Startups find metaverse talent hard to come by, look abroad

Whydah, a pioneering metaverse startup, needs over 50 employees for its projects.

The company has to shell out a lot of money to look for foreign workers, Tri Pham, founder and CEO of the company, which raised $25 million last year, said.

Businesses in the metaverse segment are finding it even more challenging to get workers than blockchain companies since they also need to be creative besides having knowledge of blockchain, he added.

"They need to be top notch in various skills."

Since 2021, there have been over 4,000 job posts on recruitment platform JobHopin for the metaverse, blockchain and decentralized finance segments, but only 15-20 percent of the demand has been met.

Kevin Tung Nguyen, CEO and founder of JobHopin, said many companies are racing to launch projects and so demand is booming.

"Metaverse is the future, and it needs a lot of excellent people."

The same talent shortage is seen globally, with many companies in China and the U.S. scrambling for workers after Facebook changed its name to Meta and announced plans to have one billion users on its platform by the next decade.

Tri said the worker shortage is one of the reasons a metaverse project could fail, and companies that do not train the next generation and instead depend on poaching from others could quickly run out of resources.

"Hiring foreign workers and splurging money to attract talent are temporary solutions."

He added that his company plans to train the next generation.

Other industry insiders say the transition by traditional tech firms to blockchain provides workers with many benefits, including the cryptocurrency of the company that could surge in value if a project takes off.