Seeing the business that was once just an idea my brother, Jordan and I were spitballing around Mum’s kitchen table appear in LinkedIn’s 2021 Top Startups List in Australia is, in a word, astounding. But as siblings to our younger brother, Shane, who had profound disability, we knew the importance of good support. We understood the huge potential of a platform that allowed people to find, hire and manage their own support workers.
Seven years later and Hireup is doing just that for tens of thousands of people with disability and their families. And as LinkedIn has recognised - through measuring the behaviour of its more than 774 million members across areas including employment growth and attraction of top talent - people have been a major driver of our success.
LinkedIn’s acknowledgement is a tribute to the work of the whole Hireup team and community - from the early adopters who took a punt on a new way of doing disability support, to our 200-plus HQ employees and now thousands-strong support workforce. People are what turn a startup into something big - although fortunate timing also plays its part.
Hireup emerged in tandem with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), a world-first, nation-building scheme that made way for fresh, innovative service offerings, like Hireup, to enter the disability sector. More recently, every sector has been scrambling in the wake of another unprecedented force for change - a global pandemic.
We are seeing enormous disruption of industries and businesses that were settled, stagnant and, historically, incredibly hard for newcomers to break into. For startups, this presents a huge, post-COVID opportunity. A ‘roaring twenty-twenties’, if you will.
We’ve undergone a major overhaul and reordering of how people expect to work. Working from home has come to the fore - and as someone who was pregnant and had a baby this past year, I for one am welcoming this change. So are the countless disability advocates who’ve been fighting for more flexible working arrangements for decades.
Now more than ever, businesses have the technology and systems in place to diversify their teams. Here is an opportunity to benefit from the perspectives, experience and skills of people with disabilities who are - often out of necessity - entrepreneurial, innovative and creative thinkers.
The pandemic has also seen established professionals - through force or choice - pivoting their careers. World-class talent is up for grabs and, if Hireup’s recent appointment of ex-Google executive, Jason Chuck, is anything to go by, turning its attention to Australia’s disability sector.
Investors, too, are shifting their focus. Last month, Hireup announced a $40 million strategic partnership with SEEK Investments which will help us continue to expand our reach and impact. As ever, the right people will be crucial to this growth.
We need top talent across the whole gamut of professional functions - from product design, finance and HR to communications and marketing - in order to serve our community well. To work toward our goal of a future that is fully inclusive, for everyone.
Knowing that I’m helping people and families flourish ranks head and shoulders above any other part or perk of my job, and this feeling is shared across our company. Whatever your passion and skills might be, if you bring them to Hireup, you’re bettering the quality of people’s lives.
Hireup is honoured to rank in LinkedIn’s 2021 Top Startups List - and we look forward to welcoming more kindred spirits aboard.
