Head start Higher 101

‘Headstart Higher’ is an initiative by HeadStart Network Foundation. This is as a platform to connect startups to rock star people who could be their prospective employees. This is carried out in the SPEED DATING format, where all candidates meet all startups and then startups can choose to talk further to those who they find competent enough to join them. Our vision is to help startups HIRE at a HIGHER level, hence the name Higher!

Err… who is Headstart Network, by the way?

We are one of the biggest grassroots-level entrepreneurship communities in India, with presence in over 13 Indian cities. Besides organizing over 150 startup events of different scale ever year, we power India’s most popular startup mailing list and do a number of things towards building an ecosystem for startups in India. We believe entrepreneurship can positively impact India in a big way and are working towards that cause for over 5 years now.

So, what do we do at Higher?

We bring STARTUP-READY candidates closer to startups that are looking to hire great people. This is the process that we follow to achieve the same:

Invite participation from prospective candidates and startups. Get details of what the participating startups are looking for in their prospective hires.
Screen candidates based on their profiles and the requirements of the startups.
Let the startups pitch to the candidates on the day of the event.
Let the startups and candidates speed-date i.e allocate 3 minutes to each candidate with every startup and let the magic unfold!

Is this the first of its kind that we are doing?

No, we had a successful Higher session last year in Bangalore. Out of the 40 startups that attended, averages of 3.7 candidates were shortlisted by companies. Hence, this year we wish to take Higher higher, by helping a number of startups hire!

What Higher is and what it is not…

Higher is:

A platform for introductions
A platform to accumulate the right set of people together in one place.
Skillset agnostic. You will find a start-up ready developer, but not necessarily a start-up friendly Xamarin developer.

Higher is NOT:

A job fair. Only early stage startups are allowed here and we are quite particular about that.
A place where joining offer letters are handed out. They are a gateway for final joining offer letter to take place, but they may not necessarily happen.
A selective meetup. Here, every candidate meets every startup. One cannot pick and choose. We do this to make sure maximum value is derived out of the event by every candidate and every startup and it also helps us run the event in an organized fashion.