Every now and then, we join one of our users for lunch to find out more about the way they recruit. This week, we visited CROWDYHOUSE, where Mark and Suzan hold office with their 20+ (and counting) team.

CROWDYHOUSE is an Amsterdam-based startup who is quickly finding success and growth with their business. Their online marketplace is one that matches designers with customers to allow for the sale of unique, beautiful creations, even on a small scale. The idea is really taking off because it allows designers to showcase their concepts before they have the ability to actually produce them, and the customers can place pre-orders to help fund the creation. Once the designer is more established, they can continue to sell their products to an established fan base.

Please tell us about your recruitment process.

“We started off doing it ourselves, making sub-divisions to differentiate between the type of open positions. Think: Operations, Marketing, and Development. We would reach out to people that had an active opening in our industry and seemed to be a good fit. We’ve posted job offers on niche job boards with visitors related to our industry. Later on, when the team grew, other people took over some of the scouting and now manage the individual departments.”

What are some of the best candidate sources for you?

“Our own website counts for about 25% of all incoming candidates. I would advise other startups to use the traffic of their own site, as it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t recruit there. Some of the concrete sources for us are Olx.in for people in India (SEO), and Dezeenjobs.com -being a great nice site in our industry. We’ve figured out that niche job boards work best in our industry, as that’s where most talents are passionate about design.”

About 20% of all new candidates come in via their own website. The nice job board Deezenjobs counts for about 30%.

How will your hiring change if you grow?

“We will continue to segment departments and give freedom to our employees when it comes to hiring. I think everybody in the company should be able to bring forward new candidates, making every staff member a headhunter for new talent. At the moment, I’m on top of new marketing members, our developer in Bucharest does Technology, and Suzan is on top of new Operation employees. Design scouts actually scout their own interns. We give our new employees a high degree of freedom when it comes to daily tasks, but also when it comes to recruiting. Typically, I join the recruiting team in a late phase for reviewing when most of the selection is already done.”

Any hiring tips for other startups?

“It can be overwhelming when your company takes off and there is a continuous need for new team members. As a founder, your role changes from keeping track of daily operations, to managing team members and recruiting new people. We couldn’t have scaled up this fast without a system like Recruitee. I would advise startups to hire throughout the year (not just when you need new people), and keep all your candidates in an online tool. Give all team members the power to scout new talent, as it’s the future growth of your company. In addition, we aim to create a pleasant work environment. Things like free lunches, Friday afternoon drinks, and party’s from time to time, really help build up a team spirit. Luckily, your efforts will pay off and you’ll find more people finding your site and less need for expensive job promotions.”

We wish a big thank you to Mark for being this open about the CROWDYHOUSE recruitment strategy and showing me the awesome upcoming new website. We’re proud to help your team grow!

Want to hire like CROWDYHOUSE? Let our team know 

If you seek help in structuring and optimizing your hiring process, check Recruitee out! Once you are in the free trial, you can let our team know about your needs in the live chat. During the 18 days of your trial, we will help you get your hiring up and running in no time!

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Read the full version of this post on Recruitee Blog (newsletter: eepurl.com/bMHiZD) 

Hagi Trinh is an avid recruitment writer at Recruitee. The team is working on the greatest hiring platform of all time. You can sign up at recruitee.com to try it out and follow us on Twitter @recruiteeHR.