Recruiting startup takes a ‘leap’ of faith with launch effort

Where does a tech startup fixated on innovating its industry’s hiring practices even begin to demonstrate its knack for recognizing and finding good talent?

Hiring the right public relations firm is a good place to start.

Gild Inc., a talent acquisition software company, did just that when it hired Denver-based Leap PR to not only represent it, but to help it build brand awareness from the ground up while also extending its client base and connecting with prospective investors.

Using patent-pending technology, Gild provides recruiting solutions that harness the power of data to liberate hiring teams from the challenges of finding developers.

Like startups often are, Gild was small and had an equally small budget. What it lacked in size and financial standing, however, it could make up for in its story, as well as the stories of those its software helped.

Signed before the startup’s launch, it was Leap PR’s task to showcase the potential usefulness and capabilities of this software by strategically elevating the customer’s voice, and thereby allowing consumers to bring the Gild story to life.

While building and generating relationships with industry leaders, Leap PR looked to humanize Gild’s story wherever possible. Under the premise that “hiring is broken,” Gild’s narrative—or narratives, rather—would illustrate the setbacks of standard hiring practices by helping companies see how using big data is a better means of finding employees who might otherwise have been overlooked.

After pitching to and being covered by Fortune, Leap PR continued to look for and create stories that used real people to show the dramatic results of Gild’s data science innovations. Over the past year, these strategic stories have extended the company’s coverage to placement in VentureBeat, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Forbes, The New York Times, and countless others, including a six-page feature in O Magazine.

Also leveraging employee and company awards to further build credibility for Gild, it’s our pleasure to announce an award not for its hiring software, but for recognizing the talents of its PR firm. We’re happy to name Leap for Gild the winner of the Best Integration of PR/MR in a Business Campaign category of PR Daily’s 2013 Media Relations Awards.

Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.