Jacksonville-based startup Spivvel just received an investment from the world’s most valuable company.
Accepted to Nvidia’s Inception program, Spivvel plans to soon launch a talent recruitment app designed to tap into engagement via the swipe — a simple push right or left to accept or to decline potential jobs.
“We're building an application that is targeted to help the younger generations that are graduating from college, but to also allow people like myself and Millennials to integrate into the current wave of technology ingestion,” co-founder Randall Thomas told the Business Journal.
The founding trio hired an overseas developer to build the app after their plan came together and went in search of funding and resources to enable the platform to function and to eventually grow.
And with Inception — a free program designed to supercharge startups through a $100,000 seed investment, Spivvel creators access to Nvidia technical resources and connection to venture capitalists who see potential in the human resources start-up space.
The difference between Spivvel and apps like Bumble or Match, founders say, is that potential matches are anonymous. Names and photos are redacted until a match is made. Interest is based solely on company and candidate descriptions.
In eliminating biographical info, Thomas and Spivvel
“With a biased perspective, you may not hire the right person,” Binganisi said. “Because of name, image, likeness, zip code, school, sports played and more, there's so much bias. We're all biased to some degree, but through the use of technology and blind recruiting, we can help minimize it.”
Binganisi learned this lesson through experience. After beginning his career at Pepsi, Binganisi made the dive to found his first tech startup foster grad in 2016. While the launch ultimately failed, Binganisi learned a lot about product development, strategy and implementation.
“We didn't necessarily become who we wanted to be, but there was a lot of leverage and return on investment,” Binganisi said. “I learned the meaning of what true entrepreneurship is and understood the meaning of having the right people behind you together working on the same product.”
Despite background, Binganisi’s application for over 500 jobs failed to land a position. As an entrepreneur, a recruiter informed he did not have a polished enough resume.
Through his professional network, however, Binganisi landed a job with Florida Blue as a scrum master — an administrator and an “empowering” coach or mentor that ensures an iterative approach to implement software delivery.
“In that role, I started to really understand the gaps in talking to recruiters,” Binganisi said. “How long have you been with this recruiting company? How much do you get paid an hour? Are you happy? There’s a big churn of people leaving organizations for higher pay rates.”
It was also at Florida Blue that the pair connected over the challenge of overcoming recruiting bias.
“How can I leverage technology to help build a solution that can eliminate some of the bias of seeing somebody named Shedrick?” Williams asked.
Williams was one of thousands laid off by CSX in 2016. In chatting about filling potential gaps with Binganisi, “all those bells started ringing.” A “capable individual, who was not getting any calls back,” Williams turned towards an entrepreneurial mindset, especially after linking up with Binganisi.
“How can I also understand where there’s other opportunities in different verticals where I hadn't looked? How do my skills translate across the market? How can we leverage technology to open up new opportunities?”
As a tech recruiter by trade, Williams also had an ace up his sleeve in a peer recruiter: Randall Thomas.
“Randall is our secret weapon. We talk about companies having a secret sauce. Randall is one of the few empathetic recruiters that truly cares about what happens to a candidate after they pick up the phone,” Williams said.
Thomas is a long-time tech recruiter with experience as a consultant and director of recruiter for such large staffing companies as Modis. The recruiter met Williams 17 years ago when both men were at the beginning of their careers, selling and fixing computers at Best Buy.
After many years spent as a recruiter, Thomas provided an internal point of view.
“What I was able to provide to this app was an inside look into what the recruiting processes looks like for firms,” Thomas said. “From what's legally allowable to what would make the most sense to ask for recruiters as candidates and for candidates as recruiters.”
The trio’s combined experience and perspective led to Spivvel, which aims to fill-in those cracks in the recruiting process through artificial intelligence and machine learning.
For candidates, Spivvel is another tool in candidates’ toolboxes — a way to quickly sweep through job opportunities.
“Somewhere between eight and 12 percent of people in my LinkedIn contacts are unemployed,” Thomas said. “They're going to jump at the chance to put themselves closer to a recruiter, an organization or somebody that can help to refer them. It's just another opportunity for them to get a job.”
Spivvel aligns with jobs according to user characteristics, pay rate and location. This “pay transparency” encourages recruiters to provide market rates that align with top recruits and provides a dynamic vehicle for recruits to earn competitive market rates.
“As a hiring company, you can understand the reason why you're not matching with candidates is because you need to increase your minimum rate by $10,” Binganisi said.
“First, you have recruiters that are gonna engage you for jobs that you are overqualified for, or provide you with the hourly rate range that's way below what you're looking for,” Binganisi said. “Secondly, on LinkedIn, the cost of entry is expensive. Thirdly, it's finding the right job within a season or a timeline that aligns with your financial savings.”
This not only eliminates wasted time on poor fits, but supplies an expansive tool for qualified candidates to earn better salaries and extend their search beyond a confined geographic area.
“Through AI and machine learning, what's going to happen is we're going to say, hey, these jobs are in Jacksonville, Florida, but you also have a remote option,” Binganisi said.
Through personal experience, founders know how difficult and psychologically stressful the job search can be. With Spivvel, they want to make that a more efficient, effective process supplemented by encouragement.
“During the job search process, I was so bogged down with the rejection of putting in applications every day,” Williams said. “Am I even capable anymore? What's my worth? So we're looking at helping people to stay motivated and encouraged throughout the process, to be a helpful friend. How can this application work alongside the job seeker as they go through this?”
As to Spivvel’s revenue model, the app will be free for users with a tier-based subscription model for recruiters that ranges from a $125 per position price to an unlimited enterprise access for multinational firms for $30,000 per month.
Part of Spivvel’s strategy is not to consider itself competition to massive, established digital recruiters like LinkedIn and Monster, but as a complement.
“We’re not trying to beat LinkedIn or Indeed,” Thomas said. “You can use Spivvel in conjunction with LinkedIn, not against. The value add for agencies is data and accessibility to candidates.”
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