This SaaS startup matches gig workers with corporates, making hiring easier for HR

As we have witnessed in the past, an economic downturn caused by a major event or otherwise can be hard on individuals. With pay-cuts and job losses, people struggle to make ends meet. In such unprecedented times, finding the right job is crucial, and most individuals depend on referrals and job portals to find a position that suits them best.

However, what if there is a platform that can help companies to identify the right talent for the job by outsourcing its technical interviews, and also help freelancers by giving them a push into the gig economy?

Bengaluru startup FloCareer helps with this by bridging the gap between employers and employees. Established in early 2016, co-founders Mehul Bhatt and Mohit Jain are helping in bringing the job community together.

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Friends and neighboursMehul and Mohit used to work in the IT sector for over 15 years before they decided to start-up. The seeds for the startup germinated from their casual conversations about bringing the corporate and the gig economy together.

"Our dream is to create FloCareeras a platform that connects a community of job aspirants, skill assessors, and job creators," says Mehul Bhatt, Co-founder, FloCareer.

The works

FloCareer offers Interviews-as-a-Service, remote hiring, automated BOT-based systems, and applicant tracking systems to its clientele. It has experts that help screen potential candidates for a particular job. However, this is where FloCareer differentiates itself. The startup’s platform enables corporate teams to focus on their core deliverables such as team development, rather than screening individuals.

When a company gives a requirement to FloCareer, the startup brings its experts to review candidates and then conducts video interviews. Once the first screening is over, the platform automates the scheduling of interviews with the right people in the company that wants to hire the talent.

FloCareer ensures that the applicants on its platform are regularly tracked, and eventually placed. It also claims to provide 100 percent transparency to its customers – starting from the selection process to the final placement.

"Most of the interviews we do are in Information Technology and Computer Science domain, as of today," says Mohit, Co-founder, FloCareer.

The Bengaluru-headquartered startup currently has over 700 handpicked freelance interviewers who take technical rounds of interviews on behalf of the hiring company, using its SaaS-based video interview platform, which is part of the FloCareer stack. In the last 18 months, it has conducted over 25,000 interviews.

The founders believe that there are two key reasons why HRs should opt and continue to use FloCareer’s Interview-as-a-Service solutions – one, it offers a cost-saving service, and second, it provides a faster hiring process.

"Our initial set of clients were majorly startups where, either they did not have technical people to interview, or they didn’t have time to interview. Our first major client was Wipro Digital which we got through a cold email campaign. The vendor onboarding and payment were long, but it was all the worth since we have matured our product with them," Mehul says.

FloCareer, which operates on a subscription-based business model, declined to reveal its revenue and pricing numbers. However, it had raised around Rs 3 crore through an angel round in 2018 from an undisclosed set of investors, the co-founders say.

Challenges and future plans

Detailing the challenges FloCareer faces, the co-founders say that the startup spends a considerable amount of time to convince the HROs the need to outsource the interviews and reduce their hiring time. They also have to explain to them that FloCareer is a tech-based startup that matches the specific needs of the clients by having the right talent outsourced.

"We basically work on the profiles provided by clients which include eliminating fake CVs, scheduling the interview (video interview), and providing feedback to the clients. This way, the HRs can straight away hire the candidate by reducing their time, as well as money spent on interviews. Our model for clients is a subscription-based and per interview, which is levied as per the number of interviews conducted," says Mohit.

In the next 18 months, the startup plans to strengthen its clientele base in IT/ITES, financial/banking, and healthcare sectors in countries like the US, the UK, Australia, the Middle East, and the APAC region.

So far, it has helped companies and startups like Wipro, CRISIL, CitiusTech, Tencent, Rapido Bike Taxi, Vision Net, ANSR, BYJU'S, Bigbasket, CSS Corp, and Happiest Minds, in finding the right candidate suitable for various jobs.

"Over time, we are planning to extend our B2C services, and hope we get into it down the line soon," Mohit adds.

Moving forward, by the end of 2020, it is aiming to conduct 6,000+ interviews per month. At present, it competes with the likes of Talview, a US-based recruitment platform.

"Our value proposition is technology-driven interviews, enabling accelerated hiring for HR and distraction-free teams that help ramp-up the hiring," Mehul concludes.