January 14, 2022
The Challenge
SwitchOn is an India-based AI company that helps manufacturers reduce defects, identify bottlenecks in production, and improve equipment efficiency. Their cutting-edge technology automates the quality inspection process, which both speeds up and reduces errors in checking products for manufacturing defects.
Aniruddha Banerjee, co-founder of SwitchOn, graduated from the National Institute of Technology Durgapur and worked for leading international technology companies including Samsung and NVIDIA. He is based in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, and was introduced to Alariss through one of his venture capital investors.
Aniruddha had expressed a desire to expand into the US because of its large manufacturing sector and many automotive companies. He wanted to focus on expanding into the US because quality inspections are so important there; the cost of a product recall in the US is much higher than the cost of a product recall in other countries like India.
So he reached out to the investor for help. They were having a challenging time finding the right business development professional to hire and had limited local connections in the US until their investor connected Aniruddha to Alariss Global.
SwitchOn identified that they would like to have a representative based in the Midwestern US because of the region’s long history in automaking and manufacturing. It made sense that many companies with a manufacturing focus would want to have a presence there, but foreign companies face competition for talent in the Midwest. In addition, SwitchOn wanted to hire someone with experience selling technology in manufacturing–experience that few workers have. SwitchOn spent six months unsuccessfully trying to hire on their own; they posted a job on LinkedIn, tried to find someone to hire through their network, and looked at recruiting firms. They were not able to find the right candidates until they started working with Alariss Global.
The Solution and Results
Alariss Global has a strong foundation of talent based in the Midwest. As a matter of fact, the CEO and co-founder of Alariss is originally from Michigan. Within days of the signed agreement, Alariss recommended multiple candidates able to sell technology in manufacturing. Von Dorjevski came highly recommended based upon his professionalism and his clear expertise, which matched what SwitchOn wanted. Von has extensive industry experience in manufacturing and selling to top automotive companies. His career spanned leading manufacturing and automotive companies that included Vane Protective Gear, Trumble, and QualityLine, and he had deep professional networks in Michigan. Trumble and QualityLine are also AI companies for manufacturing, and QualityLine is based in Israel.
SwitchOn hired Von as Head of Client Solutions through the Alariss platform, which not only matched them to each other but also continues to handle Von’s compliant payroll in Michigan and the international cross-border payments from India. Aniruddha hired Von after about three rounds of interviews, which covered SwitchOn’s technology, Von’s experience in sales, and an agreement on sales quotas. Aniruddha said he hired Von because of his interest in building a sales pipeline for SwitchOn from scratch, his experience selling software to the automotive industry, and his location in Michigan.
Feedback
Both sides have been very happy with the work arrangement, giving the working experience with each other and the Alariss team a full 10/10 rating. In Von’s own words: “Amazing team and technology – I love my role and challenges.”
“I love working for SwitchOn, they’re a phenomenal company, they’re a state-of-the-art company, and of course, I owe gratitude to Alariss for finding me the position,” Von said. “I would highly recommend Alariss to anybody that’s seeking a new position…excellent company.”
Von recently closed a large deal for SwitchOn in the US, and SwitchOn is pleased with his performance. In particular, SwitchOn is glad to have someone based in the US who is able to take meetings in US time zones.
“Working with Von has been a breeze. He’s very, very willing to try out new ideas,” Aniruddha said of Von. “Even when there’s a difference in the time zones, he’s very accommodating with respect to meetings, discussions, etc. We have a meeting at about 7 a.m. his time, which is really accommodating from his end. In terms of what he did in the first quarter, he closed for us about a $420,000 deal, which is now our biggest deal in the US. This was a really great achievement for us. His performance has been really great. I’m very, very satisfied with the processes that he follows as well. He documents almost all the work that he does and is very transparent with the communication, which really works out well for a cross-geography role like this where communication and transparency are the keys. That’s why it’s a great fit for us.”
Aniruddha recommends any B2B company has a physical presence in the US to help close deals. He recommends Alariss, and he is looking to hire more employees in the US through Alariss.
“Vetting and finding the right candidate out there was one of the key activities that Alariss was involved in. The skill set that we required was kind of niche, as well as we were looking for a senior resource in that skill set. It was very difficult for us to find a fit of being able to sell technology in manufacturing, and Alariss was able to source multiple candidates in that niche segment, and we were able to choose the person that made the most sense for us in this context,” he said. “The way the whole recruitment process was run was very, very transparent, simple, straightforward, but very thorough.”
“[Alariss] is the quickest way to hire someone in the US if you’re serious about it. It gets the job done really fast in a really transparent, really easy way, and it takes care of all the legal, the compliance, the payroll activities, which makes it easy for companies, especially foreign companies, to hire people in general in a country like the US,” Aniruddha added.
