Faced with mass layoffs and long hiring cycles, Carbon6 wants to attract candidates with stability.
Today, when Anne Ngo sits down to interview a candidate, she is asked questions about how her company thinks about runway and growth.
The Toronto-based company’s Director of Talent Acquisition Carbon 6 He said job seekers used to ask him about company pay and benefits, but recently a different set of priorities has emerged.
“Employees are looking for stability and sustainability in their job searches,” Ngo said. “There is a significant shift in the way candidates analyze whether companies are financially responsible.”
“Employees are looking for stability and sustainability in their job search.”
Ana Ngo
Carbon 6
At a recent BetaKit town hall, engineering student Jocelyne Murphy said companies looking to hire new talent “need to rebuild trust” after years of subjecting job applicants to long hiring cycles and frequent firings.
“I’ve seen people get laid off three times in one year,” Murphy said. “This is resulting in a workforce that doesn’t really feel like they have a stable foundation under their feet. That makes it very difficult for us to do our best work and focus.”
In the past two years, mass layoffs have hit major tech employers like Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, as well as Canadian startups like SSENSE, #paid and, most recently, OpenText, which announced a plan to lay off 1,200 workers.
As a result, job seekers are increasingly turning to stable, profitable companies. The focus has shifted from focusing on how much money a company has raised to whether it is actually making money.
Carbon6 believes it can capitalize on this shift.
The e-commerce software startup calls itself an all-in-one growth platform for Amazon. It helps Amazon sellers grow their businesses through a suite of tools like listing optimization, profit recovery, multi-channel advertising, and inventory management.
Kazi Ahmed, co-founder of Carbon6, said today that the company is focused on consolidating all the tools in its portfolio into a single platform.
“We have focused on making our own products,” says Ahmed. “We have always been very customer-centric. What does this customer need? What solutions can we offer them?”
Carbon6 has a staff of nearly 100 people and plans to hire another 100 by the end of the year.
Since the company started in 2021 and raised its Series A, Ahmed says it has made a number of strategic acquisitions in e-commerce software companies, grown revenue six-fold and achieved profitability within three years.
The company grew 300% in 2023 without any acquisitions, he added. And while he is proud to describe Carbon6 as a highly successful company, he said the company’s work to be “fiscally responsible” is a major selling point for potential employees.
“Even with this accelerated growth, we are stable,” he said.
With a staff of nearly 100 people and a year-end goal of hiring another 100, Ahmed said the company is very intentional about ensuring its hiring doesn’t outpace its growth.
“We discuss this every two weeks with the executive team,” Ahmed said of Carbon6’s hiring plan. “We don’t want to hire more people and not hit our numbers.”
As Ngo’s team prepares to onboard new employees before the end of the year, she plans to refine the company’s benefits and perks to appeal to today’s tech employee priorities.
“While equity is still an important part of the compensation puzzle, it’s a smaller part than it used to be,” he says. “If the business doesn’t look sustainable, they’re not going to pursue it.”
As Carbon6 Keep hiring On every team, they look for dynamic individuals who don’t simply come with a playbook from previous roles.
“There has been a shift in how we evaluate candidates based on their actual competencies, rather than based on what they have done in the past or what their training dictates,” Ngo said. “What helps me understand great talent is really understanding how multidimensional they are.”
Today, when candidates ask about the company’s track record, Ngo tells them about Carbon6’s unique success story.
“Carbon6 achieved profitability in less than three years amidst fluctuating markets,” he said. “So while no one hired as much as last year, we grew thoughtfully and responsibly. It’s an amazing place for motivated people who want to be part of the culture of a fast-growing startup, but one that’s built to last.”
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