When Scede Founder Matt Ellis isn’t obsessing over finding world-class tech talent, you’ll find him adding another checked shirt to his wardrobe, snapping some street art or learning about the next gaming studio about to launch. Matt has over 10 years of experience building product and engineering teams for companies like Skype, Supercell and Space Ape Games.
We sat down with Matt to talk about how Scede is different and why it puts a smile on his face every day.
Why did you set up Scede?
As time went by, I stopped waking up with the same zest to get to work. I’d ultimately stopped feeling proud of my work, and being proud of what I do is very important to me.
In 2011 I joined Skype which really reignited my passion.
At Skype, recruitment was considered a craft and was advocated by senior management across the business. Recruiters had the freedom to focus on what’s really important (quality and conversions), instead of vanity metrics like the number of meetings and total telephone time. I got to see the teams I worked for come to life. It was so enjoyable having a visible impact on a company to help create such value and for them to ship great products.
Working with a team of awesome recruiters in this way is ultimately where the idea for Scede was born – Matt Ellis, Founder & CEO, Scede
Through agency life I learned the art of resilience, I learned how to sell and I’d hired for hundreds of positions across a wide range of businesses. That skill set still remains valuable to this day.
Working at Skype, I received more trust just by being in the same office as my hiring managers. I had access to information that made my job much easier compared to inside an agency. I felt the value immediately and was able to sell authentic brand stories, the impact candidates would have on the product and the company culture rather than just job descriptions.
So, how is Scede different?
At Scede we’ve taken some of that hustle learned in agencies, rasped off the rough edges and combined it with the experience we gained scaling billion dollar tech companies from within.
We wanted to support high-growth startups that need to scale fast and well.
Today I wake up with a smile on my face, happy that we get to create huge value for these companies.
An embedded talent model combines the strongest qualities of RPO, agency and in-house recruitment.
How does Scede’s unique embedded recruitment model better help startups?
At Scede, we’ve created our take on the “embedded recruiter”. We’ve combined the strongest qualities of RPO, agency and in-house recruitment into an embedded recruitment model that’s more of a partnership rather than a ‘service’. As embedded talent partners we manage the entire candidate journey from outreach to engagement and hire. We thrive on setting you up for long-term success so we advise and work with you on tactical and strategic initiatives too – not just filling roles.
We consult and deliver on topics across the whole modern talent function. That means we do things like:
- Building out hiring plans along with the necessary interview assessment criteria
- Create reporting for leadership and board packs
- Use various methods to identify and engage talent
- Build and broadcast your employer brand
- Manage talent through interview, offer and onboarding plus much more dependent on specific needs of the business
As embedded recruiters, we truly integrate into the fabric of your business
Our teams are enrolled as your team members – essentially, our team becomes your team. They’ll go through the exact same onboarding process and meet with key stakeholders and hiring managers to get a holistic view of how your business is looking to grow. They take on an email address, work as part of your team and in some cases, form part of the company’s management team.
As we’re available to offer on site time with you, working as one of your own, you have all the face time you need without us being intrusive on your time. Quite the opposite. We save leadership and engineering teams hours that they can spend on the product. In addition, when you partner with us you gain access to every other Scede team member which is over 100 experienced recruiters strong. Collectively we’ve scaled many tech companies from within, including growth through several acquisitions and for a number achieving billion dollar valuations.
So, you’re getting the luxury and peace of mind of having a team of highly experienced talent managers (each of us has an average of 10 years HR and recruiting experience), adapted to your requirements, as part of your team, at an affordable price.
Click the visual below to learn more about the benefits of a Scede partnership.
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What’s next for Scede?
We are still super focused on helping ambitious founders build great teams and businesses.
100% of our business has come from recommendations, which is a testament to the results our team delivers and an effect of our commitment to do incredible work.
And that’s the most important thing for us – working with founders, delivering incredible work, and building a world-class authentic reputation as a result.
Internally, we’re focused on creating a diverse and inclusive business that great recruiters want to join to hone their craft.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
As well as building Scede with a great bunch of people, being ringside with our clients is something that continues to fascinate me.
Helping businesses scale when hiring is critical and is still what gets me out of bed, even after 10+ years. I’ve been lucky enough to personally work with three companies through acquisition, two of which are now “billion dollar unicorns” and I hope to continue to share some of that experience.
When you see a business ship a successful product that’s been built by teams you’ve hired, it’s incredibly fulfilling. Seeing your friends and family playing a game or using a product from a business we’ve supported makes me really proud.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
I’ve been lucky enough to have been given some really great advice during our journey and I believe massively in mentors. The most powerful observation I made was whilst working alongside the Supercell team.
I observed many wonderful things whilst at Supercell but the main takeaway was to focus on building what you believe in.
Don’t dilute or sacrifice your beliefs or business model to keep up with the competition or for greed (assuming your model is working of course). If you hire the best people, they will deliver the best products and services.
What is the best piece of hiring advice you can give?
Somebody once said, “it’s better to have a hole than an arse hole”.
The key from this rather crude and unorthodox phrase is simply hire well and do not hire people that will upset your current culture.
The perceived short term gain of making a hire against your hiring plan can take an unquantifiable period of time to re-balance if a “bad hire” has been made.