RF/SF clients are keen to return to us: the story of our cooperation with HigoSense

HigoSense, our startup client, set out with an ambitious goal: they would create a medical device for remote diagnostic imaging of throat and ears, auscultation of the lungs and heart, taking of the temperature and dermatological examinations. The aim is to reduce the time needed for formulating the diagnosis and the doctor’s recommendations from an average of 2,5 hours (time measured from the moment of making an appointment at a clinic to returning home) to 40 minutes (from the moment of relaying the symptoms to receiving a diagnosis).

The Higo® ecosystem is composed of a device supported by AI algorithms and mobile- and web applications, currently available on 6 markets and designed with the support of over 50 experts from the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France and Poland. The brand is working together with large medical companies in Europe and Africa; Higo® is also used in refugee centers.

Our RF/SF (retainer fee/success fee) service model proved to be the right one for HigoSense: their Team needed our help mainly with regards to highly specialized technical roles, but without the need to support the HR Team in a broader scope.

Over the last 2 years, we’ve worked together three times.

We started with the recruitment of:

• Mid/Senior Java Engineer.

After a half-year since the position was closed, the client returned to us with the following role:

• Mid/Senior React.js Engineer.

Afterwards, in that very same year, they asked us to support them in recruiting for this vacancy:

• Senior/Lead Embedded Engineer.

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Role 1: Mid/Senior Java Engineer

Start date: November 2021

Challenges:

• The Java specialists' market was very competitive at that time (Java developers were not actively seeking out new job opportunities, and a significant motivation for job change was rooted in financial reasons; even though the client offered an interesting project in the health industry, fin-tech corporations often had more resources to offer than start-ups);
• We were focused on recruiting someone who would thrive in a startup, understand its mission, and be willing to actively contribute to the product.

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Role 2: Mid/Senior React.js Engineer

Start date: July 2022

Challenges:

• Similarly as before - we were focused on finding a person who would actively collaborate with the development and product teams in a startup environment;
• At that time, the product was already created, so besides developing new functionalities, the role also encompassed tasks related to the existing project (maintenance and testing).

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Role 3: Senior/Lead Embedded Engineer

Start date: September 2022

Challenges:

• The role was relatively unpopular, and could easily be considered as niche - the Embedded area is a closed environment;
• The position involved hybrid work - we were exclusively looking for candidates from Warsaw and its surroundings, which further narrowed the talent pool;
• For HigoSense, it was crucial to find someone who would eventually build their own team.

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It's worth emphasizing the project development stage at which our client found themselves, as it was mentioned in the job offer and role brief: "We are building the second generation of this product, much more advanced. The first one was mainly designed through outsourcing, and now we want to build value, expertise, and experience in-house, from scratch. We need to take over the maintenance and further development of the current generation from our technological partners to ourselves."