[Startup story] Freya Recruiting | Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022 Batch

[Startup story] Freya Recruiting | Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022 Batch

July 15, 2022

Freya Recruiting is one of the 22 startups selected in the Rubik Garage accelerator 2022 Batch, from over 120 international applicants. Discover its story below. 

First of all, we would like to know who’s behind the keyboard.

Hi! This is Florin Lazar, Co-Founder and COO at Freya Recruiting. To simply put it, I’m the one responsible for keeping everything in the right place and being sure we are on the path to our objectives.

Before Freya, I’ve been in the startup environment for 7 years and run many initiatives.

Tell us more about Freya Recruiting. What problem do you solve? Who’s your audience?

Freya is the digital Talent Acquisition Manager for Seed and Series A startups. With Freya, founders have everything needed to identify talent fast and hire with confidence. 

Our audience is Seed and Series A startups in hiring mode. For them, scaling is mostly hiring. Founders need talent fast, but they have a small pipeline, face pressure from investors who want to see growth, and have little hiring experience. 

At the same time, they are the ones who need talent the most, and there isn’t any clearly solution for them.

What motivated you to create this startup? What’s your „why”?

We have a big passion for psychology and a background in human behaviour. More than this, I truly believe that each person can be a performer if they are in the right place.

So, when startups asked us to help them identify talent during the hiring process, we started to develop a methodology and a product to solve this problem. 

This is how Freya Recruiting was born.

How is your startup different from competitors?

We understand the problem at the deepest level. Me and Tudor, my Co-Founder, have more than 17 years of startup experience combined, and we know that having a talented team is the first predictor of startup success.

Another differentiator is Tudor’s postgrad at Cambridge called “Causality of Human Behaviour”, research made with over 2mil data points that offer us the right insights to know what personality traits make someone successful for a specific job.

Do you have a team supporting you in your mission?

At the moment, there are two of us working at Freya: me and Tudor Birlea. In fact, I am the newest member of the Freya team, having joined at the beginning of 2022. 

Tudor founded it two years ago based on his experience as Founder of Digital 2 Law – the biggest Romanian law firm dedicated to startups – and his Cambridge postgrad in applied psychology.

What are the biggest rewards of being a startup founder?

The biggest reward is being in control of what I do. 

I like to build solutions that help people, and as a founder, I have full ownership of the process. To me, it is very rewarding.

Seeing that clients find Freya easy to use and receiving feedback like “now is easy” make my day every time.

These small rewards are the right fuel for us to grow further.

On the contrary, what are the biggest challenges?

Being a founder is not the most predictable “job” you can have. This is something every founder needs to be comfortable with, and it took me some time to integrate it.

Beyond this, it has moments when you are on a solitary mission without many people around you.

There are some downsides, but if you like what you do and have fun during the process, it’s easy to overcome harder moments.

What made you apply to our accelerator Rubik Garage?

We launched the platform in May, and it was a time when we looked to join an accelerator that could help us grow faster. We found Rubik Garage at the right time and the right moment for us.

We have already met a big part of the Rubik Hub team, and Tudor was also a mentor of the program’s last edition. We had everything needed to apply with confidence that great things would happen. 

Evaluating now, it is more than expected.

What are your top 3 learnings of the acceleration program?

I already knew it, but the power of the community surprises me whenever I see it. It reinforces my belief that great things can happen if we work together. Considering the pandemic and the lack of in-person events, the impact of Rubik Garage is even bigger. 

Beyond this, I participated at great workshops and collected some insights at the right time for the business. 

Last but not least, I had amazing conversations with other founders, and learning from people in the same business phase as you are, is really valuable.

What do you like in the Rubikorns Startup Community?

It is inspiring to see everyone in the group working for their dreams. Sharing the path with fellow founders is crucial when you work in a startup.

More than this, it is nice to know that someone will offer support if you ask for help.

What are your plans for Freya Recruiting in the next 6-12 months?

We launched the product in May, and we are getting traction.

For summer, we look to help founders hire with confidence and build more partnerships with accelerators and VC funds to help startups from their portfolios.

After this step, we will start fundraising in the autumn and accelerate our entry into the US market.

What message do you have for other startup founders?

Focus on your customer’s problems and start with something as simple as possible. Don’t wonder that you don’t solve something big enough now. It is a question for later. This is something I would have liked to understand a couple of years ago, so maybe it will help other founders.

Having clarity about what you solve and narrowing the potential customers to a well-defined niche are the first steps if you want to have a successful business. From this point, it will be a lot easier to grow.

What is your special power?

I try to keep myself as normal as possible, but if it is something I do the right way, is to keep all the startup stuff well organized and to adapt fast when something new comes to us.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Join the Rubik Hub community if you haven’t done it already! Here, you will find a great mix of resources, inspiring people, and mentors to help you grow your business as fast as possible.

You will have everything around you solved, so the only problem for your startup growth is you :). This is a great spot to be. As a bonus, they probably have the nicest coworking space in Romania. You will love it!

We encourage you to support Freya Recruiting and follow their journey on Linkedin.

Stay tuned to discover the story behind the other startups from the Rubik Garage accelerator! #WeAreInThisTogether

Rubik Garage is an equity-free acceleration program aiming to support startups from CEE. We are helping early-stage startups get to their first paying customer, raise investment or go international.

The accelerator started with a Founders Bootcamp in Piatra Neamt. Four months of acceleration will culminate with a Demo Day in September, where startups get the chance to pitch their startup in front of investors. For the most motivated teams, the journey will continue in the next 6-12 months – our team will offer their full support to help them raise an investment round.

If you want to pre-apply for the next Rubik Garage edition, complete this form and be the first one to get the chance of starting their acceleration journey!