Tutoring app Kadama is looking to grow its team after finding office space in Bellevue this summer. After raising a $1.7 million seed round in June, ramping up quickly is proving to be no small task.
Co-founder and CEO Amin Shaykho said the company currently consists of five people, with another four employees to be added in the next month. Shaykho estimates he is doing about 20 interviews a day to fill the open positions, which range from engineering to product to customer success, and the company aims to have around 12 to 15 employees by the end of the year.
"From 11 a.m. all the way until 11 p.m., I had an interview every single spot," Shaykho said. "As many people as I can talk to means more people down the line getting to the final round. It's really hard to get somebody who meets culture and the skill sets as well. To find that bridge is really complicated."
The push to speak with as many candidates as possible has sometimes led to overbooking when one of Kadama's other co-founders has had to miss an interview because of other work. Shaykho said he has managed this by jumping back and forth between simultaneous introduction meetings, which he adds are shorter, high-level conversations for basic screening.
"We're not going to waste an opportunity to meet somebody incredible," Shaykho said.
Kadama settled into office space in downtown Bellevue in July. The space, a roughly 650-square-foot WeWork private office for Kadama, has conference space and room for about 14 desks, Shaykho said.
Kadama connects students with tutors, the goal being to connect people of roughly the same age for a more relatable experience. The company also has a heavy social media presence, where it promotes school tips and life hacks on TikTok and Instagram. A beta of the app that was focused on housework services launched in 2018 before pivoting to tutoring in 2019.
Dani Shaykho, Amin's brother, and Marwan El-Rukby are Kadama's other co-founders. Of the company's two recent hires, one joined a few weeks ago. Amin Shaykho said the company is finishing the offer letter for the second hire.
"Hiring the right people is so effective," Amin Shaykho said. "We're trying to be efficient with our budget. It's kind of balancing the growth of our company with how we're budgeting our team."
