Sep 9, 2022 9 min read

My Week as a Startup Founder

TalentBee is one month old now! Yay! 🎉 We've had a great start, a lot of things to do, a lot of meetings, discussions and initiatives... As a startup founder you could fullfil your calendar easily in a blink of an eye!

I have had to really learn to prioritize what I spend my time on. It's good to have your strategic focus points figured out from the start. I'm trying to keep my own focus a lot in building our brand, recruiting and doing sales – as you will see when you browse my week in this blog post.

My focus is a lot in building our brand, recruiting and doing sales.

Many people have been asking what I do as a founder of TalentBee & what my weeks consist of. Here's a breakdown of all the stuff & meetings I have had this week!

Monday 5.9.2022

Kicking off the new week with the team. We always start the week together at 9 am to discuss what everyone is doing that week. Go through the meetings. Do we need to prep for something, or do we need help from someone else? Discuss how everyone's weekends were. How everyone is feeling.

We want to create templates for everything we do.

Building an offer for a customer. Next, Siiri & I started to build an offer for EB as a service for one customer on Friday. It took pretty long because we want to create templates for everything we do. Now we have a great template we can use in our future offers for Employer Branding.

Here's what is included in the offer template for employer branding services:

Customer's situation & goals
Benefits of investing in Employer Branding
Employer Brand Strategy
Employer Branding as a service
Some ideas & inspiration for the customer
Our happy customers
Investment

In this particular case, we have some competition. The other offers are from marketing agencies. Not from Employer Branding agencies. I'm pretty sure we can position ourselves in the right way and will win this deal. Hopefully, we do since it would mean we could hire our first employee!

I'm pretty sure customers will like our upcoming website. You can buy our talent acquisition services online. I haven't found any other recruitment / EB agency offering this option!

Working on our upcoming website. Next, it was time to work on our website. It's been taking way longer than I expected, but it will be fantastic when it's done. I'm pretty sure customers will like it. You can buy our services online. I haven't found any other recruitment / EB agency offering this option. You always need to book a call to discuss with a salesperson. No need to do that with us if you don't want to.

Doing sales in a long game. Lastly, I met with an experienced Head of Sales / Head of Customer Success. He was looking for new challenges in a SaaS company, so we had a short call. We would be a great partner to him in his future role. It was a great chat. Sales in a long game, and now the seed is set for the future.

Work-life balance is essential and I'm showing an example of that.

Disc Golf. I started the workday at 9:00 and stopped working at 16:30 to play some Disc Golf. No need to work over hours as an entrepreneur. Work-life balance is essential and I'm showing an example of that.

Tuesday 6.9.2022

Commuting to Helsinki for meetings. On Tuesday the morning started with an early wake-up. Time to take the train to Helsinki where I was staying from Tuesday to Thursday having some meetings.

Random stuff. I used the morning emptying my to-do list. Lots of random stuff like LinkedIn messages, building pricing & packaging and working on our website.

It's always great to get insights from someone who has done something similar to what you are about to do. My favorite way of learning, I must say.

Lunch meeting with a competitor. Finally, it was time for a lunch meeting with our lovely competitor WiSe. I invited their CEO, Jonas, for lunch. We had a great chat about the talent industry and discussed growth, profitability, brand & hiring. It's always great to get insights from someone who has done something similar to what you are about to do. My favorite way of learning, I must say.

Back-to-back meetings. Then I took the metro to our co-founder Siiri's place to work for the afternoon full of back-to-back meetings (I'm still missing some time management skills. Maybe I should set up some blocker time to calendly to make sure this wouldn't happen this often.)

I'm still missing some time management skills. Maybe I should set up some blocker time to calendly to make sure I wouldn't have back-to-back meetings this often.

Going through case tasks with candidates. We had two task phases in our recruitment pipeline. One of them is a content producer joining our Employer Branding team. The other was a senior recruiter from fast-growing SaaS companies with a super exciting background.

Based on the tasks, I would feel comfortable hiring both of them!

It was interesting to see the tasks and share some feedback. Lots of learnings for me as well. Based on the tasks, I would feel comfortable hiring both of them! Interesting to present our Growth plans for them.

What's a growth plan, you might ask? It's our version of a job offer. Rather than making an normal and boring job offer, we are making it extraordinary. A Growth plan where we share:

Persons motivations & skills
Where we see most growth potential
Our offered role in TalentBee
Salary, equity, bonuses & other benefits
A small surprise surprise for the candidate!

Offer walk-through with a potential customer. Then it was time to offer walk-through. It was quite a big deal with + 200 000€ yearly value. It went well & the customer enjoyed it. Or at least that's the feeling I got. Fingers crossed, we will win that case. It would be a massive win for us.

I've been getting a lot of sales messages & calls myself lately. Most of them copy-paste and not-so-good ones. But a few good ones as well. We had a demo with one of them.

A demo call. I've been getting a lot of sales messages & calls lately. Most of them copy-paste and not-so-good ones. But a few good ones as well. We had a demo with one of them. A company called hireproof.io Interesting looking tool for making your recruitment more data-oriented.

We are investing a lot in tech, so we are always open to checking what is in the market. If you have something cool, feel free to ping me!

Master's thesis interview. I also got invited for a short interview for a master's thesis. The topic was about how buying is changing. The writer noticed my LinkedIn post where I shared that companies should optimize their buyer's buying process. She liked the idea and asked to interview me! What a friendly chat!

Website buiding. I don't typically have meetings in the evening, but on Tuesday, I had my last meeting at 18:00 with our website developer. We want to push this out soon, so we need to prioritize some time for this. I'm happy that we found a great partner for this. Check out Aksel from LinkedIn if you need help with Webflow.

Wednesday 7.9.2022

Renting out our apartment. The morning started with an exciting twist. I got a message that our apartment is rented for the next four months. Do you know what that means? We need a new home for a while.

Why we rented our place?

It's pretty expensive, and we are investing all of our money in the growth of TalentBee.
We don't enjoy November here in Finland. We prefer to go somewhere warm for a while.

We will stay in October, mainly in Helsinki, and go somewhere warm in November. Do you have a place free in Helsinki that you would like to rent for a month? Hit me up!

A chat with a potential tech advisor. Next, it was time to find a new advisor. We already have two, but we want a third who would be experienced in scaling a talent team in a tech company. I had a great chat about the topic with one potential advisor. (If you know anyone suitable would appreciate an intro). I learned so much about scaling the tech teams & buying recruitment services!

A chat with an investor. When doing our customer research, we noticed that most of our customers have an investor and are pretty often asking for their opinions. So I wanted to talk with investors to learn more about how they invest in SaaS companies. I messaged Kevin Lösch from Inventure VC, and we had a great chat about what kind of companies they invest in and how they look at the talent side of things. Once again, a lot of learning. (Once again, if you know any investor investing in SaaS companies, I would love an intro!).

Discussing business models. The day continued with a lunch meeting with Juho from Coventures. Some great Nepali food and good discussions about different business models. They are building a home for entrepreneurs who want to do some projects / interim things for growth companies. It seemed like an exciting concept, and they are growing fast. I also got an intro to one potential customer. Lunch, one lead & lot of learnings. Not bad, I must say.

I've been inviting us as a guest to many places. We need to build that brand.

Webinar planning. In the afternoon, we had a webinar planning session with Miira from TalentAdore. They do excellent software in HR tech, and we have a similar target audience, so we decided to host a webinar later this year. I've been inviting us as a guest to many places. We need to build that brand.

Case tasks with candidates. And the day continued with two more task cases with potential candidates for us. (Yes, we are recruiting many people and ensuring that won't be a growth bottleneck for our business!).

Yes, we are recruiting and ensuring that finding talents won't be a growth bottleneck for our business!

Thursday 8.9.2022

I woke up from a sofa in Itäkeskus. I was meeting my friend and crashed on their couch. (No money for hotels when you are starting a business 🤣).

Breakfast with Sari. The day started with Breakfast with the CEO of Advance B2B. It was so great to see Sari! We used to work together before launching TalentBee. She had just closed a big project and was happy about that. We had a great chat about marketing & hiring people. Lots of fun!

I got to see the first version of a pricing calculator for our website.

Working on a price calculator for our website. The day continued with a call with Paavo (Founder of Advance B2B and now Founder of HeadQ, where they help B2B companies sell their services online). We are working with them on a pricing calculator for our website. I got to see the first version of that. Liked it. Few more edits & soon, we will be ready with that. Check them out if you want to start selling your services online.

Some great content coming up soon.

Getting podcast equipment. Then a quick run to Gigantti to find an adapter to connect my camera to my computer. I'm building a proper podcast/video studio in my home. Good mics, a proper camera, proper lighting, and all that stuff. Some great content coming up soon.

Lunch with a potential customer. Next up was lunch with the VP of Engineering in one of Finland's fastest-growing tech companies. Great discussions and a lot of ideas for our services. I got a feeling that they might become our customers someday. It would be so cool!

Writing this blogpost on the train back to Tampere. Next, it was time to take Train back to Tampere and start to write this blog post. This is something I typically do on a train. No need for an internet connection. Put music to my ears and write. Then send this text to Siiri to do some edits and make the text more alive! She does magic. (...Siiri here, smiling while reading and editing this post 😊)

Setting up the podcast studio. I arrived home, where Topi & Jani from Bonfire set up my podcast studio. No idea how to do it, so buying it from someone is more effortless. Shoot them a message if you need help with something similar.

If you are in Tampere, go check out a restaurant called Raina.

Dinner with an ex colleague. On Thursday evening, I had dinner with an ex colleague from Osuuspankki who has launched a restaurant! I enjoyed some great pasta and discussions about running a business, even if it's pretty different from ours. If you are in Tampere, go check out the place called Raina.

Friday 9.9.2022

My Friday plans. Friday's are meeting-free days at TalentBee, so no meetings on Friday! Time to focus on things!

Well, not this Friday. Soon tho. The main reason is that we came up with this idea a week ago, and my calendar was already full.

We have a no-meeting Friday booked from now on in our calendars. I typically stop working at 12:00 and have all the afternoon for myself!

But now we have a booking for each Friday that says no meetings. Just finish all the stuff you have from the week and then end your week early. I typically stop working at 12:00 and have all the afternoon for myself!

The agenda for Friday is the following:

Publish this blog post & share it on LinkedIn & Instagram.
Have training for Procountor to learn how to send those invoices! We partnered up with Emu on our accounting. Waiting for that cooperation. Our advisor recommended that they are suitable for a growth company like ours.
Have a meeting about the potential event with WiSe, FiSe & Talented for talent professionals in tech.
Have lunch with IT recruiter to learn more about the topic.
Offer a walk-through for Employer Branding cooperation.
Have a catch-up for the big offer we presented on Tuesday to hear their feedback & next steps.
Stop working and enjoy the weekend. A few friends are coming over to chill & play some disc golf.

That's it. My week as a founder.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe if you enjoyed it.

Samuli