Kyle
Los Angeles startup FindHire is hoping to be the next generation HR software. The startup, founded by Michael Dennis and Ryan Herman, blends contact management, project management and sourcing software for recruiters. Their web based solution makes it easy to access anywhere, across multiple locations or just one in home office location. The scalability and features give FindHire a serious advantage over other similar platforms.
Dennis and Herman were childhood friends. Dennis went on in recruiting and Herman got into development. They came back together as adults to create FindHire.
We asked Dennis how he came up with the idea for FindHire and he said:
“With my HR industry knowledge, I wanted to make an impact on HR technologies. With so much time-wasting software available, I realized I needed to fix this broken process and help people enjoy recruiting again. This intrigued Ryan who is a programming guru, and with this notion, we started building the next generation of HR software. Our hope is to alter the way companies hire and make the process fun and easier to manage.”
Check out the rest of our interview with Dennis below.
What is Find Hire?
FindHire is an advanced sourcing, interviewing, and hiring software with platforms for both employers and job seekers. FindHire develops innovative software that increases the effectiveness of recruiting and hiring talented professionals in the global marketplace through a seamless hiring interface.
In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)
FindHire is a Web-based platform for employers to manage, post, and close their job postings while also recruiting, screening, communicating with, and hiring job candidates. Because FindHire is Web-based, you don’t have to download or install any software. Simply sign up and start using!
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Michael Dennis and Ryan Herman founded FindHire in 2010. As childhood friends, they have always had very different personalities. With Michael’s background in recruitment and Ryan’s development and programming skills, the two found their niche in creating the next generation of HR software.
Where are you based?
FindHire is based in Los Angeles, CA.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
This is the first time I have ever witnessed a real startup ecosystem blooming in Los Angeles. In particular, the Santa Monica area, which is now being referred to as “Silicon Beach,” boasts a lot of promising companies. The culture is really developing and it’s a great energy to be a part of.
How did you come up with the name?
We wanted to be really esoteric and name it something random, but that hasn’t really worked out for other companies. I think it is better to be direct about what you do, especially if you can afford the domain too. So I would say it’s pretty obvious what our name means, since we help job seekers FIND jobs and employers HIRE people.
What problem does Find Hire solve?
FindHire increases the effectiveness of recruiting by making the hiring process easier and smarter. FindHire is fun to use and pulls quality over quantity resumes, which really saves a lot of time and money.
What’s your secret sauce?
FindHire offers a variety of tools that make hiring easier, such as our job board performance analytics, calendar and interview scheduling options, easy-to-use job posting features, and interactive communication options to speak with job candidates.
But the feature we are most proud of is our FindWord technology, which is our intelligent resume filtering system. Essentially, FindWords allow employers to auto-match job candidates based on keywords pulled from every submitted resume. Using FindWords technology, employers effectively scan and source job candidate resumes using an easier, time efficient, and more effective strategy.
Are you bootstrapped or funded?
Yes, we are already bootstrapped. We have also completed a seed round of investment and are looking for venture partners to participate in our Series A round of investment.
What is your go-to market strategy?
We are focused on the small to medium-sized business market in California. It’s an incredibly diverse and large market with companies that are spending way too much of their hiring budgets on job postings with job boards.
We are currently shooting promotional videos with client testimonials and clips from myself talking about our product. In addition, we are in the process of building a direct sales team and implementing our online advertising strategy. All strategies will help FindHire acquire new clients. After gaining a larger client-base, we plan on using word-of-mouth and referrals to spread the word on FindHire’s affordable, effective, and user-friendly platform.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
We’ve incurred many obstacles along the way. In particular, our lack of capital and resources made it very difficult in the beginning. But we bootstrapped the company and raised a small seed round of investment that helped us lock in some other development talent in Los Angeles. Another challenge we overcame was developing the Web-based version of FindHire and our iPad app simultaneously. It was difficult to manage each project with the same vigor and focus. Because of that, our beta releases suffered. But you live and you learn and now we’re back on track and have Version 1.3 live.
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
The owner of the first recruiting firm I worked at was my first professional mentor. At that time, he showed me the perks and benefits of the traditional recruitment strategy (i.e. the telephone!). But today, recruitment is a complex beast with social media and new technologies like job search engines and new ATS platforms. But having the traditional foundation for recruitment is very important, especially today.
As for business role models, Steve Jobs and Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, have had a large impact as Ryan and I developed FindHire.
What’s next for Find Hire?
In the next six months, we plan on finding great talent to join our team in Los Angeles. As I mentioned previously, we are planning to hire a great direct sales team and we could also use more assistance with development.
As for the FindHire product, we would like to expand into video. Recently, there has been a big rise in video resumes and interviews. We believe that video should be used as a supplement to a job candidate’s application and traditional resume, not a replacement. But because of this shift, we are developing a way to provide tools that launch the traditional resume, video resume, and the video interview in a user-friendly and accessible fashion.
Linkage
