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Pieter van Herpen

Founder | leveling up your hiring game with OpenTalent | backing exceptional founders with Kaas.vc | operating out of Portugal 🇵🇹

Pieter van Herpen is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with a diverse background in various industries and areas of expertise.

Originally from The Netherlands and having lived in different countries like Singapore and New Zealand, Pieter's career has been marked by global experiences and successes.

After completing his education with a Master's in International Management from Esade, Pieter ventured into the corporate world with roles at Procter & Gamble and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) before moving on to founding his first business, Syndy.com, a data exchange platform for CPG companies.

During his tenure at Syndy, Pieter raised venture capital, served as the CEO for 8 years, and eventually sold the business to Icecat, where he continued as the Chief Innovation Officer.

Pieter's investment portfolio includes ventures like ProductPine, Vormats, Conservio, and Seasogood, showcasing his keen eye for innovative startups and disruptive technologies.

In 2021, Pieter launched Kaas, a venture firm focused on curated party rounds, aiming to fund and launch promising companies, with successful investments like OpenTalent.co under its belt.

OpenTalent.co, Pieter's brainchild under Kaas, offers smart Talent Pooling software for companies to streamline their candidate selection processes, with the recent acquisition of a majority stake by HeadFirst Group in 2022.

Pieter's professional journey is a testament to his strategic vision, entrepreneurial spirit, and deep understanding of the tech and business landscape, making him a respected figure in the startup and investment community.

Highlights

Aug 26 · linkedin

This is an absolute goldmine for anyone hiring freelancers.

A benchmarking report with the average hourly rates of 27.096 freelancers across Europe (29 different countries)

You’ll find the average rates for 135 popular jobs across:

Admin & Customer Support Commerce / Sales Consulting Creative & Design Data & Analytics Engineering Finance HR / Recruitment IT & Development Legal Marketing & Growth Writing & Translation

At OpenTalent we want companies to be well informed of the real costs of hiring freelancers, so they can avoid crazy markups from third party suppliers.

The report is available for free.

Like this post + comment 'YES' and I'll send over the link.

And hit me up with feedback/questions, so we can improve!

  • Pieter
Jul 24 · linkedin

Have you ever been part of a company’s talent pool?

I asked 186 professionals and this is what they said:

'You sign up, fill out forms, and then... nothing'

It's like being dropped in a black hole.

The uncomfortable truth about talent pools: they often fail candidates.

Why?

Because most companies and their talent pools:

  • Lack clear communication
  • Fail to provide transparency
  • Don’t accurately match skills to opportunities
  • Prioritise lowest rates
  • Ignore newcomers

What makes it worse is a sense of isolation.

Pople want community and engagement.

The 'old way' of running a talent pool:

1/ Collect as many candidates as possible 2/ Use outdated systems to match candidates with jobs 3/ Offer minimal communication and support

At OpenTalent we think that the candidate experience is one of the most important parts of a successful talent pool.

Some things we're doing to fix things:

  • Dedicated communication channels to keep candidates informed
  • Candidate engagement programs and exclusive perks
  • Clear guidelines on how things work and what candidates can expect
  • Advanced skills-based matching powered by AI (ChatGPT)
  • Direct communication with companies & in-house recruiters
  • Competitive and fair compensation and transparency on rates
  • Initiatives to help newbies and new profiles get noticed
  • Space for knowledge sharing and in-platform networking
  • Simplified sign-up and job application processes
  • Join multiple talent pools with a single registration
  • Direct chat with our support team

Ever thought of starting a talent pool?

Or want to share your experience of being in one?

Let's talk

✌🏼

Pieter van Herpen
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Location

Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal