He told Prolific North how over the past three or four weeks, he and his fellow co-founders have encountered at least three or four messages a week from those working at well-known tech companies.
“We’re only a new start-up. Within our previous roles, where we were in active management positions where we were directly responsible for hiring, that’s quite a significant amount of people reaching out looking for work and jobs,” Luscombe said.
“In the past three or four weeks, there have been people from the likes of Wayflyer even to the extent of Monzo reaching out, curious as to what we are doing but also have felt the effect of some layoffs after last year, and work into this year.”
Tech salaries drastically increased over the past 18 to 24 months with companies battling to attract tech talent, along with the mounting cost of living pressures. In his previous role, he noticed how difficult it was to find talent as “so many of these technology companies were snapping them up straight away”.
This could pave the way for “a lot more access to talent” for smaller tech companies. On what the outlook is for Boodil, he added: “We are just trying to run as lean as possible, especially with everything going on in the economy and in the market to ensure preservation of cash. We’re trying to make sure we’re growing in the right way without massive overheads and spend.”
But what does this mean for the wider tech ecosystem in the North West?
“Multiple global economic pressures are affecting all tech businesses, and we have seen the largest global tech businesses announce layoffs,” explained Katie Gallagher, MD of Manchester Digital and chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group.
“As well as Google and Microsoft announcing job losses just this week, we’ve seen similar announcements from Amazon, Meta and Salesforce. Despite these pressures which include high inflation and a cost of living crisis, the North West tech ecosystem is still relatively robust.”
“Most of our members are still reporting growth, although some are seeing a slight slow down in business. A lot of online companies that peaked and benefited from online sales and services during Covid have struggled as restrictions have eased.
“We already knew this was going to be a challenging year and we have already seen some slowdown in terms of recruitment until businesses see how the year is going to play out economically. At the moment, businesses are being cautious, but the tech industry overall in the North remains resilient and innovative.”
