THE STORY

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Matthew Talma, Software Engineering Manager at Playmas, has spent a decade building software for a niche that spans the globe: Caribbean carnival. Playmas manages costume sales and inventory for event promoters from Trinidad to London to New York - a SaaS platform with a specific customer and a worldwide footprint. With a team of 10 to 12 people and no internal HR department, scaling engineering quickly and without missteps was not just a priority - it was a constraint. By partnering with Revelo, Playmas found a senior engineer who fit within weeks, skipped the noise of traditional hiring, and is now working with Revelo to define an entirely new kind of role: the AI-assisted engineer.

THE QUICK TAKE

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Playmas needed to scale engineering fast, with a high bar and no dedicated HR function. Revelo surfaced strong candidates quickly, embedded into the team's workflow, and has continued to support Playmas as their hiring needs evolve into territory no one has mapped yet.

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THE CHALLENGE

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Playmas was in the middle of a multi-year platform migration - moving off a legacy framework while keeping the product running for customers around the world. Matthew describes it as changing the engine of a plane while it is still flying. To get through it, he needed a senior engineer who could contribute immediately, without a long ramp-up, and without the overhead of a traditional recruiting process.

The team had already gone to market independently. After interviewing three or four candidates and not finding the right fit, they needed a better path. Playmas did not have an HR department to own the process, and the cost of a wrong hire - in a small, high-ownership team - was high.

THE BIG IDEAS

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Quality over volume

Playmas did not need a hundred applications. They needed two or three candidates worth talking to. A high-signal shortlist was more valuable than a full pipeline - especially with no internal recruiter to manage it.

Embedded partnership, not transactional hiring

Matthew wanted a partner who would learn Playmas's culture and needs over time - not hand over a resume and disappear. The ability to debrief after every interview, directly and informally, made the difference between candidates who looked good on paper and ones who actually fit.

Hiring for a role that did not exist yet

As AI reshaped how engineering gets done, Playmas opened a req for an AI-assisted engineer - a role Matthew had never hired for in his career. No LeetCode. No standard screening. The question was how candidates used AI to enhance their workflow. Revelo has been part of defining that process from the start.
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THE REVELO PARTNERSHIP

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Playmas added Revelo to their Slack instance early in the process. That access made the partnership real: after every interview, Matthew could debrief directly with the Revelo team, sharing what worked and what did not. Revelo used that context to sharpen their search, and the candidate quality reflected it. Playmas interviewed two or three people and found their senior engineer. Once the right person was identified, the process moved quickly.

For a 10 to 12 person startup with no HR function, Revelo effectively stepped into that role - walking Playmas through the process, staying accessible on Slack, and continuing the relationship well past the hire. When Matthew opened the AI-assisted engineer req, Revelo was already there to help define what it meant to hire for it.

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IN THEIR WORDS

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They became members of our team. We could debrief with them after every interview, and they really understood what we were looking for. For a startup like us - no HR department, 10 to 12 people - that kind of partner is invaluable.

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