How to achieve Hypergrowth for Talent Acquisition Teams

Between all the talks of innovation and changing the world, every company’s main aim remains to increase their revenue and profit. This can only be achieved by ensuring that the companies grow year by year. This is where the concept of ‘hypergrowth’ comes into play. So, what is Hyper Growth?

In number terms, hypergrowth is defined by the World Economic Forum as over a year in which an organization grows at more than 40 per cent. This is an impressive achievement for any company, as it guarantees long-term growth and increases profits.

The history of the word hypergrowth has also gone through a major shift. Earlier, hyper-growth was seen in companies that had a solid foundation. It also took a lot of time before they went for companies to go into hyper-growth mode. However, times have now massively changed.

The rise of tech firms for the first time made it possible for a newly formed startup to go into hyper-growth mode, increasing revenue and profit many times within the year to become a giant in their industry. The concept of hypergrowth has now also been coupled with other teams, such as unicorns, that act as key milestones for a company.

However, creating hypergrowth is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks a company ever takes. So, how can companies create an environment where hypergrowth is possible? And what are the merits and demerits of hypergrowth?

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How to achieve hypergrowth

Hypergrowth is such a remarkable phenomenon that it cannot be attributed to a single factor. In fact, it involves scalability, a robust business plan, a market with a huge demand for a specific product, and a lot of financial backing. So, how should companies start?

Address a market problem with potential 

The first step for companies is to identify a market with a demand that will massively help them increase their revenue, thus allowing them to increase their scalability. In addition, the product that is being launched as a solution should also be effective. A recent example of this was the ChatGPT. Developed by OpenAi, an artificial intelligence (AI) research organization, ChatGPT revolutionized the AI generative chatbot market.

While OpenAI has a non-profit component, it was backed by several big players such as Microsoft, Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX and Tesla), Reid Hoffman (co-founder of Linkedin), and Peter Thiel (co-founder of Paypal), among others. These years of financial backing and some of the best minds allowed them to develop a revolutionary product that disrupted an entire market.

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Some sectors where hypergrowth is more likely to happen are as follows:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 
• Health 
• Renewable energy (such as EV manufacturing)
• E-commerce 
• Fintech
• Edtech
• Space Technology (SpaceX, for example)

Business should be scalable 

Merely developing a good product is not a sure-shot way of guaranteeing that it will lead to hypergrowth. It is because, in the absence of strong demand in the market, the product will not bring in the amount of revenue required for a company to achieve hyper-growth. In addition, this huge growth should also come with a small increase in the company’s operational costs.

A recent example of this was witnessed in the recent Covid-19 pandemic. With a major part of the world going into quarantine, people were introduced to the concept of working from home. This created a situation where online meetings became a daily occurrence. This created a fertile ground for video telephony software programs such as Zoom and Microsoft Team. It also meant that inter and intra-team communication software like Slack and BaseCamp gained prominence along with cloud-based platforms such as AWS and Salesforce.

Other businesses that have a better chance of scalability are as follows:

• Software as a service (SaaS)
• Digital edtech platforms (Udemy, Skillshare)
• Online sharing economy services (Uber, Airbnb)
• Over the Top (OTT) Platforms (Netflic, Amazon Prime, Hulu)
• Artificial intelligence-based services (such as BarRaiser)

Also Read: What is the Pareto Principle and why is it important ?

Have solid financial backing 

While companies experiencing hyper-growth try to ensure their operational cost remains at a minimum, it still requires a lot of money. Scalability is not the only issue in such circumstances. There has to be a focus on other areas such as acquiring customers, retaining them, and managing expenses for marketing, customer support, and, at the same time, improving the services. Another important thing is to retain the talent that, in the first place, helped build the product.

So, how important is having a huge investment fund? Let us understand it better by taking a look at Uber, one of the biggest online cab-hailing services in the world. Ever since its inception in March 2009, Uber has gone through 20 rounds of funding, raising more than  $22.2 billion. However, it was only in 2023 that they first made operating profit annually. So, even they had to go through a long period where they had to sustain losses, and it was only possible because they had managed to raise a huge pool of money.

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Be ready for new partnerships and pivoting

A great way for companies to hyper-growth is to enter partnerships with other companies that allow them to access new markets, allowing customers to diversify their revenue streams. These partnerships have been of great use to several companies that leveraged their strategic partnerships to increase their presence. 

A great example of this is the early years of Airbnb, which in their early years found a brilliant platform to increase its reach: Craigslist. In the early years, Airbnb used cross-post platform listings to use classified advertisement websites to reach a large number of users. This helped them access many customers, which massively helped them to hyper-growth in their early years.

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Companies may also have to pivot to a new field for several reasons, such as the entry of new competitors, lack of profits, or lack of avenues for growth. So, how effective is pivoting? Take the example of Burbn, a location-based web check-in app. The company pivoted into becoming a photo-sharing platform, now known as Instagram, valued at over $70 billion. 

Netflix is another such example. The OTT platform has now started as a DVS rental service. However, they quickly pivoted, realizing the importance of online streaming and cloud-based services. Their main competitor, Blockbuster, failed to do so and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

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Align your hiring to hire suitable talent

One of the key reasons why companies experienced hyper growth was their culture. These companies hired suitable candidates who were not only talented but also whose work and way of thinking aligned with the values and ideology of the company. This means that companies also need to have a clear recruitment strategy.

This means that interviewers need to tailor their interview process according to the demands of the company. Using a Structured interview format is a good start for any such process. Interviewees must remember that they are not only looking for skill-based talent but also traits such as leadership, teamwork, or the calmness required to work under tight deadlines.

Several studies have proved that having a diverse team helps increase the team’s productivity, which in turn helps increase revenue and profits.

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Be responsible 

Since the basic requirement of hypergrowth requires a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 40 percent, it means that people could be over-eager to achieve the target. This creates a situation where decisions that might not be rational or logical could be made emotionally.

Companies who failed while trying to achieve hypergrowth usually do it due to two reasons:

• They overextend their resources
• They indulge in reckless overspending.

This is why companies need to have mature leadership on the top who can make decisions based on logic and fact. This is why a company needs to set certain rules and guidelines for the way in which an organization looks at its hyper-growth. These rules act as a considerable check and balance that prevents the company from abandoning its primary mission.

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Maximize efficiency within the company 

A startup company will always be short of adequate talent compared to a bigger company. This is where companies need to foster a culture where they have a clear vision with every aspect of the organization being streamlined so that every person can work to their maximum efficiency.

Companies should also work on a robust decision-making process. Having such a process will help them waste little time in key decisions, allowing the company to maximize its efficiency. For a startup that does not have adequate manpower, the approach of getting the most out of every single employee of the company is the best way to set a standard that paves the way for conditions that precede hypergrowth. 

However, there is another factor at play here, which can be described as some sort of luck. Like being in the right place at the right time. For example, after the Indian government in November 2016 demonetized the 500 and 1000 notes(the two highest currency valuations). This meant that people had little to no cash, which paved the way for the rise of online payment apps such as Paytm, Phonepe, and others. All these apps were built on the Unified Payments Interface, which is now touted as one of the most robust online payment systems in the world, recording 117.6 billion transactions in 2023.

Also Read: What is Job Analysis? A Guide to Effective Hiring and Recruitment

Companies also need to have the right talent to help their company grow at an astounding rate. This is where we present to you BarRaiser, a state-of-the-art AI-based interview assistant that will take the quality of your hiring to the next level. With BarRaiser, recruiters can create a detailed interview plan for candidates. The interviewer can give specific instructions to our AI bot to create an interview, such as:

• The questions for the interview 
• The number of rounds for the interview 
• The duration of the interview and its specific sub-parts 
• The number of parts that the interview must be divided into and their durations 
• Must have questions 
• The number of experience required for the job posting 
• Must have skills
• Additional Skills 

Using these instructions, our tool will create a structured interview format to ensure an unbiased candidate selection process.

After this, our Ai interview copilot assists the interviewer, giving them specific instructions. For example, if the interview exceeds the time limit, the AI bot will alert the recruiter to speed up the process. In addition, we are also committed to making our process as unbiased as possible. This is why our AI transcribes and records every interview and immediately raises an alert if the recruiter uses language that might be considered discriminatory to the candidate. 

After the interview, the AI asks for a detailed review of the candidate from the interviewer. We believe that our tool is an assistant and not the decision maker, so it formulates answers only after receiving instructions from the interviewer. While this is happening, the AI is also creating another report that measures the recruiter’s effectiveness and their performance. This report acts as a check and balance to ensure accountability for every stakeholder involved in the recruitment process. Using BarRaiser, we guarantee Quality hiring that will bolster Diversity and inclusion. BarRaiser is the best AI Interview platform that features Structured interviews and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating recruitment bias. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.