“We see ourselves as a 360-degree talent augmentation partner for fast-growing businesses looking to scale their workforce in double-quick time.”
Shailesh A. Kantak (Founder & CEO, Flexi Ventures)
With the motto of “We grow, when you grow. We succeed, when you succeed”, a fervent man with over two decades of experience incepted Flexi Ventures in 2014, India’s first Talent-as-a-Service platform when the flexible work was in a nascent stage.
Regardless of the size of the organization, great talent is the backbone of any successful organization. There is nothing more challenging than hiring the right pool of talent. Most times, the demand for expert talent is sporadic. Flexi Ventures creates a collaborative ecosystem that allows flexibility for organizations to onboard highly skilled, expert and professional talent in double-quick time.
Flexi Ventures is a highly renowned Strategic Staffing Solutions provider to all those businesses looking to augment their workforce. The company’s engagement with its clients goes beyond talent acquisition. It also involves itself in organization design, employee life-cycle management, compensation, performance management and other different aspects of Human Capital Management.
“Our services provide our clients the flexibility to not just hire employees on their own rolls, but to also onboard independent consultants, freelancers and a temporary project-based workforce,” says Shailesh.
THE MAN BEHIND THE BRAND
Shailesh A. Kantak is the Founder and CEO of Flexi Ventures. He is extremely passionate about digitalization, collaboration, career development and human psychology.
He completed his engineering degree and followed it up with a Postgraduate degree in Management Studies from Welingkars, Mumbai in 1991. After completing his education, he started his corporate career spanning 21 years across consumer durables and telecom in large corporates like Blow Plast, BPL Mobile, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.
The entrepreneurial bug bit him in 2012 which led to the incorporation of Flexi Ventures Pvt. Ltd. in 2014 along with two of his ex-colleagues, Jeetendra Korde and Sameep Das. As the CEO and Founder of the company, he is responsible for the overall operations at Flexi Ventures.
THE INCEPTION TALE
Back in 2012, the concept of flexible working wasn’t common at all. Shailesh conceptualized the digital platform for freelancers and independent consultants when this entire concept was nascent in India. In India, freelancing was not a very sought-after career choice. But as it is said, “Life is all about taking risks. If you never take a risk, you will never achieve your dreams”, he took the plunge to set up FlexiPort, a digital platform for Freelancers and Independent Consultants.
Great things never come easy. While adoption was encouraging, monetization was a big challenge to overcome. In around 3 years, the company had more than 40,000 freelancers and 5,000 businesses registered on the platform but it was burning cash. That’s when Shailesh decided to get into the offline space as well with the third-party contractual staffing services. The tech space was picking up pace and the company was able to quickly deploy resources with IT companies.
“While numbers weren’t big, we were able to sustain and survive,” says Shailesh with pride.
THE SERVICE PORTFOLIO
Flexi Ventures works as trusted talent partners for fastest-growing businesses enabling them to effectively compete in the dynamic business environment. The main services offered by the company include:
- Temporary/Contractual Staffing
- Contract to Hire
- Permanent Staffing
- HR Consulting
While it specializes in tech hiring, it also assists businesses on-board non-tech talent at the middle and senior levels in the hierarchy. The expert recruiters of the company have immense knowledge and diverse experience in understanding the needs and requirements of the clients.
“Our area of core competence is in talent augmentation of tech resources. We proudly say that our team of expert recruiters and consultants have the requisite experience and knowledge in Talent Acquisition for tech companies,” says Jeetendra Korde, Co-Founder and Director.
THE DIFFERENTIATING FACTORS
Flexi Ventures is pioneering Talent-as-a-Service in India since 2014. Some of the factors that position the company apart from similar-sized players in the market are:
- It continues to champion the concept of both online and offline services.
- It is a 360-degree talent augmentation partner for fast-growing businesses looking to scale their workforce in double-quick time.
- It partners with businesses right from the design stage and helps them build an agile workforce at the most efficient cost.
- Its core value proposition is about helping businesses onboard the right talent at the right time and at the right cost.
- Its expert recruiters have the knowledge and experience in understanding the client requirements very well.
THE DIVERSE CLIENT BASE
Although Flexi Ventures majorly engages with middle and large-sized organisations, especially in the IT and ITES sector, it also works with new-age start-ups for their tech requirements and large non-tech organisations in the FMCG, Health and BFSI Sectors.
Transparency is the key to creating trust as it helps eliminate any suspicions or anxieties that a client might have in regard to the value of the service a company offers. Flexi Ventures believes that strong relationships are built on trust and transparency, therefore it has been its guiding principle since its inception days.
“Our communication with our clients is frequent, transparent, and objective. Our emphasis on Excellence in Execution necessitates a strong “outside-in” orientation both for people and processes,” says Shailesh.
FLEXI VENTURES: A KEY TO A COMPANY’S SUCCESS
Unquestionably, the pandemic has put Human Resources in the spotlight. From being a support function, HR is now perhaps one of the most critical business functions for most organisations. It is today at the forefront in driving people strategies – from hiring to well-being and from workforce engagement to performance management in the new business ecosystem.
While the rules of the game have completely changed, delivery of business outcomes has not, and HR is actively partnering with other strategic functions in achieving business goals.
Flexi Ventures plays the role of a critical HR partner for various businesses. Right from the ideation stage to fulfilment, it works closely with clients in the areas of talent acquisition and onboarding. Its next commitment is towards building a collaborative ecosystem where the clients can connect with highly skilled specialists.
“Through our core expertise in hiring and managing an agile and flexible workforce, we enable businesses on their journey to success. Besides, our workforce solutions create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the ecosystem,” adds Sameep Das, Co-Founder and Director.
THE GROWTH STRATEGIES
Flexi Ventures believes that a comprehensive growth strategy considers a spectrum of opportunities, from quick wins to broader strategic transformations. The five pillars of Flexi Ventures’s strategic roadmap are:
- Excellence in Execution
- Building long-term partnerships
- Nurturing a culture of performance
- Data based decision making
- Automation and Digitisation
A CLOSE-KNIT TEAM
This is a century of rapid change where everybody wants to experiment, expand, and explore. People have learnt to adapt to new conditions. While these changes make employees independent, it becomes highly difficult to build a close-knit team of employees that is closely linked and can brainstorm to come up with unique ideas. Fortunately, Flexi Ventures’s highly talented team always stays connected.
Post the first lockdown, Flexi Ventures realized that it does not really need a physical office anymore and building a diverse team in terms of location and gender would be a rational approach to adopt. Today, all the team members of Flexi Ventures work remotely across the country and are capable and committed enough to implement business strategies and take Flexi Ventures to infinity heights.
Some crucial aspects that the company focuses on to strengthen teamwork and performance are:
- Regular and transparent communication through weekly team meetings
- A 100% objective evaluation of performance
- Disproportionate rewards and recognition for performers
- Use of automation to help enhance productivity
- Digitisation of processes
THE POWERFUL SUCCESS MANTRA
In Shailesh’s opinion, success is delivering profitable growth. His success mantra is building a committed and passionate team hungry for success. He believes that “All other aspects of the business are only facilitators. People are the real game-changers.”
AN IMPACTFUL MISSION
Flexi Ventures aspires to make available expert HR consulting and talent augmentation solutions to organizations that enable them to achieve their operational, financial and business vision.
AN ASPIRATIONAL VISION
Over the next 5 years, the company envisions becoming one of India’s Top 5 Human Capital Management companies, providing expert HR consulting and talent augmentation solutions.
“We, for sure, will be preferred by our clients and loved by our employees for our exemplary client servicing and an empowering work culture,” says Shailesh with affirmation.
The last year and a half have truly been vitalizing for Flexi Ventures. Due to the pandemic, remote working and temporary staffing became the way of work for numerous companies. Concomitantly, the demand for tech resources also shot up significantly. Flexi Ventures pioneering foray into this space has clearly given them an early mover advantage. Currently, Flexi Ventures is working with 3 business verticals and each one is showing an aggressive growth trajectory.
