how hired.com started a fast-growing careers marketplace
TRANSCRIPT
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HOW HIRED.COM STARTED A FAST-GROWING CAREERS MARKETPLACE
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PHASE 1: IDEA AND MVP
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1.1 IDENTIFIED A BIG PAIN POINT
• Their entrepreneur friends were very frustrated: “can’t find good people to hire!”
• Spending a lot ($$$) on existing solutions (e.g. recruiters, attending events)
• Yet not happy with results
• => Opportunity!
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1.2 BUILT AN MVP
• Matt created wireframes, landing pages, ad copy, emails
• CTO friend built simple first version
• DeveloperAuction.com
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PHASE 2: GOT FIRST USERS
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2.1 FOCUSED TIGHTLY EARLY ON
• Supply-side:
• Developers only
• Candidates from 5-6 companies only (Google, Facebook, Twitter, …)
• Demand-side:
• VC-backed Silicon Valley companies only
• Focus => Easier to get liquidity with small amount of supply & demand
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2.2 USED EMAIL TO GET INITIAL CANDIDATES
• Emailed engineers with tempting (and novel) offer:
• “find out how much you are worth”
• “have companies trying to hire you with transparency up-front”
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2.3 USED EMAIL TO GET INITIAL HIRING COMPANIES
• 1. Emailed potential hiring companies directly
• Poor response rate – didn’t work
• 2. Got investor friends to email companies in their portfolios
• This worked!
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PHASE 3: GROWTH
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3.1 DEVELOPED AN INNOVATIVE, DIFFERENTIATED SOLUTION
• Provided upfront transparency to candidates about the compensation they could receive if hired.
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3.2 BOOSTED LIQUIDITY BY INTRODUCING URGENCY
• Started presenting batches of candidates to hiring companies for limited two week periods:
• gave prospective employers a reason to take action
• meant that strong candidates could end up with multiple offers on the table at the same time, allowing them to compare offers better
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3.3 INVESTED IN BRAND
• Spent $10k to $20k on a branding/naming consultancy
• Spent around $125,000 on domain name Hired.com
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3.4 FOCUSED ON SUPPLY-SIDE
• For first 3 years…
• Focused almost all their resources on attracting and improving the experience for candidates
• (knowing that with the right candidates, prospective employers would follow)
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3.5 USED FEEDBACK, EXPERIMENTATION AND DATA TO IMPROVE PROCESS
• Talk to lots of customers and run user research feedback sessions
• Test new approaches (some which work, some which don’t)
• Very data-driven (data team, make data available to entire company)
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CONCLUSIONS
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CONCLUSIONS
• Identified a big pain point.
• Focused tightly to get initial liquidity
• Achieved growth by building one side of the marketplace -- attracted the other side for free