Launched in early 2020, Jobfirst has already helped more than 24,000 employees find a job suitable to their skills and personality. Co-founder Maxime Belair tells us more about the benefits the platform provides for jobseekers and recruiters alike.
When did you found Jobfirst and what problem does it solve?
We launched Jobfirst in April 2020 just after Covid-19 started. But we were lucky enough to do a proof-of-concept with Amazon which turned out really well as we helped them hire 18,000 candidates.
Our platform helps with resumé screening and the sourcing of candidates because it allows recruiters to create job ads in three minutes. This ad is then sent to 25 job boards such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Monster, so it has a very wide reach. Each candidate can then create a profile in 5 minutes on our website for which they don’t need a resumé and our matching algorithm will assess their hard and soft skills to see for which jobs they would be a good fit.
This matching really helps recruiters because they don’t have to scan 500 resumés but can simply look at the best 10 candidates selected by our algorithm.
What kind of candidates is your platform tailored to?
We work mostly with blue-collar workers and non-C-level workers. Industries we are quite active in include the construction industry, the security industry and the cleaning industry. But we also help to source for HR and business positions. Most of our user base is between 16 and 44 years old, so we are also targeting a younger demographic.
What do you hope to achieve with Jobfirst?
We want to ease access to the job market for everyone and we want to help recruiters find the right candidates faster. For us, this is a really important mission and one that we are committed to. Having helped 24,000 people find a job, I’d say it’s working pretty well so far.
Why do you allow candidates to apply without a résumé?
We believe that the resumé is no longer a good tool to assess someone’s skills and motivations for the job, especially when it comes to blue-collar work. A lot of blue-collar workers struggle with writing a complete resumé including all of their soft and hard skills or including their availabilities. Our platform allows them to fill in all this information in less than 5 minutes.
Our platform is also mobile-first. A phone number is all you need. If you don’t have an email or an address, no problem.
How do you test the employees’ soft skills?
We use Intelli7’s personality assessment which has global recognition and has been used by multinationals across the globe. It also gives you the average scores of the population and quickly helps you find a profile where the practical skills match the desired personality for the job.
What is your business model?
The platform is free for candidates for now but we might launch a premium model for candidates in 12 months that will make their job-searching experience even better. For businesses, we have a SaaS model where small businesses can get a first job offer for free and for larger businesses it’s a 12-month engagement period. Lastly, for smaller needs, we also offer a pay-as-you-go offer if they only want to do three hires or so for example.
Which countries are you active in and what are your goals for the remainder of the year?
We hope to sign more contracts with some of our big customers and launch a POC in the US and Morocco. It hasn’t been signed yet but we are hoping to launch this POC to see if we can expand the market. We are also looking to raise 500K, of which we have already raised half. Furthermore, we are working with Kryptown to allow some of our users, friends and family to acquire some equity with little financial input.
Lastly, we are currently a team of 5 people but expect to be 10 at the beginning of next year and hope to double that number by the end of 2023.
