Latest news with #KrishChopra
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The True Cost Of A Bad Hire—And How To Avoid Making One
By Krish Chopra Knowing the red flags to look for can help you avoid a costly hiring mistake. Your first hire can make or break your small business—it's a harsh reality that many small business owners learn the hard way. One bad hire can drain your cash flow, derail your company culture, and set you back months, or even years in growth. I know this because one particularly disastrous hiring decision cost my company exactly $47,000 in direct expenses, plus countless hours of lost productivity and shattered team morale. I've been in your shoes. As someone who's scaled a startup idea to over 60 employees, I've made my share of hiring mistakes and learned from each one. Building a platform that has served over 8,000 users taught me that successful recruiting for small businesses isn't about having Fortune 500 budgets or competing with tech giants on salary packages—it's about recognizing the warning signs before they become expensive disasters. The painful truth? I made that $47,000 mistake because I was desperate. We needed help immediately; our existing team members were overwhelmed, and I convinced myself that any qualified candidates would be better than staying understaffed. I rushed through the interview process, overlooked obvious red flags, and ignored my gut instincts—all because I was focused on filling the position rather than finding the right person. What I'm about to share are the real stories behind my biggest hiring disasters and the specific red flags I wish I'd recognized earlier during my recruitment process. These aren't textbook theories—they're hard-won lessons that can help you avoid the costly mistakes I made while building the team your small business deserves. The True Cost of Bad Hires and Why Getting It Right Matters When business owners think about recruiting for small businesses, they often focus on finding someone—anyone—to fill an urgent need. But here's the reality: a bad hire doesn't just cost you money; it can threaten your entire operation. Research shows that the average cost of a bad hire is $17,000, but it could range higher depending on the role and seniority level. For small businesses operating on tight cash flow, even the lower end of that spectrum can be devastating. Unlike large corporations that can absorb these losses, small business owners feel every dollar impact directly on their bottom line. My $47,000 Disaster Hire I learned this lesson during our rapid growth phase when we desperately needed a new experienced hire. We were overwhelmed, our team members were burning out, and I convinced myself that hiring quickly was better than staying understaffed. The candidate seemed perfect during our interview process: A few months later, I calculated the real cost of this hiring mistake: $47,000 in direct expenses alone. Here's how it broke down: The Hidden Costs of Hiring That Really Hurt The true costs of a bad hire extend far beyond direct financial impact: For small businesses, bad hires create a domino effect that large companies rarely face. When you only have five to 10 employees, one person who doesn't perform affects everyone. This experience taught me that developing a solid hiring process isn't a luxury for small businesses—it's a survival strategy. Every new employee you bring on board will significantly impact your trajectory, making it essential to get the recruitment process right from your very first hire. The lesson? Desperation leads to expensive mistakes. It's better to stay temporarily understaffed than to hire the wrong person and deal with the costly consequences. More from AllBusiness: 4 Bad Hire Red Flags I Wish I'd Recognized Earlier Looking back at my hiring disasters, I've identified four critical warning signs that could have saved me thousands of dollars and months of frustration. These red flags weren't obvious during interviews, but became clear once I learned what to look for. During the hiring process, ask specific questions about adaptability: Pay attention to communication patterns from day one. If someone's response time changes dramatically after being hired, investigate immediately. Set clear expectations about communication during the onboarding process and monitor them closely. During the hiring process, ask candidates about specific times they received constructive feedback and how they implemented changes. Look for evidence of a growth mindset and continuous improvement. In small businesses, every new hire must be able to learn and adapt quickly—there's no room for people who can't grow with feedback. Your existing team members are your best early warning system. They work with new hires daily and can spot problems before management sees them. Create formal check-ins with your team about new employees, and take lukewarm feedback seriously. In small businesses, every person needs to contribute positively to team dynamics—being "fine" isn't good enough when you only have a handful of employees working across operations, product development, preceptor sales, student sales, and HR functions. Trust Your Gut and Your Team After losing $47,000 and countless hours to my bad hiring decision, I've learned that successful recruiting for a small business isn't about filling a position quickly—it's about building a team that compounds your success over time. Here's the reality: good hires make everything easier. When you bring on the right person, they don't just complete their job description—they elevate your entire team, contribute ideas that improve your business needs, and help create a company culture that attracts more top talent. Bad hires do the opposite. It's better to stay temporarily understaffed than to hire the wrong person. I know the pressure to fill positions quickly when you're overwhelmed, but remember that one bad hire can cost you more than the temporary pain of working shorthanded. Your payroll system, employee benefits, and cash flow can recover from being cautious—they might not recover from a hiring disaster. The most important lesson that I learned? Your existing team members are your best hiring advisors. They understand your company culture, know what good performance looks like, and can spot problems before they become expensive mistakes.
Business Wire
24-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
NPHub Secures $20M Growth Investment from Edison Partners to Expand the Country's Nurse Practitioner Population
ATLANTA & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NPHub, the country's first digital platform matching nurse practitioner students and professionals with clinical rotation and job placements, and Edison Partners, a leading growth equity firm, today announced a $20 million growth equity investment. The company is already delivering tremendous value across the nursing ecosystem with students, universities and healthcare providers and poised to scale through an expanded set of services for nurses and other advanced practice healthcare professionals. Amid an aging population and increased healthcare needs, the American Association of Medical Colleges projects a shortage of 180,000 physicians within the next decade. To offset this, the U.S. healthcare system is hiring more nurse practitioners with their numbers estimated to grow by 45% from 2021 to 2032. These professionals face rigorous training requirements and a complex hiring process while historically having to use inefficient, manual processes. NPHub brings students, their universities and healthcare organizations modernization and support to match nurse practitioners with necessary clinical training and employment opportunities. 'There's such a huge need for nurse practitioners and, until now, they've had to cold call and email, searching for months for training opportunities and later for jobs. These professionals, their educators and employers deserve better,' said Krish Chopra, co-founder and CEO, NPHub. 'We saw a complex problem, built a technology platform to solve it at scale, and with Edison's capital, industry experience and operating expertise, we have the ideal partner to help us accelerate our growth.' Since NPHub's founding in 2017, the business has enjoyed profitable, capital-efficient growth by effectively and efficiently matching nurse practitioner students with preceptors (in-clinic mentors) for the clinical rotations required to graduate. The new – and first institutional – capital comes as the business is posting record metrics. Nursing student growth jumped more than 100 percent over the last 12 months and clinical rotation placements through the platform have reached more than ten thousand. The company will use the growth capital to bolster its technology platform and growth initiatives, including developing enterprise solutions for and partnerships with universities and employers, as well as the expansion of services for nurses and other healthcare professionals along their career lifecycles. This includes a new hiring service, NPHire, for NP graduates seeking full time positions set to launch in the coming months. Currently in a pilot phase, it has attracted more than 7,000 candidates and 60 employers as early adopters of its job matching capabilities. 'We are proud to partner with Krish and team to better the nurse practitioner's entire career lifecycle and, in turn, our country's healthcare system at large,' said Kelly Ford, general partner, Edison Partners. 'The company is already delivering tremendous value across the nursing ecosystem with students, universities and healthcare providers and poised to scale through an expanded set of services for nurses and other advanced practice healthcare professionals.' NPHub joins other Edison Partners portfolio companies digitizing America's critical infrastructure, including, but not limited to, next-generation 911 technology company Rapid Deploy (recently acquired By Motorola Solutions), Seismos, using AI and sound to improve well and pipeline safety and efficiency, Recycle Track Systems (RTS), helping businesses manage waste more responsibly, and 120Water, which is modernizing water utilities' ability to test and manage clean water supplies. DC Advisory acted as exclusive financial advisor to NPHub. About NPHub Established in 2017, NPHub is a technology company focused on the increasing need for, and expanding role of, nurse practitioners in healthcare. Through its innovative marketplace platform, NPHub supports nurse practitioners throughout their education and career journeys, allowing them to graduate on time, secure jobs aligned with their specific areas of training and interest, and effectively contribute to the healthcare sector. For more information on NPHub and NPHire, please visit and follow on LinkedIn. About Edison Partners Edison Partners is a leading growth equity firm providing the financial and intellectual capital that CEOs and their executive teams need to grow and scale their companies. The firm's team brings more than 275 years of combined investing, operating and sector experience to each investment, accessible via the Edison Edge value creation platform, which is tailored to each business' strategy, stage and operating needs. Edison targets high-growth vertical SaaS, financial technology, healthcare IT and marketplace companies located outside Silicon Valley with $10 million to $30 million in revenue. Investments also include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, and secondary stock purchases. Named as a Top Growth Investment Firm by GrowthCap for two years running, Edison's active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners manages over $2.2 billion in assets. For more information on Edison Partners, please visit and follow on LinkedIn.
