With a rapidly increasing number of technological businesses in Lithuania, as they grow and expand into other markets, one of the main challenges for the development of startups is a lack of talents. To make it quicker and easier for startups and professionals to discover each other, this year the biggest Lithuanian startup event “Startup Fair: Recharge 2021” presents a new initiative – “Talent Hunt”. Startups and talents looking for new career opportunities are invited to register.

In recent years, technological businesses have grown and expanded despite the pandemic. New solutions and innovations have helped startups attract investment and conquer new markets. However, as in the rest of the world, Lithuania is experiencing a shortage of information technology specialists. According to a representative survey of Lithuanian startups conducted by “Startup Lithuania”, as many as 24% of startups say that a lack of talents is a complicating circumstance for their development.

“Quite a lot of successful global start-ups or technology businesses have emerged exactly in crisis years. Lithuania’s startup ecosystem also showed growth results in the past year. Many start-ups have also expanded and increased their teams, with the number of employees on start-up teams growing by 27% during 2020 and currently reaching 10,500. To help start-ups solve the problem of attracting talents, during the event Startup Fair: Recharge 2021 we will introduce a new initiative “Talent Hunt”, which will help to find new talents and to discover new career opportunities for them,” says Roberta Rudokienė, the Head of the startup ecosystem development unit “Startup Lithuania” of the Public Institution “Enterprise Lithuania”.

The new “Talent Hunt” initiative will take place during the event, held on 3-4 June this year both virtually and live in the outdoor spaces of Vilnius Tech Park.

The “Talent Hunt” is presented by “Startup Lithuania” together with its partners: the initiators of the idea, “Tech Zity”, an organisation that creates infrastructure for the success of startup, and “MeetFrank”, a unique job search platform that will be used for “Talent Hunt”.

“We actively communicate with our community and are aware that attracting new talents and selecting startups is becoming a challenge and an obstacle to moving forward at the speed they want. As they grow, we do also grow, constantly expanding our infrastructure to create conditions for growing teams to establish themselves. The “Talent Hunt” initiative is our aim to help the entire startup community. We are delighted that this idea has received support and will be fulfilled during “Startup Fair: Recharge 2021”,” says Lina Dabašinskaitė, head of “Tech Zity” community.

According to Raido Soom, vice president of sales at the secret recruitment platform “MeetFrank”, this initiative is a sample of great synergy: the startup creates for startups.

“We see how difficult it is for young startups to become desirable employers. Attracting talent as such is particularly important for them to further develop their products. We can help such companies tell their story and we hope we will help them find the talent they need. I sincerely hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation between the two sides,” says R. Soom.

R. Soom says that the hiring process between a typical company and a startup can vary considerably in many cases, but there are also quite a lot of similarities. “A new and promising start-up can often experience problems trying to find the best talent due to the awareness of the brand in the market. This problem will not arise for established and already known companies. On the other hand, it can be difficult for these companies to prove that they can be attractive and innovative,” says R. Soon.

In his opinion, the search for new workers had recently been affected by the pandemic. Even many large companies had to leave their comfort zone and rethink the recruitment process. The whole recruitment and work process has changed. It is now much more flexible in terms of the presentation of a brand or idea to candidates as well as the flexibility of the job position itself and the form of work.

Lina Jasaitė, managing director at “Kilo Health”, which become one of the most active startups in hiring last year, says that not only the company chooses a candidate, but the candidate also chooses the company, so the recruitment process should not be stressful or nerve-racking.

“Startups are keen to grow quickly. Compared to a conventional company, a fast-growing company usually offers significantly more opportunities for professional and personal growth. Our candidates often understand this difference already in job interviews,” says L. Jasaitė.

The organisers of the “Startup Fair: Recharge 2021” event are inviting both startups and talents to register and take part in the “Talent Hunt” initiative. Startups can already put forward their job offers, and talents can apply for them. For more information, click HERE.

About the event:

This year’s “Startup Fair: Recharge 2021” main parts will be a conference focusing on education technology (EdTech), cybersecurity solutions (CyberTech), and other technologies. In addition, the most successful Lithuanian startups, newly established startups that have managed to find new opportunities and grow during the pandemic, and other representatives of the ecosystem will share their experiences and lessons learned and startups contest “Pitch Battle”. The event will also include individual meetings between startups and investors.

“Startup Fair: Recharge 2021” is the largest startup event in the Baltic States, which has been organized by the startup ecosystem development unit “Startup Lithuania” of Entrepreneurship Promotion Agency Enterprise Lithuania, for the 9th year in a row. This year the two-day event will take place on 3-4 June and will be organised in a hybrid format, where a limited number of participants will have the opportunity to attend the event live in the outdoor spaces of Vilnius Tech Park, while the entire event will be streamed for free to everyone online. More information on “Startup Fair: Recharge 2021” and the startup competition “Pitch Battle” will be available at www.startupfair.lt