How Cavalry is helping their portfolio companies hire for success
About the company
Cavalry Ventures is a Berlin based pre-seed and seed venture capital investor. Cavalry backs European enterprise and consumer software startups that contribute to a better future.
Founded in 2016, Cavalry has invested in over 50 companies across multiple funds. Notable investments include Aleph Alpha, Flip, Forto, PlanRadar, Spread, and Usercentrics.
Challenge
Hiring exceptional talent is a difficult task for all early stage companies as they race towards a quick launch of their MVPs, and the startups in Cavalry's portfolio are no exception to this.
For Cavalry, the challenge lies in effectively aiding their companies in acquiring top engineers, AI/data specialists, and similar, in order to secure a competitive advantage in the intense competition for skilled talent.
Solution
To assist Cavalry and their portfolio, we've created a special setup with priority staffing, dedicated sourcing and the ability to employ freelancers directly after an initial project term ('try before you buy' for both parties). All with a nice discount.
In this format, we were able to assist over a third of all portfolio companies and, in the process, also fill multiple 'Head of' and Team Lead roles.
"UPPER is a tremendous help for many of our companies. As investors we know all too well the damage a poor hire can cause to a young company .. in this sense UPPER is greatly reducing our risk."
Partner & Co-Founder
solution implementation Timeline
Team for a new Climate Tech
Staff a Web Frontend and Design team for a UK Climate Startup following their seed round
Adrian
- JavaScript
- Vue
- React
- VueX
- +10
Aleksandar
- JavaScript
- React
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- +10
Chris
- UX Design
- UI Design
- Product Design
- +10
Csaba
- UI/UX Design
- Design Lead
- Branding
- +10
Team for an AI Startup
Augment an existing team with Backend, DevOps and Design talent for 12+ months
Cătălin
- UX Design
- UI Design
- Figma
- Sketch
- +7
Bojan
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- React
- +10
Dmytro
- Terraform
- CI/CD
- DevOps
- Kubernetes
- +10
Vlad
- Python
- Docker
- AWS
- MongoDB
- PostgreSQL
- +10
Team for a Travel Startup
Staff a Full Stack Web team for an AI Travel Startup to develop their web applications
Radu
- React
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Node.js
- +10
Artur
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Node.js
- .NET
- +15
Alexandru
- PHP
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- AWS
- Python
- +10
Alex
- Node.js
- JavaScript
- React
- MySQL
- +10
Staffing on demand ...
Staffing talent on a regular basis as an on demand 'talent workbench' with guaranteed quality and speed.
UPPER allowed us to quickly hire an exceptional engineer for a short experimental project. He was so talented that we decided to hire him permanently!
CEO at Quine
Key Results
The solution enables Cavalry's portfolio companies to identify and hire the exact talent they need to build their products.
- 25+ people hired
- 11+ startups assisted
- 35% avg. lower costs
- 17 months avg. hire
CAVALRY benefited from
Speed
Hired over 25 senior developers and other tech roles with an average time per hire of 4 days.
Expertise
UPPER's CTO-level tech experts and talent specialists as 'team architects'.
Security
UPPER's vetting guarantees a high level of talent quality and reduces the risk of a bad hire.
