Dive Brief:

• Over 100 experts responded to a recent Quora poll about why startups fail so easily. While there were a number of responses that mentioned lack of funding, poor leadership, and bad product marketing as challenges for early startups, the hidden issue that took many from idea to disaster was a total lack of quality talent.

• Based on the experiences of many startup founders, the smaller a company is, the harder it is to locate skilled talent, said Ninh Tran, Co-founder and CMO of Hiretual, writing for ERE Media. He added that “half of early-stage startups get less than three applicants." 

• A Jobvite report backs this theory up. Their data shows that smaller companies get fewer than 59 applications for every job advertised, on average. Bigger firms that have more developed marketing funnels end up with the bulk of the talent. 

Dive Insight:

How can startups and small companies attract more candidates and increase their chances of surviving in a candidate driven market? Tran suggests that the passive talent is out there, and that building a strong foundation of engineers and product developers, plus focusing on offering above average compensation can give smaller companies an edge.

It’s also important for startups to understand the importance of earning their angel investments as soon as possible, so they can leverage a perception of job security to attract better talent. Understanding recruitment metrics and using a strong platform for connecting with candidates can help to further streamline the process and get good people on board.