Profile: Alan Kutasy

Meet Alan Kutasy. CEO at Agility Partners.

Name: Alan Kutasy

Job: CEO at Agility Partners

City: Columbus

Hometown: Columbus

Q: What do you do at Agility Partners?
At Agility Partners, we’re focused on building and leveraging innovative technology to revolutionize the employment process. Our crowd-sourced referral platform allows members to leverage their networking by referring their friends and family to our open jobs and get paid for doing so.

Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve?
We’re working to solve two problems in technology. One, the talent shortage and two, the lack of diversity in technology.

For the first: IT unemployment rates (pre-covid) have been sub 2% across the country and even lower here in Ohio. Our technology leverages the gig economy to allow members the ability to seamlessly refer tech professionals to open jobs on our platform. Successful referrals are rewarded with a referral fee of up to $3,500. This gives us access to a growing population of passive candidates open to hearing about dream job opportunities. Our clients can then hire from a pool of top talent across the state of Ohio.

For the second: We are addressing the lack of diversity in technology in partnership with well-established dev bootcamp Tech Elevator. Tech Elevator offers a hands-on 13 week bootcamp that trains students in software engineering. Our partnership offers 100% tuition reimbursement to attend the bootcamp ($15,000), mentorship during the cohort, and job placement post successful completion for students from underrepresented groups (Women, People of Color, LGBTQ etc.). Our goal by 2025 is to donate over $1.5 million dollars in scholarships and add 100 diverse software engineering professionals for the Central Ohio region. As the business continues to scale and enter new markets we will continue to develop and re-evaluate the program.

Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work?
Technology when applied correctly can be leveraged to help our employees focus less on the transactional nature of their job and more on the qualitative and relational aspects. When you put people first good things happen, and we live by this mantra at Agility Partners.

Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention?
RPA – Robotics Process Automation. I truly believe RPA will change the way we do business and companies who don’t adopt will be subject to disruption by innovative start-ups.

Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation?
Like everyone, Ohio is in a war for tech talent. I believe with the right program design, investment, and leadership our state and local government could leverage tax dollars or private investment to build a program aimed at upskilling/reskilling professionals for a career in technology and specifically engineering/automation.

Many businesses are struggling to innovate because of a lack of access to talent and those that are able to innovate are doing so at tremendous cost (above average salaries, benefits, etc.).

By developing a local pool of talent we allow businesses to address innovation head on which translates to more unicorns like CoverMyMeds, Root, Bold Penguin, and Olive, and those exits serve as an incubator for new innovation to be born.

Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting?
Leaders Eat Last – The book really speaks to culture and the important role it plays in building successful businesses and I highly recommend it to anyone in a leadership position in any organization.

Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio?
Ohio Stadium on a crisp Saturday morning in the fall. Home of the Buckeyes - theres nothing like game day in Columbus!!

Q: What makes Ohio special to you?
This is home and there’s no place like it. While we don’t have the best weather year round, the winters make you appreciate the spring, summer, and fall that much more. The people of Ohio are hard-working, authentic, and passionate people who are a joy to work with and be around.

Connect with Alan on LinkedIn.