Skip to content
Case study · Entertainment

STAGE built a 7+ engineer team ahead of Series B

STAGE was profitable and growing after its Series A, and needed an engineering team that could carry it to Series B. We reshaped the org chart, sent first profiles in 48 hours, and used our compensation data to make the offers competitive.

  • Entertainment
  • Series A to B
  • 10-to-100 Scaling
  • ML
  • Android
  • Full Stack
STAGE's OTT platform for Haryanvi movies and web series
STAGE's OTT platform for Haryanvi movies and web series
7+ Team Members
2 Days to First Hire
48 Hours to First Profiles
10-15x ESOP Increase Post-Hiring
The Challenge

A team to design, not seats to fill

  • Org design for scale
  • ML, Android and full stack
  • Senior and leadership hires
  • ESOP benchmarking
  • 10 to 100 growth

STAGE was not filling vacancies. They were preparing for a growth phase their existing engineering structure could not carry, and wanted the structure itself reworked before anyone was hired.

The hiring spanned ML, Android and full stack, and had to move quickly. A standard recruitment process would have filled the roles STAGE already had, not the ones the next stage needed.

How We Did It

First profiles in 48 hours, first hire in 2 days

We structured STAGE's engineering org, sourced against that structure, and used our compensation data so the offers held up against what the market was paying.

  1. 1

    Roles defined before sourcing

    We worked with STAGE on the org chart, setting out roles, responsibilities and compensation for the 10x growth they were planning rather than the team they had.

  2. 2

    Screened on 50+ data points

    STAGE's CTO Shashank kept meeting candidates with 10 to 15 years of experience and no real depth or leadership record. We track 50+ data points per candidate, and screened for senior engineers with proven team-leading experience and portfolios behind it.

  3. 3

    Offers backed by market data

    Our compensation data supported a 10-15x increase in STAGE's ESOP packages, which is what made their offers competitive for the engineers they wanted to keep.

In Their Words

I've never seen anybody share such great tech profiles, nothing else comes close.

Shashank Vaishnav

Shashank Vaishnav

Co-founder and CTO, STAGE

Who We Placed
  • Abhishek Tiwari

    Abhishek Tiwari

    Senior Software Engineer

  • Shailesh Kumar

    Shailesh Kumar

    Software Engineer

The Impact

Seven engineers in, leadership roles filled

Abhishek Tiwari joined as a senior software engineer and Shailesh Kumar as a software engineer, part of a team that grew past 7 with every leadership role filled.

The first hire closed 2 days after the brief, and the ESOP work meant STAGE could hold on to the people it hired. That leaves STAGE with an engineering team built for the growth ahead rather than the stage it just left.

100% Leadership Roles Filled
15x ESOPs Increase
Series B Ready to Go
10-100 Growth