Startup Spotlight: levels.fyi

Welcome to The Modern Day Renaissance Man newsletter. I, Trey Layton, write about the things that interest me, often covering topics such as startups, sports, and entertainment. If you'd like to receive these newsletters directly in your email a few times a week, go ahead and subscribe to never miss an email!

Happy Wednesday, folks.

I don't want to jinx it, but the markets are actually up to start Q4... It might be just two days in, but considering the S&P has been down nearly 22% YTD, that's at least something? Idk guys, I'm trying here.

For all of you honorary Kardashians out there, Queen Kim got a slap on the gold-adorned wrist when Gary G, Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission and notorious crypto antagonist, fined her $1.3 million for her role in promoting a pump and dump scheme for a coin called Ethereum Max. Kim posted an Instagram story encouraging her dozens of millions of IG followers to check it out without disclosing that she was paid $250K to do so... If you had bought at the post-promotion top, you'd have lost 99% of your money as of today.

Slightly less impressive was the story that NASA managed to redirect an asteroid located millions of miles away by slamming into it with a tiny satellite launched from Earth almost an entire year ago (November 2021...). The required level of mathematical precision is simply astounding. Whenever my faith in humanity is restored by achievements such as this one, though, I remember that there are seriously people making significant financial decisions based on the "advice" of random social media influencers that became famous because they got naked on camera or ate laundry detergent. Maybe Kim should focus on Keeping up with the Kardashians rather than keeping up with krypto.

The macroeconomic environment in which we are currently sitting is still sending mixed signals. While the Fed continues to raise interest rates as nearly every inflationary metric shows no sign of coming back down, the one extremely important metric by which to gauge the effectiveness of these contractionary measures is the unemployment rate. Typically, this rate has been linked with interest rates. In theory, as rates rise, money becomes more expensive to borrow and the economy slows down. This should increase unemployment as businesses look to cut costs and are forced to lay off labor. However, despite rates being projected to reach a sky high 4.75% next year (was practically 0% coming out of the pandemic), unemployment still remains rock solid at a low 3.7% compared to the historical average of 5.74%.

In fact, rather than being a lack of jobs, there have been dozens of articles over the past year discussing the recent labor shortage as many businesses have struggled to attract talent. Labor is in high demand by businesses looking to rebound post-COVID, and there is relatively low supply as many people retired or have become much more conscientious about the perks and salaries they accept after a couple years of awkward Zoom hello and goodbye waves. Wages and other benefits have gotten a booster shot of their own as companies compete to attract and retain talent and raise existing employees' salaries to keep pace with the cost of living increases caused by inflation.

Despite these workplace improvements happening all around, though, many people struggle with the prospect of negotiating with employers. Many newly graduated professionals managing their first job offers have no clue as to what the going rate for their qualifications and position are, and many fear retaliation or offer rescinding for trying to negotiate. For those already established with an employer, this same fear looms. Considering a change of career or approaching bossman to ask for a raise is scary as hell.

If there is one lifestyle which I have always admired, it has been that of superstar talents, whether they be actors or athletes. Forget the luxurious lifestyles and the fame and recognition. I've always envied how sought after they are professionally. Michael B. Jordan doesn't have to worry about applying for roles. He has his agent that is experienced and can manage MBJ's offers and negotiations to ensure that he gets the best roles available and gets paid what he deserves.

Having someone to handle these negotiations while you get to save precious free time and energy to do what you choose would be amazing. Luckily, there are companies looking to offer just that, and while it might not be the true agent or rep experience, levels.fyi offers tons of professional resources, not the least of which is a personal negotiation coach with a guarantee of a salary increase.

Levels is a do-it-all career services platform for those of us who really never used our schools' office of career services as much as our parents would have liked. It offers a social platform where you can chat with other professionals across hundreds of industries, companies, and positions to get the no BS inside scoop on what these lifestyles encompass. Plus, the platform offers resume reviews by experts and recruiters to maximize your chance of landing that big gig, a database of salary insights and company postings for most industries, roles, and job levels, and even general career coaching with third party counselors to get advice on where did you come from and where did you go, where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe?

And yes, the cherry on top, you can get access to salary negotiation resources for getting the biggest buck for your bang. The website claims that their team of leading recruiters has helped thousands of clients to negotiate their offers, helping them to "regularly increase offers by $30K+."

That's a lot of money, and when 1 on 1 calls with their coaches cost only a few hundred bucks, and the guaranteed salary increase is double that (or your money back), you quite literally cannot lose. Your coach walks you through the interview and offer process and provides you with advice and even scripts to ensure that you are leaving a winner.

The data and insights which the platform provides compares to those of larger competitors like Glassdoor and Salary.com. While these companies do offer some negotiation tips and job postings, they don't feature the personalization and social aspects of Levels.

The market size for the industry is pretty unclear, largely because most career counseling takes place within universities for soon-to-be-grads. The more general professional development and services field is estimated to be worth $15.4 billion in the US this year, though, with an expected growth rate just north of 4%. Even within this number, though, much of it is composed of publicly funded job training and social services which makes the TAM difficult to find.

Thus far, levels.fyi has a clear target user, namely those in mid- to upper-tier white collar positions in software or product. There are salary insights and job postings for internships and entry level positions, too, but it's a less urgent demo for the team, likely because many of these potential users still have access to the free resources available at their local OCS. 

The push for pay transparency is gaining in strength, even making gains politically with states such as California enacting laws requiring companies to disclose this information. While this provides more leverage to every individual employee, it also serves a much more important role in addressing many of the gender and racial biases and inequalities which exist in the professional ecosystem.

The United States has a remarkably low unionization rate, a stat which might be responsible for much of the stagnation in wage rates and hour flexibility which has plagued the economy since the 80s. Employees have had very little power in the professional world, and there is still so much fog over the recruiting and offering processes that can slowly be cleared with more transparency from people with an inside view.

While Levels isn't quite Roc Nation for software engineers, it's always nice to see startups step up to provide a little power power to the people.

Cheers to another day,

Trey