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Free Agency
Talent agency for the tech industry
- 21-100 employees
- B2C
- B2B
- Marketplace
- Recruitment
- HR
- Two Bridges, New York, NY
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Company mission
To empower people to reach the highest levels of their career potential.
33% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
Free Agency is a talent agency startup offering career support and services to employees in the tech sector. In the spirit of entertainment and sports agents, Free Agency currently helps negotiate and manage a client’s career change, in exchange for 5-10% of their first year’s salary. The company's longer-term plan, however, is to become more deeply involved with its clients’ skill cultivation and career strategy.
The company is betting that workers in high demand for lucrative, incentive-rich positions will be inclined to opt for advocacy and industry expertise, much like star talent does in other industries. It represents a drastic reimagining of the job market, but with so much money on the table for tech sector employees, it's possible that some players will want help navigating it.
The demand for tech workers, however, may prove something of a double-edged sword: those with a wealth of options may deem it unnecessary to shell out for an agent if they are already being courted by attractive companies. Free Agency does enjoy investor confidence from the likes of Bloomberg BETA and Ludlow - and the company is still relatively young, having been founded in 2019, so its development in the talent space will be one to watch.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- 100% medical, dental, vision
- Weekly team lunch, wellness events, and an overly stocked kitchen
- Employee ownership via equity
- Generous time-off policy and company-wide recharge weeks
- You'll get to own and join initiatives immediately
- Learn and network within tech - we're a startup about other startups.
Company values
- Bet on aptitude over experience: We live in a the world of talent and know that people are severely underrated. Great people achieving their potential are what make great teams
- Obsess over storytelling: Whether it's an internal memo to change process or the way we sell a client's career, narratives and thoughtful writing make a big difference
- Make probabilistic decisions: Every choice is a bet on the likelihood of an outcome. Thinking in probabilities makes decisions less intimidating, unlocking quick movement
- Lead with opinion: We see careers, recruiting processes, teams, and companies at scale. Our informed opinion and trove of data enable us to improve the lives of our clients
- Embrace a long time horizon: We have a vision of the world and are creating a new category. We build both for today and for the next several generations of our clients' careers
- Experiment, tinker, and reinvent: We constantly remind ourselves that our best ideas are still ahead us. If there is a better way to do something, we rush toward it
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Dec 2021
$10m
EARLY VC
Jan 2020
$3m
SEED
Total funding: $15.4m
Leadership
Sherveen Mashayekhi
(CEO)Worked in Business Development at Bounce Exchanged, and co-founded JobHero. Was Head of Product at Stella.ai.
Alex Rothberg
(CTO)Studied Computer Science and Economics at MIT before co-founding WebNotes (now Crocodoc). Was VP of Engineering at CompIQ.