ReFUEL4 is an AdTech startup on the kind of vertiginous growth trajectory that tech entrepreneurs dream about. For the three founders trying to grow a business that was almost immediately global, a 24-hour clock is hardly sufficient. We were fortunate to catch Chief Revenue Officer Ithamar Sorek for about 20 minutes during which he discussed using the right tools to hire the right people, and emphasized the importance of creating a hyper-efficient recruiting machine that saves time for everything else high-growth companies need to do.
“The most valuable thing for an entrepreneur is not money; money you can always go and make. The most valuable thing we have is time. We can never get it back. Comeet gives me what I need the most, which is time.”
ReFUEL4 Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Ithamar Sorek is running as hard as he can. He’s building revenue, partnerships and a universe of happy customers for an AI-driven creative platform that combines three sizzling trends: AI, social media advertising, and network sourcing. The company’s pitch to partners and prospects is simple; ReFUEL4 identifies which digital ads will generate the best social media advertising results.
It’s so compelling – and the ROI has been so convincing – that IBM, Lyft, Spotify, Paypal and King are just a few of the brands that have signed on. More than 10,000 creative designers have signed on, too, to create the ads. Sales offices opened in London and Austin in 2016, joining the Tokyo office and Singapore HQ that house engineering and operations. ReFUEL4 also won Facebook’s 2016 Innovation Spotlight – Creativity Category award.
Wanted: People Who Want to Change Advertising
Startups growing at this rate often find that the time demands of recruiting encroach on sales, product management and fundraising. ReFUEL4 was no different.
“It’s just been a really crazy last 24 months. We’re three founders, each of whom was responsible, until very recently, for staffing their department. Using recruiters wasn’t feasible due to costs, and we didn’t feel we were ready to hire someone internally. Doing all our own hiring worked for a while, but as our needs increased, and the demands of our formal roles expanded, it became clear we needed to do something else.”
Replacing Email and Evernote
The ReFUEL4 team had reached this breaking point using a combination of email and Evernote, which was full of “Do you like this guy?,” “Do you like her?,” and “What should we do?” notes. Salvation came when a product manager candidate recommended during an interview that ReFUEL4 use Comeet to recruit, then created a trial account for the company.
“I knew our recruiting process wasn’t very efficient. The opportunity cost from a value perspective – but also from a time perspective – was huge. But I didn’t know that something like Comeet even existed. When I took a look at our trial account I was wowed. Everything’s in one place. All the information and automated processes and workflows to review and process hundreds of candidates are there. We quickly saw how it could save us lots of time.”
The decision to implement Comeet as the company’s new recruiting system was easy. Sorek created workflows, uploaded unique question sets to meet experience, skills, and cultural fit requirements, and began to invite employees to use it.
“In terms of behavioral change among managers and hiring teams, it took a while for everyone just to get used to having one centralized recruiting system that handles everything. But I was confident we could scale it and we did. We just started knocking out resumes one after another after another and filling openings. After we hired more engineers, we had more data to show it clearly worked.”
A Hyper-Efficient Recruiting Machine that Brings Everyone Together
Sorek used Comeet’s training and educational resources to help the company’s dispersed workforce become comfortable using features like the dynamic workflows, integrated @Messaging and candidate evaluations. Using Comeet soon became a pleasant habit, and more than 30% of the staff now have a Comeet account. According to Sorek, every interview at every level – whether individual or group – is conducted using Comeet.
“It’s the only tool we use for recruiting, and it’s become an integral part of our overall business, on par with tools like Hubspot. I have four people in London and nine in the US. My business partners are in Singapore. For some of our global positions, usually mid-level and above, we all take part in the interview process. The ability to communicate with each other and consider everything we need to make a decision, even though we’re not sitting next to each other, is huge.”
Recruiting at the Speed of Global
With plans to add an additional 40-50 employees, ReFUEL4 finally hired a full-time, in-house recruiter. Although she works in Austin, Comeet enables her to seamlessly collaborate with HR in Singapore. Sorek knows the company’s recruiting system and processes can handle whatever hiring velocity they need:
“As a product, Comeet is awesome. It provides transparency, it provides efficiency and it helps you scale. What I like about Comeet as a company is that the team takes feedback and executes quickly on the things that are important to us as customers.”
“Comeet provides transparency, efficiency and helps you scale.”
Ithamar Sorek, Chief Revenue Officer, ReFUEL4
Huge props to Ithamar for taking time out from his crazy-busy schedule to remind entrepreneurs that opportunity costs are not just an abstract concept taught in a collegiate Economics 101 class. Creating process efficiencies and making smart choices that save time are hugely important differentiators between successful companies and everyone else.
In terms of recruiting and process efficiency, there is nothing you can do that will deliver more ROI than using Comeet. It’s as simple as that. Contact us to schedule a demo and you can learn how you’re a lot closer to having your own hyper-efficient recruiting machine than you think.
Here are case studies of other companies living the good life with Comeet:
Fiverr: “Engages everyone in the process!”
Redis Labs: “Off-the-charts ease of use.”
Are you looking to start your hiring process today? Comeet can help. Check out our plan options to learn more about how we can redefine the way you recruit new talent.
Omer Tadjer
