optimize the job applicant’s experience, training, and support in the main recruitment systems (known as applicant tracking systems, or ATS) to an agile recruitment model with a specific focus on diversity and employer branding strategies. The company has 10 “talent advisors” – recruiting professionals who work on client projects.
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How has the company’s business model been affected during the wave of layoffs in the global startup ecosystem? According to Nascimento, the latest movement in the startup world – which used to be the company’s main target audience – forced Anywhere to review its focus and approach.
“When we noticed these movements, we connected with several people to understand how we could best get through this moment. We began to direct our efforts to more robust companies, which were not significantly laying off employees,” she points out.
“Some startups that were working with us paused their projects. We quickly realized we needed to focus on a different audience that was a little more stable at the moment,” says the entrepreneur. She adds that traditional companies investing in digitalization have been attracting many professionals laid off by startups.
Next steps
Anywhere’s goals for the coming months include scaling up. According to Nascimento, this should happen with the company’s own ATS, whose development is already underway. “When we look at the Brazilian market, there are basically two players, but one bought by the other [Gupy, which recently acquired Kenoby]. But here we already work with several other ATSs, and we miss having something like this in Brazil”, says the founder.
“When we say we’re a TAtech, it means we use technology to scale everything we’re already doing. We implemented several different recruitment systems in companies to understand each one of them and when creating our platform, we would address the challenges that businesses have,” adds Nascimento.
Next year, Anywhere’s focus will still be on Brazil and the United States. The company plans to enter the European market in early 2024. Regarding funding plans, the founders are studying if they need to grow with additional capital. “If our business needs an investor to support this development, we will be open to it. But we want to ensure that we bring in the right investor aligned with our vision”, says the entrepreneur.
The company wants to reinvest the revenue to grow the team, prioritizing diversity. “We are very proud to have created the company from scratch and have reached this point, considering that so many businesses take a long time to generate revenue,” says Nascimento.
Considering the company’s growth trajectory so far, she wants her story to inspire other people like her, black and from outskirt areas, so that they remember that they can get wherever they want. The entrepreneur was born in Vila Gilda, a neighborhood close to Jardim Ângela, in the south side of São Paulo.
“I never imagined living in San Francisco, let alone having meetings with the people I meet nowadays. Some people are afraid of these possibilities and think they will never make it. I want to reinforce that it’s all possible. Even if we were born and raised without many opportunities, we can build big things in life,” she concludes.
