How Keeper hired their Head of Marketing in 3 weeks on Paraform
When you’re a fast-moving startup hiring executives to take your business to the next level, you care about two things: getting quality candidates, and getting them fast. Paraform has helped Ben Stein, co-founder at Keeper, do both, while completely changing his mind on contingency recruiting.
Keeper makes software to help bookkeepers manage their clients' back-office. They joined Y Combinator’s Spring 2021 batch, and are now trusted by thousands of bookkeepers and accountants to simplify their financial reporting.
After negative experiences with traditional contingency recruiters, Keeper's co-founder Ben Stein was skeptical about using them again. But now, he’s altered his stance, telling us “Contingency recruiting is simply better on Paraform.” So, what changed?
Results on Paraform:
- Hired a Head of Marketing in 21 days
- 8x-ed their volume of high-quality candidates, compared to previous experiences.
- 10x less time spent communicating needs and calibrating candidates with recruiters. That’s 40 hours saved — a whole workweek.
“Paraform is recruiting that just works. It’s reopened my eyes to working with contingent recruiters. We’re already using Paraform to fill another role.”
A smoother, faster, frustration-free hiring process.
Before Paraform: Keeper spent hours explaining their requirements to multiple recruiters.
After Paraform: Streamlined communications with recruiters quicker candidate calibration.
“Instead of having to explain our requirements to 50 different recruiters, I only had to do it once and we started getting shockingly high-quality candidates very quickly."
With Paraform's role forum, Ben only had to provide information once. Different recruiters could easily access Keeper’s answers and ask follow-up questions in one place.
Paraform's platform also significantly improved candidate calibration. Recruiters can view scorecards and rejection reasons for all candidates, not just those they submitted. This transparency helps recruiters quickly understand Keeper's preferences and submit more suitable candidates.
Ben also uses Paraform’s integration with Ashby to keep up-to-date with candidate statuses. Updates in Keeper’s ATS system are reflected on Paraform, and vice versa, keeping both Ben and the recruiters informed on the status of their candidates.
Better candidates in less time.
Before Paraform: Low-quality candidates and little improvement despite feedback.
After Paraform: High-quality candidates, within days of posting the role.
Ben admits Keepr hasn’t had great experiences working with contingent recruiters in the past. “They don't send you high-quality candidates, and then when you tell them these candidates are not high-quality, it doesn’t improve.” Paraform changed that dramatically.
The marketplace model allowed Keeper to split their risk across multiple recruiters, and tap into a pool of high-quality recruiters without the effort of vetting them individually.
“Recruiting on Paraform is starkly different compared to our other relationships with contingent recruiters. We got much better candidate quality with quicker turnaround times. Paraform has completely changed my stance on contingency recruiting.”
No employer brand yet? No problem.
Before Paraform: It’s difficult to attract top talent without a big employer brand like Google.
After Paraform: Paraform's recruiters become advocates for Keeper, putting them on the radar of quality candidates who might have otherwise overlooked the role.
As a growing startup, Keeper doesn't yet have a strong employer brand to attract top talent organically. They don’t get many high-quality inbound leads and rely on recruiters to source experts.
“The difference in candidates we got from Paraform versus inbound applicants was like night and day.”
Three weeks after posting the role, Keeper hired Matt, who led marketing teams at Podium, Lendio, and Pentos. It’s only been two months since Matt started, but “[he’s] already making a huge impact. His references said he is exactly who he appears to be, and that’s been our experience. He’s been a pleasure to work with.”
A new outlook on contingency recruiting.
Paraform has fundamentally changed Ben's stance on contingency recruiting. "The biggest risk with contingent recruiters is that they might waste your time and make the job search miserable. Candidate quality is what matters most, and few deliver," he explains. "But that's not the case on Paraform."
Keeper is currently sourcing for their SDR role on Paraform. And as they scale up? "For our next hires, we'll go to Paraform first."
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