When Kevin I. Koh and Ingrid Witt, the founders of Monument Meetings, were hunting for recruitment platforms that allow students to bring their optimistic and possibility-oriented mindset to start-ups or scale-ups, they came across Minite.  Minite added the unique value addition of assuring that they were hiring a vetted, verified student/High-Flyer.

Monument Meetings is the outreach, resourcing and revenue platform of Thought Experiment Laboratory – a social enterprise incubator for science communication and wellbeing.

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“The beauty of Minite is going from human resources to actually unlocking human potential.”

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Monument Meetings provides highly bespoke events curation for monumental moments in personal or organizational life. “We provide a national heritage space. It’s a Rijksmonument. We don’t just provide the physical space, but a curated experience (a.k.a full stack). The event organizing component, the space, the aesthetic detailing, the facilitation, the catering, all of it is bespoke.”

When asked what challenges they faced during the hiring process, Kevin answers: “We needed a marketing specialist. Someone able to analyze the market needs, our needs, the full stack of making a project plan, executing it, and being self-starting and reliably following-through in alignment with that plan. That’s what we knew we needed. Minite then helped us understand exactly what it was that we needed in technical terms. They helped us shape a vision of the ‘analytical marketer’ we were looking for.”

And what about their interaction with Minite, prior to posting their job? “We had a human-to-human conversation with Minite – which helped us crystalize what our needs were. And then, they helped guide and facilitate the selection process. That's the game-changing, distinguished aspect of collaborating with Minite instead of just posting something on Glassdoor or Indeed.”

An attentively customised experience for everyone: why the selection process worked

For a start-up with so many moving parts, Minite was instrumental in helping us get a sense of the bigger picture. That attention to detail and proactive customisation was a game changer.” Kevin and Ingrid were searching for something specific, and Minite was able to meet their needs through their very own High-Flyer Magdalena (“Maggy”). Maggy, a student who, in Kevin’s words, “has the combination of diverse and relevant previous experience plus the personality and mindset to enjoy the autonomous self-starting blank canvas the position requires.”

All in all, the posting and selection process took a mere ten days! “We thought it was ludicrous. We’ve tried hiring through Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn - we spent a lot of money on LinkedIn, even specifically sending the ad, hands-on analyzing for potential fits, and personally messaging candidates - ‘you may be interested in applying for this’ - and they came back with nothing.” Kevin noted that, frequently, individuals on LinkedIn, when asked a big question that requires initiative, merely ghosted him. But that is not the case with Minite. “Most platforms for hiring personnel were a similarly experience to the lack of facilitation and result – except for Minite.”

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“Our High-Flyer has taken on a robust technical toolkit, with a fresh pair of eyes and the full spectrum of her ability - from content creation to analysis to psychology.”

So, what does Maggy, who was so quickly handpicked for this role, do for the company? “She’s dealt with coming up with the initial background research on the concept - how what we're doing in terms of marketing (online and offline) can be optimized based on the research of how our competitors are doing it. She’s executed the initial technical aspects of inserting code into our website. She’s done SEO.” “For a radical early-stage start-up, Maggy has crucially been effectively handling a very concrete and measurable operational component, she’s an excellent analytical marketeer"

Minite prides itself in being able to help provide the best kind of students; in this case, Kevin sought a self-starter, someone who can take the knowledge and insights acquired in an academic context and implement this in a tangible, actionable way.

“She’s taken on a robust technical toolkit, with a fresh pair of eyes and the full spectrum of her ability - from content creation to analysis to psychology.”

And all that is reflected in the pay. “We chose to not go for the standard 20-25 euros an hour. Being able to get there at the beginning of a talent blossoming, that's why we did a higher rate.” But that’s not all, as High-Flyer Maggy was given more and more initiative and responsibility within the emerging start-up. “She’s been entrusted with a full-on blank canvas to be a visionary as well as the author of a measurable action plan that translates into operational deliverables/outcomes.”

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“It’s very rare that you get something that is fast, reliable. It actually never happened in such an effective and timely manner except with Minite.”

Shared and added value: directly from Minite’s talent pool

“We love Maggy’s fresh perspective. Students are not boxed in yet. It's a strong distinguishing point.”

When asked whether they have seen a significant difference between their company before and after Maggy joined, Kevin had this to say. “It’s amazing to have that structured, methodological approach. Maggy has only been with us for one and a half months, but things like call to action have become a buzzword. With a fresh approach, she’s really imbued it into our startup.”

As his final parting words, Kevin praised Minite for managing to grow and retain a culture of human potentiality. “So many people are just in HR, but Minite is actually building. Minite has managed to build, grow and enshrine this amazing culture, creating win-win situations. Everyone wins; the startup, the student, Minite, the entire ecosystem.

At Minite we are all about promoting potential growth in our students. It is all about allowing our High-Flyers to have a chance to shine and showcase their skills, their capabilities, and their ambition. If that were not the case, they would not be soaring high!

So, if you are on the fence for hiring a skilled student freelancer with Minite, take that leap and we’ll help you out every step of the way. Whether you’re our future High-Flyer or a company seeking young, ambitious talent, Post your freelancing job or project today and come join our ever-growing community!