Scaling Bob W from Seed to Series A
Domain: hospitality
Founded: 2018
The company
Bob W is a venture capital-backed, tech-enabled hospitality company that merges hotel-like consistency, services and amenities with the authenticity and livability of a home. With their beautifully designed and authentic living spaces, they offer a home away from home for leisure and business travellers alike, no matter if you’re staying for a few nights or a few months. Bob W combines the best of both worlds in tech-powered and sustainably operated properties in Europe’s most interesting neighbourhoods.
Backed by Europe’s top venture capitalists, family offices and entrepreneurs including ByFounders, IDC Ventures, Elevator ventures, Verve VC, NREP, Tesi, and others, they’re building the technology to give every guest a local, contactless five-star experience at scale. Bob W operates in multiple markets in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Finland, and The Netherlands with rapid expansion secured across the continent.
Tech stack
NodeJS, React, Typescript
Docker, Kubernetes, GCP, Gitlab
The project
Our cooperation with Bob W started before they had an in-house recruitment team. We have seen the company's growth from Seed to Series A, and how their hiring and culture have matured over this time.
During this project we learn to look for the candidates who are genuinely interested in working on a product where they can be the end users. That meant we had to adjust our questions during screening calls to select people with the matching mindset.
This topic and many others are covered in our interview with Timur Hassanov, the CTO at Bob W.
Hiring process
🐝 A 30 mins screening call with Bee’s Knees:
Pitching Bob W to the candidate
Questions to the candidate about their experience
Questions to the candidate related to their motivation and cultural fit
Questions to the candidate related to salary, availability, notice period, relocation if applicable
1️⃣ A call with Bob W’s CTO
2️⃣ A homework
3️⃣ Tech interview with the engineering team
4️⃣ Reference check
5️⃣ An interview with the CEO or another founder
Results
🎯 Hires: 5
🧑💻 Roles filled:
JavaScript Engineers (Back End and Front End)
Data Engineer
DevOps
Team Lead
📍 Location: Estonia
Client’s feedback
“If you are looking for a partner that would help you to hire a kickass team of great people - you should look no further, Bee’s Knees is the perfect match for you. Their experience, integrity and dedication to bring the right candidates makes working with them a pleasure. I have collaborated with Olga in 3 different companies and I am planning to continue doing so.”
Timur Hassanov
CTO, Bob W