HiredMyWay, the Detroit Venture Partners-backed startup with offices in Detroit and Chicago, saw an opportunity in the dismal job market after the U.S. economy tumbled. Matt Mosher, a twentysomething serial entrepreneur, and Erinn O’Conner, a job recruiter with 20 years of experience, teamed up to start a company with the goal of building a better online job board. One year after going live, Hiredmyway has roughly 20,000 members in metro Detroit alone and plans to expand this year into five additional markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Houston.
“The biggest problem with online job boards is overcrowding,” Mosher says. “We allow job seekers to set themselves apart by paying a couple of dollars to show they’re serious. We’re a hybrid between a recruiter and a job board.”
HiredMyWay works like this: Jobseekers design their profiles and post resumes for free. They can then apply for jobs at no cost, or apply with a $2 MyToken, which Mosher says puts them in a smaller pool of applicants and guarantees that their resume will be read by a hiring manager within 15 days or the $2 is refunded. Employers see candidates who are willing to invest in their job search as being more committed, Mosher adds, and they only pay HiredMyWay if they hire one of its users. If the employee is fired or quits in within the first 90 days of being hired, an insurance pool covers what the employer paid to hire that candidate, though Mosher says the number of employees so far that haven’t worked out has been miniscule.
HiredMyWay also pays hiring bonuses of varying amounts to successful applicants and has a job referral program, where users can steer friends toward open jobs and receive up to $4,000 (split by HiredMyWay and the employer) for their efforts if the friend is hired.
Mosher says more than 95 percent of HiredMyWay jobseekers who have landed a job have been MyToken applicants, and within the past year, just over 500 people total found jobs through the site. In metro Detroit, HiredMyWay’s largest market, hundreds of companies post jobs for a pool of applicants that is currently growing at a rate of 4,000 per month. “Strategically, we think Detroit is a really good market to start in because it’s the most challenging,” Mosher says. “But the tech boom in Detroit is helping get our brand some visibility.”
Indeed, HiredMyWay is heavy on tech, engineering, and sales jobs, and job seekers can only do a limited search by company (rather than job category) unless they sign up for a free membership. However, as the company continues to grow and refine its business model, Mosher expects they’ll attract a more diverse group of employers.
HiredMyWay has 21 employees total, with 18 in Detroit and three in Chicago. Although the company is generating revenue, Mosher says it will be “a little while” before it’s profitable. HiredMyWay raised $3 million in a seed round from DVP; Donald Foss, chair of Credit Acceptance Corp.; and Robert and Irving Nussbaum, the founders of New York Carpet World, and is preparing to raise another round of investment. The company is also working on creating a mobile app.
And, as long as people continue to struggle to find work and will do anything to gain an advantage in the job market, it seems HiredMyWay will have a guaranteed user base.
