Hyperion CEO and Founder Stav Zilbershtein explains how he’s disrupting the traditional it sourcing market by being transparent, proactive and providing a tailor made team solution in order to meet the needs of clients. A serial entrepreneur, Stav has recruited 100 dedicated and elite it professionals in less than 12 months as he focusses on satisfying the needs of a growing and more importantly, a happy client base.
What’s your career background? What have been the highlights so far and what are your ambitions for the company?
I think I would be categorised as being what many commentators would describe as a ‘serial entrepreneur’. But for the past 11 years my sole focus has been on the online sector, first with a successful marketing agency progressing later to marketplaces and B2B product oriented businesses.
During those years I noticed that the IT sourcing sector was built on old and outdated service principles that fell a long way short of fulfilling many of it’s promises so, I decided to pick up the glove and change it. Together with two amazing partners in the Ukraine we started Hyperion. The ambition is clear – we are here to disrupt the traditional IT sourcing market by offering a transparent, easy to understand clear service that focuses purely on the client’s goals. The response has been exceptional. In less than 12 months we’ve grown to become a team of 100 and we keep on growing organically thanks exclusively to the results we deliver to our clients.
Who is your business hero – which business figure do you most admire and why?
I admire innovators such as Elon Musk. Why – because he’s a true visionary and he took risks in sectors where no one dared to dream of participating in. He also managed to attract the best minds into his ventures which clearly demonstrates that he knows how to pass his vision and enthusiasm on to others. But perhaps most importantly, he broke the old paradigms of what people thought was impossible and in the process proved that everything is possible. My approach when entering any market is to disrupt it and bring something new and improved into the market that creates a win win situation for all parties.
Do you see yourselves as being primarily a technology company or an iGaming company?
There’s no doubt that we are a technology company. Even though we started with a focus on iGAMING we are also investing our resources into fin-tech, health, blockchain and other segments of the market. The uniqueness of our solution is that it’s tailor made to meet the client’s needs, so basically we are able to setup a development center for any technology stack or client.
How would you describe the corporate DNA?
We believe in three principles. Transparency, proactiveness and being a team player. The communication and the organizational structure of Hyperion is flat. The doors are open to all levels to communicate with one another. Our teams and project managers talk seamlessly with their clients. We place no doors or divide in communication between the client and their teams. We found this to be a very important contributor to the Hyperion success story.
Being truly proactive is to actively point for improvements and to take ownership over challenges rather than wait for instructions. All people that are hired to work in Hyperion actively push forward every aspect of the project and we all work together as a team. The organizational culture is thriving thanks to that and we get a strong indication from our clients that they feel the teams are a part of their own organization and that shows us we are doing something right.
What are the organisation’s USPs – what makes you different?
There are some key pitfalls that we discovered in traditional services and we just removed them. First and foremost you want to know that when you get a team it will truly stay focused on your project and your project only. That may sound like a standard in the industry of outsourcing but in fact it isn’t. We avoid what most companies do which is to rotate senior members and shift them to other projects that are in need of help. The way it works is that we actually form the team on demand for the client exclusively. These team members remain throughout the entire project and are never rotated or work on other projects.
The second is high level of attention and responsivity rates to the client. When you get slow response times you simply can’t get anything done and the overall feeling can turn sour. We work with frameworks such as Scrum to ensure transparency and fast communication rates which allows the client to focus on results!
What’s more important IQ or EQ?
We don’t believe in testing these factors. When we vet people into Hyperion we start with the experience level and technical skills but then we have our own tests for human qualities such as leadership, proactiveness and an ability to work as a team. We have a 98% success rate so far with setting up the right teams and we witness how their performance accelerates from the moment of inception. A good talent needs to have great technological skills but also great human communication skills and we make sure to hire only those that have it all.
How do you identify candidates and what’s a typical job interview at Hyperion?
First there is the very immediate level which is the CV level. We currently only hire developers that are median to senior in their range of experience. But that is merely the first step. They arrive to take a few technical skills tests with our lead developers at Hyperion and if they pass the technology level they are passed on to have several interviews with our HR and lead project managers. Our goal is to test that they have the spirit that we are looking for and that they are proactive people. People that are passionate about what they do and are hungry to learn and perform. Once a member goes through that process they join Hyperion.
The concept of ‘team’ seems to be central to the Hyperion proposition – how do you develop, instil and maintain such a culture?
We strongly invest in organizational culture. It’s bringing together people and allowing them to move in a flexible yet defined structure. When we give our members such freedom they repay the organization with better performance and new solutions on all levels of the organization. In this type of environment you see people that enjoy working together and being together and that beats any traditional structure that attempts to force people to be together.
SiGMA will host its largest edition yet in 2018, can you summarise the main objectives of your participation and what will be the key messages that you want to drive home?
We are joining SiGMA this year to show the market that there is another way to outsource and this time with amazing results that will exceed their expectations. The traditional market offers outdated services but Hyperion is here to completely shift the paradigm of the service in this sector. Outsourcing when done right will feel no different than having an extension of your own organization seamlessly working back to back with your team ensuring your success and cutting down your time to market and overhead costs!
What other gaming events will you be participating in over the next 12-months?
We are on a tour in many different events this year mainly in Europe. You can expect to see us in ICE London and in the gaming summit in Prague but there are many more iGaming events where Hyperion will appear over the next 12 months.
This article was originally published on www.igamingtimes.com
