Focus on What Matters: How Talin.ai Built Their AI Platform Without Integration Headaches

November 20, 2024

Learn how Talin.ai, an AI-driven automation platform for recruitment agencies, leveraged Unified.to to support 20+ ATS and CRM integrations while keeping their founding engineers focused on building their core AI and automation capabilities.

Summary

Product Category: AI-powered talent acquisition platform for staffing & recruiting

Use Case: Push and pull data from ATS and CRM integrations

Integrations Launched: 20 integrations

Time Savings: 9 months

Engineers Required: 1 engineer

Features Highlighted: Unified ATS/CRM APIs, SDK with TypeScript support, Connection Health Status

Benefits Highlighted: Engineering resource optimization, reduced cognitive overhead, scalable integration strategy, ability to serve Enterprise clients

Talin.ai is bringing AI-powered automation to an overlooked segment of the recruiting industry: staffing agencies. Founded in 2023 and recently securing $775,000 in pre-seed funding, their platform recognizes that staffing agencies operate fundamentally differently from in-house corporate recruiting teams. While most recruiting software focuses on internal HR needs, Talin.ai's platform is purpose-built for unique agency workflows — from lead generation to candidate outreach and personalized engagement. To deliver on this promise, they needed a robust integration strategy that could connect with dozens of ATS and CRM platforms without consuming their engineering resources.

The challenge: building an integration-first AI platform

Your engineers should be building what makes your product unique, not maintaining integrations. That was the principle guiding Talin.ai as they developed their AI-powered recruiting platform for staffing agencies. They needed to seamlessly integrate with dozens of ATS and CRM systems to accomplish their core mission: freeing recruiters and staffing agencies from the tedious work of importing candidates in bulk, validating contact information in real-time, and deploying multi-channel outreach campaigns.

For a small team focused on building sophisticated AI and automation features, this created a stark reality. Each new integration could require weeks or months of learning new APIs, building custom authentication flows, and maintaining different services. With just two founding engineers, Talin.ai faced a critical decision: either delay their AI development to build integrations, or find a better way.

Breaking free from integration complexity

The math was simple but sobering. Building and maintaining integrations in-house would have consumed both founding engineers full-time, leaving scant resources for core product development.

Enter Unified.to. Having access to unified data models and normalized APIs meant Talin.ai could completely transform their integration strategy. Instead of building each integration from scratch, they could write their integration code once and instantly support dozens of platforms.

The impact was immediate:

• New integrations could be added in under an hour instead of weeks
• A single engineer could work on integrations part-time instead of taking up all of their time
• Engineers could focus on core AI features
• A single, unified data model simplified development

"The value of Unified.to's unified data models cannot be overstated. Taking the time upfront to understand one shared model meant we could scale incredibly fast afterward. When you're building AI features that need to work across multiple ATS systems, freeing up this mental bandwidth is invaluable."

Trevor Witjes, Co-founder

Winning enterprise deals with integrations

This newfound engineering focus led directly to their first major win. By building a robust solution using Unified.to's Bullhorn integration, one of the recruiting industry's more complex ATS platforms, Talin.ai secured their largest enterprise client to date.

"Integration capabilities often make or break deals in the recruiting software space," explains Trevor Witjes. "Because we weren't buried in integration maintenance, we could focus on making our own product rock-solid. That single integration accelerated our go-to-market by months, opening doors while our engineering team stayed focused on innovation."

Thanks to Unified.to, Talin.ai could confidently pursue enterprise deals knowing they would be able to deliver the integrations their customers needed. Their engineering team remained focused on innovation, setting the stage for continued growth and product advancement.

Finding a partner for integration success

Talin.ai found that Unified.to provided more than just an API — they gained a technical partner that felt like an extension of their team. From day one, Talin.ai's engineering team was impressed by Unified.to's collaborative approach to problem-solving and thoughtfully designed data models.

When Talin.ai needed to support Bullhorn, Unified.to's partnership proved invaluable. The Unified.to team worked closely with Talin.ai to ensure smooth authentication flows and optimal end-user experience. Challenges resolved in live conversations, keeping implementation momentum strong.

"The collaborative nature of our relationship with Unified.to has been invaluable," explains Trevor Witjes. "They're not just responsive - they're thorough, engaged, and genuinely invested in our success. When we hit integration challenges, we could hop into Slack and work through solutions together. It never felt like we were just another ticket in their system."

The confidence to scale on demand

Talin.ai's journey with Unified.to started with just a few integrations, but quickly scaled to support over 20 ATS and CRM platforms. This rapid expansion wasn't just about numbers - this reflected a fundamental truth in the recruiting industry: data integration isn't optional, it's essential.

This strategy has paid off. While Talin.ai actively uses 15 integrations today, they confidently feature over 25 platforms in their marketing. "With Unified.to handling our integration infrastructure, we can advertise support for more platforms, knowing we can quickly activate them as customers need them," Trevor notes. "This lets us say 'yes' to more customer requests without worrying about implementation overhead."

The Unified.to advantage

Talin.ai's experience demonstrates how the right integration strategy can transform a startup's trajectory:

• Engineering focus: 150% more engineering time for core AI development
• Reduced complexity: One unified data model instead of 20+ individual models
• Rapid scaling: From 2-3 initial integrations to 20+ supported platforms in matter of weeks
• Future-ready: Ability to expand bi-directional data flows without additional infrastructure

For recruiters and staffing agencies, deep integration capabilities aren't just a nice-to-have - they're table stakes. By choosing Unified.to, Talin.ai turned this challenge into an advantage. Their engineers stay focused on innovation while offering the deep integration capabilities their customers demand. As they continue to expand their platform's capabilities, this foundation will enable them to move faster and reach further than ever before.

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