(Editor’s note: This post about Landing.Jobs is part of our Tech Tuesday series. Dispatches Europe tracks the tech scene – startups, scale-ups and mature companies – across Europe because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers, physicists and developers. Want your startup featured? Email: [email protected])
The Portuguese start-up Landing.Jobs is all about connecting highly skilled tech professionals with the job market. I spoke with Diogo Oliveira, CEO of Landing.Jobs, to find out how they do it, and most importantly, how they do it differently.
Sarah Nagaty :
The idea of Landing.Jobs seems to be what many professionals out there need: job opportunities made available to the users via algorithms which use one’s interest, experience and preferences. However, what makes Landing.Jobs different from other startups or enterprises offering the same service? And where did the idea come from?
Diogo Oliveira:
We saw too many high-potential individuals stuck in their corporate careers and many fast-paced businesses unable to find the right fit. When we interviewed candidates, we realised the usual job search experience was opaque, painful and incorporated very little feedback. That’s when we decided to create a candidate-first marketplace to tackle all these issues.
Landing.Jobs allows candidates to access curated handpicked jobs while receiving constant feedback from our career advisors and even get first-hand content we produce about the tech career industry (we release an updated salary report every year, for example). At the same time, we’re saving companies time because we match them with only right-fit candidates.
With the acceleration of the remote work trend, we decided to extend our offer to become the most trusted partner for companies to build tech teams overseas. That means that more than finding candidates, companies can also employ and pay workers anywhere in the world in a compliant way. We’re allowing our clients to get one single experience and one single monthly invoice on the journey of growing their tech teams.
Sarah Nagaty:
Tell us a little bit about your funding story. Landing.Jobs raised 2 million euros in 2020. How did it all begin?
Diogo Oliveira:
We prefer camels to unicorns because they are real and highly resistant. We put sustainability first and constantly balance growth and cash flow. That’s why we decided to always raise small (amounts) of capital, enough to leverage the right opportunities to grow. We raised 750,000 euros in 2015 to build our marketplace platform and then in 2020, we raised 1.6 million euros to extend our offer to paying tech professionals overseas.
After eight years, we’re still growing at a decent rate. In 2021, we doubled our net revenue with no additional external streams of capital. But more importantly, we believe we have solid foundations for the next steps.
Sarah Nagaty:
What would you say are the main achievements of Landing.Jobs so far?
Diogo Oliveira:
Definitely the fact that we’ve changed more than 4,000 lives. We’re working towards a purpose where we give tech professionals the right opportunity to have an impact and quality of life. Sometimes in the form of relocating to a safer country, sometimes in a new challenging environment where they can grow, always followed by a better compensation scheme. We strongly believe in our mission and its impact.
We are also proud of making an impact while maintaining an excellent financial discipline. We just came off eight consecutive months of profitability.
At Landing.Jobs we teach the art of making more with fewer resources, which is a lesson everyone should implement in their lives on a planet suffering from environmental abuses.
Sarah Nagaty:
Do you feel that Lisbon growing as a tech hub is benefiting your business?
Diogo Oliveira:
Absolutely. We are lucky to operate in an industry that keeps growing every day and we like to see our home ecosystem grow. We can proudly say we contributed to its development by relocating expats and international (highly) experienced individuals. We also constantly support re-skilling programs to provide new tech opportunities for people without a career path.
Nevertheless, we have global aspirations where we will become the number one player building tech teams in Europe. That means that more than the growth of Lisbon, we clearly benefit from this tech boom we see in Europe.
Sarah Nagaty:
And what are your plans for the future?
Diego Oliveira:
After building solid foundations, we can aim for growth all around Europe. We want to allow businesses expanding overseas grow smoother and friction-free by providing access to one unique platform that can save them time finding, on-boarding and paying for their workforce. At the same time, we want to allow tech professionals from low- and middle-income economies to work remotely for challenging and high-income companies or even relocating to countries where they feel more comfortable. We want to let them choose where they want to work from and give them all necessary legal and admin tools to make it happen in the right way.
We plan to do that with a people-driven culture, where individuals can get a decent level of empowerment, freedom, and flexibility in order to unlock remarkable outcomes. We want to inspire new generations of professionals to work smarter and more productively and, above all, put the workforce at the centre of the winning equation.
Interviewee: Diogo Oliveira, CEO @ Landing.Jobs
About the author:
Sarah Nagaty is a PhD researcher of cultural studies in Lisbon. She’s lived in Portugal for three years.
As a student of cultural studies, Sarah is drawn to what connects people from different backgrounds to new cultures and places, how they relate to their new surroundings and what kinds of activities they could engage with in their new hometowns.
See all of Sarah’s Dispatches posts here.
See Dispatches’ Lisbon story archive here.
Sarah Nagaty has a PhD in cultural studies, She’s lived in Portugal for six years.
As a student of cultural studies, Sarah is drawn to what connects people from different backgrounds to new cultures and places, how they relate to their new surroundings and what kind of activities they could engage with in their new hometowns.
