85. Scout

Founders: Ed Jenner and Adam Horne
Founded: 2020
Website: wearescout.io

As if the cost of living, rising fuel prices, supply-chain disruption and recession weren’t enough for small businesses to contend with, there’s now all the fun of a hiring crisis affecting industries across the UK – including startups and tech businesses.

But with company budgets stretched thin, it’s proving even more of a challenge for small businesses to invest in their own hiring teams to help find a way through.

Co-founders Ed Jenner and Adam Horne set up Scout with one mission in mind – to help startups affected by the pandemic get back on their recruitment feet.

Scout achieves this by embedding its own talent partners into businesses, for a set period of time. This allows the company to intimately understand its clients’ culture and operational needs, and source the talent needed to succeed.

Co-founders Ed Jenner and Adam Horne set up Scout with one mission in mind – to help startups affected by the pandemic get back on their recruitment feet.

The model itself isn’t necessarily unique, but the pricing approach sets Scout apart and makes it more appealing at a time where every business is looking at their bottom line as never before.

“We are considerably more competitive than the rest of the market”, says Jenner, “given that we absorb a lot of the risk by splitting it across a monthly ‘retainer’ and a ‘success fee’ per hire we make.”

In effect, the pricing means that Scout itself absorbs more of the risk than the company partnering with them, should a successful hire not be made.

Jenner points to the massive financial benefits for businesses working with the Scout model, claiming that “to date, we’ve saved our clients over £7 million on hiring costs.”

Jenner points to the massive financial benefits for businesses working with the Scout model

The list of partner clients is testament to the appeal of Scout’s approach. It has partnered with the likes of Wise, Moneybox, Beauty Pie, Dext and Multiverse – the latter taking last year’s Startups 100 top spot.

For Scout itself, growth plans are vast. The business currently has offices in London and New York, and plans to expand to Berlin, Amsterdam and Singapore over the next five years. Along the way, it envisions its own workforce growing from 60 to over 400 employees.

With hiring becoming ever more competitive, Scout has a huge opportunity to continue its growth trajectory. But for Jenner, remaining true to its company values is paramount: “Our people are the most important facet of our business, and as long as we continue to hire great talent, we will continue to achieve our goals and objectives.”