“It's for my kids. I think that for the very first time, they see me and they're extremely proud.”

Boldness is a key quality for success, shares Amit Rapaport, co-founder and CEO of Compete. Luckily, it is something that she does not lack. She left a comfortable job at SentinelOne to embark on her startup journey during COVID times. Once she had some colleagues on board, she set a launch date and then talked to her husband about her plan. He ended up joining her as co-founder and CTO, and Rapaport explains that it was actually very easy to start a company together because there was already solid trust and respect between them. She recruited other bold people to join the team, and Compete now provides real-time data to tech companies on the largest part of their budget: people. Right now, it is focused on giving companies an edge in hiring and retention with compensation data, but Rapaport doesn’t intend to stop there as she pursues her bold vision.

 

 

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Tell me about yourself and Compete.

Compete came from my personal pain in HR. I worked in HR at Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne. I felt the pain that we're solving now at Compete, the pain that you didn't know how much you should pay for your potential candidates or to your existing employees: if you're overpaying and spending the company's budget, if you're underpaying and putting yourself at risk, or if the compensation packages were attractive and competitive against the market.

Based on the understanding that all current solutions are just not good enough, are not tailored for tech, and you only live once, I decided to leave the super comfort zone of SentinelOne. When COVID hit, I had my eureka moment. I called 20 colleagues of mine. They all said, "Yes." Like a typical bold Israeli, I said, "Cool. The launch will be in two months." At dinner time, I shared this with my husband. Fast forward, he's now the co-founder and CTO of Compete.

We launched the product 13 months ago. We have hundreds of customers. We're operating globally, both in Israel and in the US. We're a fine group of 15 bold, sharp, hungry, fearless people that just want to conquer the world.

Starting Compete with your husband, was that a trivial thing? It sounds like it's not easy to start a company with a spouse.

It was the easiest with him. I always said that he's the yin to my yang. Creating a company from scratch comes with a lot of unexpected changes and obstacles, and you need to have the best partner, founding team, and investors as well. You need the relationship to be built on trust.

What has happened lately that really made this a good time for Compete to be born?

When COVID hit, unfortunately, it impacted a lot of businesses. For Compete, it was just emphasizing the value prop. There’s literally a candidate war, a talent war that you need to win. Compete enables and empowers our users to win the talent competition because now, for the very first time, they have real-time data tailored for techs. All the data, insights, and components that we provide for our customers are tailored for their needs.

What is the gap? Is it a knowledge or negotiation gap?

Unfortunately, all of the above. What we're operating now is great and it's so powerful, but this is not the reason why I co-founded Compete. I have a bigger vision. The bigger chunk of the company's budget is spent on the people or related, and you have zero understanding of your past performance or your current performance; you can't predict because you can't rely on the data you have. The understanding of that is what we want to solve. It's not just the hiring or the retention needs.

If you're looking two or three years ahead, where's Compete in this world?

We'll be the global leader tailored for tech that will enable and empower CFOs, CEOs, and chief HR officers to know exactly about this 70% of their budget, to know exactly what to predict. You want to create the business plan for 2022, you want to know exactly what needs to be the route to meet or to beat the targets; that's exactly what we want to solve.

How did you experience this as an HR person in comparison to what you're experiencing now?

I remember this sad eureka moment. You're starting the year, and you say, "Let's hire 50 employees." Why? No reason, correlation, or understanding between the targets that we set to ourselves. Then two months later, all the internal movements: promotion, maternity leave, paternity leave, turnover. Now, you're running in circles just to make sure that nothing falls between the cracks. All the stress and everything, that's exactly what I want to solve.

Do you envision this as a platform where companies continue to use this as software in-house?

We have many directions. The data that we collect is basically at the core of every business decision that you take. It's not just HR related. I think we'll take it first and foremost to where Jonathan and I have our vision. At the same time, we’re making sure that we're, on a daily basis, listening very carefully to the feedback that we receive from our customers.

What are the main things that are bumps in the road that you just didn't even know to expect at the beginning?

Everything. I didn't know to expect anything besides the relationship that I have with my founder.

You need to be bold and brave. It's not just when you're starting the company. For example, the way we tap into new markets is that the first 100 customers are free for a year because it's a model of "you need to give some to get some” data. It’s to create the initial database, to drive the buzz about Compete. Now, for the very first time, we reached the exciting/terrifying moment of renewals. I need to go back to those customers and say, "Do you want to pay for that?" I can share that 100% of customers with over 30 employees asked to renew, and the vast majority of them renewed for two years.

There's a lot of terrifying moments in being a CEO, in creating this crazy venture. But at the end of the day, if you're not bold enough, you will never win. I'm here to win everything. I want to conquer the world.

What types of team members would you personally want to partner with?

The answer is not just for employees. It's for my investors too. The type of people that I want to onboard to this crazy/fun venture are the bold people, the fearless people, the ones that can just take the hammer and break the wall.

How do you test for that, Amit?

I have years of experience leading the recruitment in Palo Alto. You know exactly what kind of questions you want to ask. You listen very carefully to their answers. With the investors, you can see who's bold and runs the entire process with a fearless vibe. You can sense it. I'm only human. I'll make many mistakes. I think it's very powerful as a CEO, first and foremost, to run fast. But at the same time, to adapt to change while you're running.

Growing up, what really made you curious?

I think what taught me to be the entrepreneur that I am now is the fact that my two parents left the kibbutz at 40 years old with literally zero money in their pockets and with three kids. They set their targets and their dreams, and they never gave up on that.

I'm a very hard worker. I believe that the only way you can achieve the things that you want to achieve is to work hard. You need to set yourself super aggressive milestones, super aggressive targets, and work hard.

Beyond the mission of helping other companies, where's the inspiration coming from?

First and foremost, for my partner. But on top of that, it's for my kids. I think that for the very first time, they see me and they're extremely proud. When I worked with Palo Alto and SentinelOne, high-end tech companies, they didn't feel this about me. For the very first time, they are the proudest kids ever.

If you had to describe yourself in a few words, how would people describe Amit?

Partner, authentic, and bold.

Michael Matias, Forbes 30 Under 30, is the author of Age is Only an Int: Lessons I Learned as a Young Entrepreneur. He studies Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, while working as a software engineer at Hippo Insurance and as a Senior Associate at J-Ventures. Matias previously served as an officer in the 8200 unit. 20MinuteLeaders is a tech entrepreneurship interview series featuring one-on-one interviews with fascinating founders, innovators and thought leaders sharing their journeys and experiences.

 

Contributing editors: Michael Matias, Megan Ryan