SaxeCap was finding candidates and making offers but nobody joined.
At a glance
Before Uplers, SaxeCap had already worked with multiple recruitment agencies to build its India team.
Candidates were interviewing. Offers were going out. But the final conversion kept failing.
8 offers made. 0 candidates joined.
Over the next 10 months with Uplers
| Metric | Outcome |
| Total hires | 9 across AI, ML and project management |
| First profile shared | Became a successful hire |
| Immediate joiners submitted | Approximately 70–80% |
| Hiring support | Screening + interview coordination |
| Partnership | Multiple agencies → sole India hiring partner |
| Expanded scope | Team structure and org design |
The answer wasn’t to send SaxeCap more CVs. It was to understand why candidates were dropping out and fix the process around it.
The challenge: 8 offers, but nobody joined
SaxeCap works at the intersection of private equity, AI and software, helping PE-backed businesses transform through technology.
For its India team, it needed a specific kind of talent: technically strong people who could communicate well, work with global teams and take ownership in a fast-moving environment.
The opportunity itself was strong. Candidates would work on complex AI problems with experienced leaders and get exposure to multiple PE-backed businesses.
Yet the offers weren’t converting.
Vipul Mehta, who was leading India hiring, described the frustration:
“We rolled out 8 offers, and none of them joined. I was kind of devastated and frustrated.”
This wasn’t really a sourcing problem anymore. The funnel was breaking between offer and joining.
Why were candidates dropping out?
Uplers looked at what was happening throughout the candidate journey and found 3 gaps.
1. The JD was clear. The opportunity wasn’t.
Candidates understood the technical requirements, remote setup, contractual engagement and overlap with US working hours.
But they didn’t always understand what made the opportunity worth choosing: the AI problems they would solve, the people they would work with, the global exposure and the ownership they would get.
That story needed to be part of the candidate conversation from day 1.
2. The contractual setup needed to be discussed earlier
SaxeCap did not have a conventional India entity setup, so candidates joined through a contractual structure rather than a standard local FTE arrangement.
When compared with a conventional offer, that naturally raised questions for some candidates.
Instead of letting those concerns surface at the offer stage, Uplers started addressing them upfront.
3. Technical skills were only part of the fit
SaxeCap wasn’t simply looking for someone who knew AI.
Candidates needed hands-on AI/LLM/RAG experience, strong fundamentals, good US-facing communication, comfort with working-hour overlap and willingness to complete a paid multi-week work trial.
So Uplers became more selective before profiles ever reached SaxeCap.
What Uplers changed
1. Talk about the opportunity, not just the role
Candidate conversations started going beyond the JD.
Uplers spoke about SaxeCap’s leadership, the problems candidates would solve, the exposure they would receive and why the opportunity could be worth choosing despite a less conventional employment structure.
As the Uplers recruitment team explained:
“When the founder’s profile went out and candidates looked at it, they got an impression that the company is good... These are the kind of pitch points we used to attract talent.”
The job hadn’t changed. Candidates simply had more context to decide whether they genuinely wanted it.
2. Screen candidates before sending CVs
Uplers introduced an approximately 30-minute screening call before a candidate reached SaxeCap.
The conversation covered technical ability, communication, motivation, working-hour alignment, comfort with the contractual setup and commitment to the interview process.
Vipul noticed the difference:
“In the past, they used to just share the CV... In this case, your team actually spoke to these candidates first.”
That meant fewer speculative profiles and more candidates who understood what they were signing up for.
3. Prioritize candidates who could move quickly
SaxeCap’s process included multiple interviews and a paid multi-week work trial. That helped with assessment, but it also gave candidates more time to receive another offer or reconsider.
Uplers therefore prioritized people who could move quickly.
Around 70–80% of the profiles submitted were immediate joiners.
The entire interview process couldn’t be shortened, but delays elsewhere could.
4. Take coordination off the hiring manager’s plate
With 4 interview rounds, US-based interviewers, multiple time zones and work trials, coordination could quickly become a job of its own.
Uplers managed interview scheduling and coordination end to end.
Vipul’s feedback was simple:
“The way we do it, on a simple Excel sheet I love it. It’s so easy and convenient.”
The result: 9 hires in 10 months
Over approximately 10 months, 9 people joined SaxeCap across Backend AI, ML and project-management roles.
The first profile Uplers shared became a successful hire.
SaxeCap also moved from working with multiple recruitment agencies to making Uplers its sole India hiring partner.
As the team grew, the conversation expanded beyond individual roles. With more than a dozen people eventually reporting to Vipul, Uplers also began discussing how the India team could be structured into pods with technical leads.
The question was no longer only:
“Who should we hire?”
It was becoming:
“How should we build this team?”
The bigger lesson: An offer isn’t a hire
Where your hiring funnel breaks tells you what needs fixing.
If candidates aren’t interviewing, look at sourcing. If they’re interviewing but not getting offers, look at quality and calibration. If offers aren’t being accepted, look at compensation, positioning and motivation.
And if candidates accept but don’t join, look at what happens between the offer and day 1.
For SaxeCap, fixing that part of the funnel helped turn:
8 offers and 0 joins → 9 successful hires.
Because hiring doesn’t end when the offer goes out.
It ends when the right person joins.
Struggling to turn offers into hires?
Uplers helps global companies build tech teams from India with talent discovery, human-led screening, candidate engagement and end-to-end hiring support.
Bring us the role. We’ll help you figure out where your hiring funnel is breaking.
