While the Great Resignation was spurred on by the pandemic, the real reason employees are leaving jobs has little to do with COVID-19. For employers that are now backfilling empty roles, that’s an important distinction to make — because it means an entirely different approach to recruiting is needed.

The war for talent has never felt fiercer. If you’re a startup in the tech space, that battle can feel especially rough — after all, you’re facing up against titans like Google, Meta, and Apple when it comes to attracting potential employees. If you’re using traditional hiring methods, it can feel like your cold emails are going unread and your job postings unnoticed.

One of the most frequent questions first-time founders ask as they start to grow their business is: “How many…?” How many employees should you hire before your Series A? How many engineers are generally hired in the seed stage? How many people should you be hiring per quarter?

If you’re a Google, Meta, or Apple, you can generally attract top candidates based solely on your reputation. However, if you’re an early-stage startup — one that may not even have an established product yet — you don’t have that same luxury. Fortunately, people have been using storytelling to create meaning and inspire others for years. Knowing how to sell your startup’s story effectively can help rally people around your mission and vision long before you have a product, capital, or product-market fit.

The Swarm enabled uMed to automate and scale relationship-based outreach with a centralized, searchable combined network organized by strength of relationships. By leveraging their extended network, uMed uncovered new opportunities and faster conversions in both business development and fundraising.

They can lean on existing relationships and shared experiences, on top of fit and intent signals, to move deals forward and accelerate their growth.

Quorum1's use of The Swarm exemplifies how network-driven organizations can harness the power of their extended networks to enhance their operations, foster collaboration, and create more opportunities.

Using The Swarm, 500 Emerging Europe is able to unify and search through their collective network. They're already using the platform to introduce founders to top talent and plan to use it for sales and other high-potential introductions.

The new GTM playbook is about building relationships and leveraging influence to drive deals forward. It’s no longer enough to rely on cold outreach and a flood of emails. The winners in today’s market will be the ones who tap into sales data 2.0 and capitalize on their network’s power.

The webinar emphasized the critical role of network operations in venture capital, highlighting how VCs have always relied on their networks for sourcing investment opportunities. The ability to map and leverage relationships is now recognized as essential across various aspects of a VC fund’s performance, including fundraising, deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support.

Here's a practical playbook with ten insights for startup leaders focusing on building and leveraging their networks!

Experts explain the tactical, network-based approaches companies should take to succeed in 2023 — and why they matter: Richard Cho (Advisor & Former Chief Recruiting Officer at Gem), Nolan Church (CEO at Continuum), David Connors (Co-Founder & CEO at The Swarm). Panel event moderated by Opal Franklin (Events Lead at The Swarm).

More than ever, founders need to do more with less, and they need their growth engines to be as efficient as possible. We’re excited to introduce new ways your company network can be activated to accelerate recruiting and sales, and for investors to build their own networks.

When we talk about uniting the individual networks of your team, investors, and advisors into a single combined network on The Swarm, what exactly does that mean? We’re glad you asked. Your Network Graph is where the magic happens.

The way we build and structure businesses has changed radically over the past few decades. The rise of the startup has created a whole new model for business, challenging the traditional, siloed corporate structures that have been around for a century or more. However, while businesses have changed, the way we recruit has remained the same in many ways. Network recruiting is here to change that.

The Swarm will be the operating system that early stage startups use to find and hire top talent. Here is what led me to start the company and why our platform could lead a transformation in startup recruiting.