Equalture: Expanding a Software Business Dedicated to Unbiased Hiring

Equalture is a recruitment software company, founded by twin sisters Charlotte and Fleur Melkert in 2018. Equalture’s software has proven to be less prone to bias than assessments, more fun for candidates, and most importantly: more effective. Equalture focuses on start-up and scale-up teams, and is currently serving more than 250 customers already. The strategic issue discussed in the teaching case is a recent dilemma that Melkert encountered after two years of rocket growth: how to expand? Having acquired €1 million in funding from a VC in early 2020, Melkert finally had the financial capacity to grow her product far beyond the start-up market in the Netherlands. But the big question was: in which direction? Should she expand her product to include larger companies and corporations in the Netherlands? Or should she go with what she had secretly always dreamt of, and test the waters abroad?