How did CareerFairy’s approach disrupt the traditional (student) recruitment process and address its limitations?

CareerFairy is disrupting the student & graduate recruitment market by connecting young talents directly with employees from hundreds of employers. Students can get to know in an interactive way the people they would be working with, as well as learning more about the job and the company culture directly from potential future team members. Employers can reach more talents with less effort and present themselves in an authentic way to young talents from universities across the DACH-region.

Which customers do you work with?

We work with a range of customers, from multinational employers like BMW, BCG, and the World Bank to SMEs and European scaleups.

What strategies have you implemented to address the “chicken and egg” problem of attracting users to a new two-sided platform?

To address the chicken and egg problem we have initially targeted our platform and USP to university career services, enabling them to host better virtual events between their partner companies and students. Especially during our launch in COVID times, this was a much-needed value proposition. Then, University career services onboarded their partner companies and students to CareerFairy, thereby providing the initial liquidity for the marketplace.

What are CareerFairy’s future plans for further improving the experience for both companies and candidates?

Not every talent follows the same journey towards their first job. In the future, we want to identify in more detail at which step of their job-hunting process they find themselves and provide the most relevant content for the respective next career step. Further to that we are building up our very own career recommendation engine, which will provide personalized recommendations of suitable opportunities and employers to students. For companies, we’re building up on the functionalities to directly collect applications in-stream.

You recently completed a financing round. Overall, how would you describe the experience of working with LEXR in securing investment for your company?

From the moment we partnered with LEXR, Michele and Klara were our steadfast guides, providing great support and expertise throughout the entire financing process. Their patience, responsiveness, and deep knowledge were instrumental in navigating the complexities of securing funding. We were deeply grateful for their personalized approach, which tailored their counsel to our specific needs and aspirations. Their insights into market trends and their ability to negotiate favourable terms were invaluable, enabling us to close our financing round swiftly and effectively.

What advice would you give to startup founders looking for talent right now?

With access to talent becoming more challenging for all of us, looking for talent outside of the home turf becomes increasingly appealing. While hiring beyond local boundaries offers a broader pool, one should be mindful of the new cultural dynamics this introduces. Striking a balance between a more global view of talent acquisition and navigating remote work culture is key for successful talent recruitment and retention in today’s evolving landscape.