How Hired.com Started a Fast-Growing Careers Marketplace

HOW HIRED.COM STARTED A FAST-GROWING CAREERS MARKETPLACE

PHASE 1: IDEA AND MVP

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!

1.2 BUILT AN MVP

• Matt created wireframes, landing pages, ad copy, emails

• CTO friend built simple first version

• DeveloperAuction.com

PHASE 2: GOT FIRST USERS

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

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”

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!

PHASE 3: GROWTH

3.1 DEVELOPED AN INNOVATIVE, DIFFERENTIATED SOLUTION

• Provided upfront transparency to candidates about the compensation they could receive if hired.

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

3.3 INVESTED IN BRAND

• Spent $10k to $20k on a branding/naming consultancy

• Spent around $125,000 on domain name Hired.com

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)

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)

CONCLUSIONS

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

THANKS!

• Find out more: http://www.mattcollins.net/