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Oct 9, 2018 · 25m · top-founders

1172 How He Pivoted to $30m in Funding, 10,000+ Jobs Placed with Recruiting AI Tool

Eyal Grayevsky · 13m spoken Nathan Latka · 9m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In this episode of The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews Eyal Grayevsky, co-founder and CEO of Mya Systems, exploring how the AI recruiting platform pivoted from an entry-level job board into an enterprise automation powerhouse that raised $33 million and facilitated tens of thousands of hires. Grayevsky breaks down Mya's outcome-based pricing model, 14-month customer payback period, Fortune 100 enterprise adoption, and aggressive 10x annual revenue growth trajectory.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 40.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.8 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 1.6 Nathan pushing back 2.9
05100:0010:0020:001:34–4:20 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Introducing Eyal Grayevsky of Mya Systems Latka introduces Grayevsky and asks baseline questions about automating recruiting bottlenecks. Grayevsky cooperatively outlines how Mya engages applicants via AI-driven chat.4:20–7:30 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Mya's Outcome-Based Enterprise Pricing Model Latka explores Mya's outcome-based pricing and minimum commitments. Grayevsky explains their upfront billing and true-up mechanics, correcting Latka on the founding timeline.7:30–10:20 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Deal Sizing and Downstream Expansion Strategy Latka presses for specific contract pricing for 5,000 hires. Grayevsky establishes that all deals are strictly six-figure enterprise contracts without a low-end tier.10:20–13:01 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Operational Efficiency and Recruiting Performance Metrics Latka attempts unit math deriving twenty dollars per hire, but Grayevsky corrects him by noting six figures means multiple hundreds of thousands. Grayevsky then shares core conversion and operational efficiency metrics.13:05–16:59 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Nathan Latka's SaaStock Conference Announcement After an event announcement, Latka tries to calculate run-rate revenue from hire volume. When Grayevsky refuses to share revenue and cites 10x growth, Latka pushes back that 10x is easy off a tiny base.16:59–19:08 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Fundraising Journey: Seed Through Series B Grayevsky breaks down raising twenty-nine million dollars across Series A and B plus seed funding. He details the strategic pivot from firstjob.com to conversational AI.19:09–22:41 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Inbound Acquisition, PR Strategy, and Team Composition Latka drills into customer acquisition costs, payback period, and lifetime value. Grayevsky gives a fourteen-month payback and Latka reverse-engineers the implied average revenue per hire.22:41–24:11 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Latka conducts the standard rapid-fire Famous Five round, covering favorite books, CEOs, sleep habits, and advice for twenty-year-olds.1:34–4:20 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introducing Eyal Grayevsky of Mya Systems Latka introduces Grayevsky and asks baseline questions about automating recruiting bottlenecks. Grayevsky cooperatively outlines how Mya engages applicants via AI-driven chat.4:20–7:30 · Guest teaching 2/10 Mya's Outcome-Based Enterprise Pricing Model Latka explores Mya's outcome-based pricing and minimum commitments. Grayevsky explains their upfront billing and true-up mechanics, correcting Latka on the founding timeline.7:30–10:20 · Guest teaching 2/10 Deal Sizing and Downstream Expansion Strategy Latka presses for specific contract pricing for 5,000 hires. Grayevsky establishes that all deals are strictly six-figure enterprise contracts without a low-end tier.10:20–13:01 · Guest teaching 5/10 Operational Efficiency and Recruiting Performance Metrics Latka attempts unit math deriving twenty dollars per hire, but Grayevsky corrects him by noting six figures means multiple hundreds of thousands. Grayevsky then shares core conversion and operational efficiency metrics.13:05–16:59 · Guest teaching 3/10 Nathan Latka's SaaStock Conference Announcement After an event announcement, Latka tries to calculate run-rate revenue from hire volume. When Grayevsky refuses to share revenue and cites 10x growth, Latka pushes back that 10x is easy off a tiny base.16:59–19:08 · Guest teaching 2/10 Fundraising Journey: Seed Through Series B Grayevsky breaks down raising twenty-nine million dollars across Series A and B plus seed funding. He details the strategic pivot from firstjob.com to conversational AI.19:09–22:41 · Guest teaching 2/10 Inbound Acquisition, PR Strategy, and Team Composition Latka drills into customer acquisition costs, payback period, and lifetime value. Grayevsky gives a fourteen-month payback and Latka reverse-engineers the implied average revenue per hire.22:41–24:11 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Latka conducts the standard rapid-fire Famous Five round, covering favorite books, CEOs, sleep habits, and advice for twenty-year-olds.1:34–4:20 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Eyal Grayevsky of Mya Systems Latka introduces Grayevsky and asks baseline questions about automating recruiting bottlenecks. Grayevsky cooperatively outlines how Mya engages applicants via AI-driven chat.4:20–7:30 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Mya's Outcome-Based Enterprise Pricing Model Latka explores Mya's outcome-based pricing and minimum commitments. Grayevsky explains their upfront billing and true-up mechanics, correcting Latka on the founding timeline.7:30–10:20 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Deal Sizing and Downstream Expansion Strategy Latka presses for specific contract pricing for 5,000 hires. Grayevsky establishes that all deals are strictly six-figure enterprise contracts without a low-end tier.10:20–13:01 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Operational Efficiency and Recruiting Performance Metrics Latka attempts unit math deriving twenty dollars per hire, but Grayevsky corrects him by noting six figures means multiple hundreds of thousands. Grayevsky then shares core conversion and operational efficiency metrics.13:05–16:59 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Nathan Latka's SaaStock Conference Announcement After an event announcement, Latka tries to calculate run-rate revenue from hire volume. When Grayevsky refuses to share revenue and cites 10x growth, Latka pushes back that 10x is easy off a tiny base.16:59–19:08 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Fundraising Journey: Seed Through Series B Grayevsky breaks down raising twenty-nine million dollars across Series A and B plus seed funding. He details the strategic pivot from firstjob.com to conversational AI.19:09–22:41 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Inbound Acquisition, PR Strategy, and Team Composition Latka drills into customer acquisition costs, payback period, and lifetime value. Grayevsky gives a fourteen-month payback and Latka reverse-engineers the implied average revenue per hire.22:41–24:11 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Latka conducts the standard rapid-fire Famous Five round, covering favorite books, CEOs, sleep habits, and advice for twenty-year-olds.1:34–4:20 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Introducing Eyal Grayevsky of Mya Systems Latka introduces Grayevsky and asks baseline questions about automating recruiting bottlenecks. Grayevsky cooperatively outlines how Mya engages applicants via AI-driven chat.4:20–7:30 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Mya's Outcome-Based Enterprise Pricing Model Latka explores Mya's outcome-based pricing and minimum commitments. Grayevsky explains their upfront billing and true-up mechanics, correcting Latka on the founding timeline.7:30–10:20 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Deal Sizing and Downstream Expansion Strategy Latka presses for specific contract pricing for 5,000 hires. Grayevsky establishes that all deals are strictly six-figure enterprise contracts without a low-end tier.10:20–13:01 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Operational Efficiency and Recruiting Performance Metrics Latka attempts unit math deriving twenty dollars per hire, but Grayevsky corrects him by noting six figures means multiple hundreds of thousands. Grayevsky then shares core conversion and operational efficiency metrics.13:05–16:59 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Nathan Latka's SaaStock Conference Announcement After an event announcement, Latka tries to calculate run-rate revenue from hire volume. When Grayevsky refuses to share revenue and cites 10x growth, Latka pushes back that 10x is easy off a tiny base.16:59–19:08 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Fundraising Journey: Seed Through Series B Grayevsky breaks down raising twenty-nine million dollars across Series A and B plus seed funding. He details the strategic pivot from firstjob.com to conversational AI.19:09–22:41 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Inbound Acquisition, PR Strategy, and Team Composition Latka drills into customer acquisition costs, payback period, and lifetime value. Grayevsky gives a fourteen-month payback and Latka reverse-engineers the implied average revenue per hire.22:41–24:11 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Latka conducts the standard rapid-fire Famous Five round, covering favorite books, CEOs, sleep habits, and advice for twenty-year-olds.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 83.3% · guest 16.7%0:00 · Nathan 83.3% · guest 16.7%3:00 · Nathan 23.7% · guest 76.3%3:00 · Nathan 23.7% · guest 76.3%6:00 · Nathan 32.9% · guest 67.1%6:00 · Nathan 32.9% · guest 67.1%9:00 · Nathan 34.7% · guest 65.3%9:00 · Nathan 34.7% · guest 65.3%12:00 · Nathan 47% · guest 53%12:00 · Nathan 47% · guest 53%15:00 · Nathan 36.2% · guest 63.8%15:00 · Nathan 36.2% · guest 63.8%18:00 · Nathan 15.3% · guest 84.7%18:00 · Nathan 15.3% · guest 84.7%21:00 · Nathan 37.3% · guest 62.7%21:00 · Nathan 37.3% · guest 62.7%24:00 · Nathan 79.7% · guest 20.3%24:00 · Nathan 79.7% · guest 20.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:41 Directly rejecting host's per-hire cost calculation

Grayevsky directly interrupts Latka's math to state that the twenty dollar per hire figure is inaccurate and far too low.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 16:13 Latka deflating ambiguous percentage growth claims

Latka refuses to let Grayevsky hide behind a vague 10x growth metric, bluntly noting that going from one dollar to ten dollars is 10x but off an insignificant base.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:52 Clarifying enterprise contract baseline versus minimum math

Grayevsky educates Latka that a six-figure minimum deal in his enterprise pipeline refers to three to four hundred thousand dollars rather than a bare hundred thousand.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 21:51 Latka calculating implied per-job fee on the fly

Latka quickly runs the division on Grayevsky's one million dollar LTV and ten thousand hire estimate to expose the exact hundred dollar unit price.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Eyal Grayevsky of Mya Systems 4211 Latka introduces Grayevsky and asks baseline questions about automating recruiting bottlenecks. Grayevsky cooperatively outlines how Mya engages applicants via AI-driven chat.
Mya's Outcome-Based Enterprise Pricing Model 5212 Latka explores Mya's outcome-based pricing and minimum commitments. Grayevsky explains their upfront billing and true-up mechanics, correcting Latka on the founding timeline.
Deal Sizing and Downstream Expansion Strategy 5224 Latka presses for specific contract pricing for 5,000 hires. Grayevsky establishes that all deals are strictly six-figure enterprise contracts without a low-end tier.
Operational Efficiency and Recruiting Performance Metrics 5534 Latka attempts unit math deriving twenty dollars per hire, but Grayevsky corrects him by noting six figures means multiple hundreds of thousands. Grayevsky then shares core conversion and operational efficiency metrics.
Nathan Latka's SaaStock Conference Announcement 6336 After an event announcement, Latka tries to calculate run-rate revenue from hire volume. When Grayevsky refuses to share revenue and cites 10x growth, Latka pushes back that 10x is easy off a tiny base.
Fundraising Journey: Seed Through Series B 5212 Grayevsky breaks down raising twenty-nine million dollars across Series A and B plus seed funding. He details the strategic pivot from firstjob.com to conversational AI.
Inbound Acquisition, PR Strategy, and Team Composition 6224 Latka drills into customer acquisition costs, payback period, and lifetime value. Grayevsky gives a fourteen-month payback and Latka reverse-engineers the implied average revenue per hire.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2100 Latka conducts the standard rapid-fire Famous Five round, covering favorite books, CEOs, sleep habits, and advice for twenty-year-olds.

Statements from this episode (18)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: 85% of job applicants receive no response from recruiters
“So often recruiters get inundated by huge volumes of applications, and it's impossible just purely from a band bandwidth perspective to have a conversation with everyone. And so often, 85% of people just don't get a response.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 3:01
Disclosure
Grayevsky: Mya charges per hire with minimum volume tiers
“We actually charge based on the number of hires that are being generated through our service system. In order to get a certain discount tier, you have to commit to a minimum level of hires.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 4:27
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya Systems supports 12% of the Fortune 100
“We support 12% of the Fortune 100 today.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 6:04
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya Systems has over 50 large enterprise customers
“We have over 50 large enterprise customers today.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 6:32
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: All Mya Systems pilot and beta users were paying customers
“Pilots and all of our beta customers were paying customers.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 7:26
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Every Mya Systems deal to date is six figures
“To date, all of our deals have been six-figure deals in that range.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 9:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya's largest customer committed to 200,000 hires
“Our largest customers committed to 200,000 hires.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 9:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya achieves 2.5x candidate conversion over traditional outreach
“We're seeing about two and a half X conversion from a typical process where you're using phone calls and emails to try to reach out to candidates.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 11:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya delivers upwards of 80% top-of-funnel recruiting cost savings
“We're seeing upwards of 80% cost savings at top of funnel recruiting operations.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 11:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya speeds up hiring time-to-fill by 79%
“In terms of time to fill, you know, we're seeing about a 79% increase in, in time to fill simply by applying this technology to the first interaction with the candidate.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 12:07
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya placed tens of thousands of candidates over past 12 months
“Tens of thousands of hires over the last 12 months.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 14:30
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya expects over 100,000 hires in Q4 2018 alone
“We're seeing a massive increase in adoption this year in Q four we expect to generate over a 100,000 hires just in Q four this year which is really exciting mostly because we're supporting some of that seasonal holiday hiring within warehouses, call centers, r…”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 14:33
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya expects revenue to grow well over 10x in 2018
“In terms of revenue though, there's a pretty strong correlation between, between hires and revenue for us. But in terms of revenue we expect to well exceed 10 X this year, which is super exciting.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 16:25
Assertion Partly supported
Grayevsky: $4M seed round sustained FirstJob for four years before Mya pivot
“Yeah, so we raised about four million dollars and, you know, that dates back to our first product and first business, firstjob.com dating back to, you know, early 20 12. So we raised about four million in our seed round, which carried us about four years leadi…”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 17:56
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Thousands joined Mya's waitlist with zero paid ad spend
“As a result of all this word of mouth and all this exposure, we've seen thousands of companies join our waiting list with zero dollars of kind of proper advertising spend outside of PR and our conference presence.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 19:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya Systems has a 14-month customer payback period
“So right now we're at about 1.1.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 21:09
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya payback period will drop to 7-8 months by 2019
“We expect by 2019 to see that drop all the way to down to about point .7. So about, you know, seven or eight months.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 21:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grayevsky: Mya initial deals are $250K-$500K with $1M+ enterprise LTV
“Our initial subscription deals are roughly, you know, 250 to 500 K. But we expect for Direct Enterprise their lifetime value to be well over a million dollars in, in terms of an expansion deal.”
Eyal Grayevsky Oct 9, 2018 ▶ 21:36
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