{"id":24546,"date":"2014-09-02T16:48:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T08:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=24546"},"modified":"2014-09-02T21:50:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T13:50:47","slug":"the-problem-of-start-ups-vs-big-tech-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/02\/the-problem-of-start-ups-vs-big-tech-players\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem of start-ups vs. big tech players"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MANILA — In Vancouver, one problem that most start-up companies face is the high cost of living. This makes it all the more difficult for start-ups to compete with bigger players in the tech industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good top developer can make six figures – $120,000, $130,000 \u2013 you see how these dollars are incredible hard to manage when you\u2019re a start-up,\u201d said Nakhla, founder and CEO of Bazinga!, a service that brings social networking to apartment living.<\/p>\n

As Vancouver continues to become a home for satellite offices from big tech players such as Facebook and Microsoft and even Hootsuite, recruitment continues to be a top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the No. 1 thing that has happened has been an increase in the cost of talent,\u201d said Nakhla. \u201cOur company is a hypergrowth company. In a couple of years, we have grown to 40 people and we are looking for specific, highly skilled employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Nakhla, his company hires based on three \u201cmajor currencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is salary, you want to compete,\u201d he said. \u201cThe second big currency I believe is equity \u2013 a lot of entrepreneurs resist doing that but my advice is if you invest as much energy as you should to attract the right talent, you should give them some equity in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the third currency is the culture currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have a cause going for us,\u201d he said of the company\u2019s mission to create connected communities. \u201cIt\u2019s bigger than the company and it makes easy to point to our cause and say, \u2018Don\u2019t you want to be part of solving that problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hoosuite meanwhile receives 300 to 500 resumes every week. However, the number of applications is not enough to fill in the position that the company needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game isn\u2019t the volume, the game is making sure we have the right people looking at us,\u201d said vice president of talent at Hootsuite, Ambrosia Humphrey.<\/p>\n

The company still hosts the HootHire events. These activities allow them to look for prospective employees and job seekers. The first of the series attracted 300 to 400 people. In 2013, about 1,200 people showed up in two hours with 4,000 resumes received in 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat turned out to be a big way for us to say we are hiring,\u201d said Humphrey. \u201cThis is an opportunity for us to open our doors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — In Vancouver, one problem that most start-up companies face is the high cost of living. This makes it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[398,1335],"class_list":["post-24546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology-2","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}