University at Albany master's student Sam Hogan is preparing to launch his software startup this spring, and it's caught the attention of some large companies.
Hogan is the founder of Hirebird, software that using a dating app format to match job candidates — predominantly students and new graduates — with companies seeking employees. The software is powered by an artificial intelligence program that can compare resumes and job descriptions and generate a compatibility score.
Hogan said the point of the compatibility score is to save time for employers and prospective candidates.
The program learns how to interpret a resume or profile. For example, it can recognize that skills in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are the same.
"We allowed our algorithm to essentially pull the most relevant experience," he said. "The overarching view for our match perspective for employers is ... as opposed to going on LinkedIn or Indeed, or any other candidate sourcing site where they just see someone's resume, they actually can quantify how solid of a prospect this person is to them based on their match percentage."
The overall goal of Hirebird is to shorten the hiring process. When candidates and employers match by swiping on one another — like on dating apps Tinder or Hinge — they can schedule a meeting through the platform, and candidates can track where their resume is in the review process.
Hogan said the platform differs from others because it curates the top 10%-20% of matches for positions, and it is intended to keep employers from having to sift through hundreds of resumes by discouraging the unqualified ones.
"It's similar to LinkedIn and Indeed 'easy apply,'" Hogan said. "But the problem is they don't have percentage compatibility, and easy apply just means that's one extra resume people have got to look through."
Hogan founded the company in October, and has since taken meetings with interested companies like JP Morgan, Crumbl Cookies, Broadview Federal Credit Union, General Mills and Stewart's Shops.
Employers pay based on successful candidate interactions. The platform is $80 to start, and employers pay for the conversations they have and the meetings scheduled as opposed to the number of applicants.
"You can still keep your candidate pool extremely wide. But you only pay for the people you message and when they respond," he said.
Other features for employers include a data dashboard (with numbers like applicant strength and number of invitations to apply sent), an applicant list and the ability to send job offers through the platform. Hirebird can also be integrated with other sites to post positions that redirect applicants to the Hirebird website.
So far, 15,000 candidates have signed up before the product has launched and with $0 spent on marketing, Hogan said. The platform will be free for job seekers. They will also get feedback as to why they might've been passed over for a role.
"Someone who goes and applies for that ... role and who doesn't get it, they'll then see, 'Here are the types of profiles that got interviewed. And here's how you can increase your profile concept to get an interview next time,'" Hogan said. "It'll be able to tell you the difference between their profile and your profile from each level, so if you want to get a message from this company, here's what we think you should add."
The plan is to launch Hirebird for companies by April, and Hogan said he intends to have some funding by then.
Hogan has bootstrapped the company so far, but has already had tentative venture capital offers of $500,000 from firms across the country. He hasn't accepted any deals yet — he's hoping to land Capital Region investors.
"We'd love to have a person in the Capital Region by our side," Hogan said. "Our biggest thing is we want to start our regional build-out in Albany. And we want to start obviously from that grassroots perspective of the Capital Region."
