Oddwork named a Di Gazelle 2017
Since Oddwork started, the Dagens Industri growth award Gasellen (the Gazelle) has been one of our milestones. In 2017 it becomes reality, and we could not be happier.
From the very start, we put our biggest ambition into words: to become the recruitment company we ourselves missed when we studied at the School of Business, Economics and Law in Gothenburg, a company that puts the personalities and passions of talent first and then matches them with the right company cultures and career adventures.
Like every start-up, we worked hard to build credibility with both our partners and our talent. Around that time, we started dreaming of the Gazelle, the most legitimising award in Sweden for young, growing companies.
On Oddwork’s big whiteboard we put up a page torn out of Dagens Industri, a picture of the slender animal leaping in front of a red background. That was one of the carrots we were aiming for.
Before Oddwork, there was the student marketing company Oddbird, which wanted to reach students with student offers via takeaway coffee cups and pizza boxes. It did not go well.
We were well aware that the criteria for becoming a Gazelle company were very tough. The requirements, based on the company’s four latest annual reports, included a number of factors such as the number of employees and turnover. The tough criteria mean that less than one percent of all Swedish limited companies receive the Di Gazelle award each year.
As the years went by and Oddwork grew, we ticked off the requirements one by one, and two years ago we hoped to get a long-awaited call from Dagens Industri. The call never came. Because Oddwork was registered on Valentine’s Day in February 2011, that year did not count as a full financial year. Apparently, being a love company did not earn any bonus points with Dagens Industri either.
“Darn, next year,” we thought, and kept working, but in 2016 we did not become a Gazelle company either. That time we fell short because our employer permit from 2012 did not count for the whole year.
To be honest, we almost let go of the idea of the Gazelle. But this year it was finally our year! We are also happy to hear that Oddwork joins an even smaller group: Gazelle companies with owners under 29, something only two percent of this year’s Gazelles are.
Oddwork’s three founders Poyan Karimi, Niklas Kekonius and Charles Sinclair receive the Di Gazelle 2017 growth award.
Of course we are thrilled and proud of the award. My co-founder Poyan Karimi, who is also our Head of Recruiting at Oddwork, describes it like this:
– From the start, the Gazelle was the ultimate proof that our crazy idea of an orange recruitment company that sponsors extreme athletes and looks for personality in its talent can actually succeed. We believed in it and thought that the day we reached the goal, it would be proven to everyone.
Co-founder Niklas Kekonius, Sales Manager at Oddwork, is also pleased and sums up the feeling like this:
– It actually feels fantastic! I am so incredibly proud of the whole team that has made this possible. But the award does not mean we have reached the finish line at all. On the contrary. It is rather a symbol that we are now starting our next growth journey, spreading ODD to the world to a greater extent, both as a recruitment and an employer branding company.
Best regards,
Charles Sinclair
CEO & Head of Employer Branding
Oddwork
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