Syelo Ventures #004

Let's be crass for a second: our goal is to make Syelo members stinking rich. 

If you saw our announcement this month you saw that we launched a $25m incubator to build next generation recruiting tools and while that is super exciting, and one-of-a-kind in the space, it's secondary to our mission. 

As an organization our mission is simple: collective buying power. 

The recruiting industry is saturated with tools that have been built by individuals who have never recruited a day in their life. These folks build products in our space because of how tremendously huge the market is - yet their lack of empathy, understanding and experience creates a fractured ecosystem of tooling where there are dozens of pieces of software that all do the exact same in the exact same way (I am looking at you ATS's). 

AI tools are now being built in our space that are masquerading as friends but are actually foes looking to trick us into helping tie the nooses that eventually hang us: I am looking at you Paraform and Tezi. Don’t be confused, these are not our friends - they are the enemy. Their goal is to leverage recruiters for data & to train their LLMs to eventually replace us. There is no billion dollar recruiting tech story in the AI startup world that does not have their sights firmly targeted in automating us away.

What would happen if we took control of our industry? If we came together and defined the tools we wanted to see, and then went and built them? Who could drive adoption of new tools faster across recruiting than the very buyers they're built for? How would the space change and evolve if the tools built were empathetic, intelligent, and built for us by us? Who could kill a startup faster in our space than us - the collective?

The fact is - this has never been done before and the reality is, if done correctly, we have the potential to change recruiting forever. Syelo is not just a community we are an institution, a movement.

Every single one of our members is a stockholder of Syelo Ventures. As internal operators our only job is to drive value for our stockholders - the brilliant talent leaders who make up our organization. That means that Syelo reports to you. As an ecosystem we have the great honor bringing the best talent leaders in the world and establishing ourselves as investors, thought leaders, and trendsetters. That’s only possible because of the collective.

Collective buying power, lightning in a bottle. 

As we look towards the next 5 years our directive is explicit: Build products that our community greenlights, play moneyball, focus on maximum liquidity in medium size markets, and drive dividends/value to our investors. In this model we build 10-15 small-midsize companies that each generate an average of $15-$20m per year, collectively aggregating between $300m-$500m in annual revenue across our entire suite of products. These tools live independently but also enable the cross selling of products against our entire customer base. 

Our earliest members of Syelo have stock at a $5m pre-money valuation. Today that stock is worth $75m post money and we're just getting started. As we look to the future there is one thing we know - community is everything. You are the secret sauce. You are why we do this. You are the mission. You are what matters. You are who we are building for. 

For us by us. 

2025 in upon us and we are extremely excited for what this year will hold. If you are interested in reviewing our pitch deck please reach out! We are always excited to hear and build with you. A lot of things will happen this year. Please never hesitate to provide your guidance, feedback and assistance - it's always wanted and needed.

-Syelo