A Sit-Down With Ty Abernethy

Last week I sat down with Grayscale’s CEO and Co-Founder Ty Abernethy. Ty has spent the bulk of his career in the HR hiring space, and has developed into a true expert in the field. Grayscale, his second startup, is a texting automation platform for high volume enterprise hiring. In what can be a frustrating and time consuming process to bring thousands of candidates through a hiring pipeline, Grayscale integrates into its customers ATS systems, and helps automate the process. 

‍

What made you want to be an entrepreneur?

‍

My dad was an entrepreneur and from an early age, I saw that most of my friend’s parents talked about their work with disdain. It was sort of this thing that they just did. They just complained about work. For my dad, he always loved his work. For example when we got back from vacations, he was happily ready to get right back to work. He was building a business, and I could feel the energy and excitement. Early on, I knew that that’s what I wanted. Whatever I do, I want that enthusiasm. I want to love what I’m doing. My dad modeled that very well, and I never wanted to be that guy that work was just something you did and you complained about it to your friends on the weekend. I didn’t want to feel like I was working for my free time. That idea felt soul wrenching.

‍

What is one of the most important lessons learned that you can single out from your past or current ventures?

‍

Question conventional wisdom. Don’t throw it out, but question it. Ask the questions: Why are we doing this? Why is this the way this is traditionally done? I think picking your head up from time to time is important. If you’re doing everything the way someone else is doing it, it’s probably a good signal that you should pause and reflect. Oftentimes there’s a better way to approach it. Marketing is a great example. If everyone is marketing the same way, no one is being wildly effective. You have these things that catch on, and everyone starts to adopt it, and then presto, that’s the new way to do things. And it’s the safe way to do it once it’s proven, but you won’t see outsized outcomes from following the pack. Be creative and innovative to see increased effectiveness.

‍

What are you the most excited for with regards to Grayscale’s future?

‍

Man, there’s a lot of things I’m excited about right now! The product is evolving from a point solution to a holistic platform, and I’m really excited about being able to deliver deeper value to our customers across the entire candidate lifecycle for high volume hiring. That’s what gets me the most jazzed up. It’s to be at a place where we can give as frictionless a hiring experience as possible for a recruiter and the candidate. To do that, we really need to own every facet from candidates applying through to onboarding. We definitely have some work to do to plug some of those holes, but that’s what I’m the most excited for. It’s the direction of our product, and the value that we can deliver to our enterprise customers that are doing high volume hiring. 

‍

Describe your Grayscale journey thus far in 10 words or less.

‍

An exciting, challenging journey building a business on our terms.

‍

--

Grayscale is growing very quickly and looking for people to join the team. They are looking for Enterprise Account Executives, Product Designers, and all kinds of Customer Experience and Engineering positions. If you’re interested in learning more about why we invested in Grayscale, check out our press release from September 2021.