Vilnius’ pool of talent was decisive for the company’s move
“The Lithuanian startup ambiance has been heating up for the last few years. The country offers a friendly business environment, fairly low taxes, and an advanced IT infrastructure,”, says Gal Moran, Exai’s CEO, who was born and raised in Israel. “Aside from a friendly startup ambiance, what brought us to Vilnius is the young and skilled talent that has a strong and high-quality tech education. And that’s exactly what we’re looking for”.
It’s no secret that the Lithuanian tech talent has been a startups magnet. Out of the 1.5 million workers, nearly 26,000 are experienced IT professionals working in companies across the country. There are more than 75,000 IT students that are getting their high education at universities and colleges and are ready to upgrade their skills at one of Lithuania’s top tech companies. The language is no barrier either as young professionals speak English very well and are also fluent in at least one more foreign language, including Russian or Scandinavian.
Exai’s CEO further adds, “Scouting top tech talent in booming IT hubs such as Lithuania might be challenging, but certainly worthwhile.”
The company plans to collaborate actively with local higher education institutions and media agencies to find the most talented developers. Apart from a competitive salary, employees will get the opportunity to work at an innovative and growing company that’s aiming to conquer its share of the global CMT market.
The company’s first step is to hire 30 back-end developers
During the summer of 2019, Exai will open its offices in Vilnius. Their marketing department will be located in Skopje, Macedonia’s capital, while their sales center will be moved to the Philippines. Moran believes that this expansion can provide several advantages, including greater opportunities for market growth and diversification.
“International expansion is necessary for long-term growth. You get a chance to conquer new territories, diversify your assets, and hire from a larger pool of talent”, states Moran.
Exai is opening 30 positions for backend developers. They’re looking to hire ambitious individuals who love to code and are coders at heart. The ideal profile of a backend developer is someone who sees coding as a challenge and likes to grow and upgrade their skills continuously.
“Our product is very innovative, and our code is state of the art. It’s a real challenge to deal with it.”
The branch’s focus will be on RND (research and development), with a highlight on product development. The company’s vision is that Lithuania’s skilled developers will work on upgrading the software and hopefully turn Exai into a multinational company like Wix.
You can view their open positions here 👉 https://www.exai.com/company/careers/lithuania
Exai offers Its employees a part of the company
Employees at Exai can benefit with two types of currency: a local currency which is the salary, and start-up currency which is called Stock Options.
What’s the goal of giving away stock options? The company’s vision is to support and encourage entrepreneurship in Lithuania. By giving stock options to employees and making them millions, they can invest that money in their own startups in the future.
Moran comments, “We don’t give just competitive salaries but also a part of the company. We like our employees to be our partners and at the same time, live a good life.”
Let’s take Wix.com as an example. They raised about 100 million and went to EXIT with $600 million. So actually, all of the people that had stock options or stocks in the company earned nearly half a billion dollars combined.
For example, the value of a stock option for Exai is $10. This evaluation is based on the $25 million that have been invested in Exai. If we take Exai to Exit with the assessment of $500 million, the earning of a regular employee that has 2600 stock options will be $494 000.
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The company is an excellent option if you have a small business and are looking for an affordable yet reliable small business content management and web hosting services. What the company swears to offer is top-end reliability, top-notch security, and excellent customer service.
With a clear vision of conquering the CMT world, Exai is aiming to disrupt the European and US market. Exai is competing against the Open Source which is holding about 70% of the market share. It aims to take 0.2% of the market which is evaluated to be worth about $460 million. Taking 0.2% of 70% is a hard job but still feasible.
“I hope that Exai will thrive In Lithuania because if one startup can succeed here, more startups will follow,” Moran explains. “I promise you that if we manage to educate Lithuanians about the way of life of startup companies, more startups and more venture capital will come to this country.”
Currently, Exai employs over 50 employees across several offices in Europe and the U.S. By 2020, the company expects to grow to 200 people globally, the majority of whom are expected to be working in research and development.