Startup Spotlight #1: When faced with big problems, bring big solutions...
With AI taking millions of human jobs and the growing talent shortages, the US job market looks to be in dire straits. Can today's startup save the day?
About the project
When searching for a new job, one thing that people often overlook are the referrals. However, underestimating their importance is a mistake that can sometimes prove fatal. That is because you are, on average, 9 times more likely to get hired if you have a referral. Plus, over 80% of companies rank referrals as their top hiring channel — something every potential employee should keep in mind.
But what if you don’t have any connections that can give you a good referral? That’s where today’s startup, Tangent, comes in.
Tangent is an online platform that connects people looking for a referral to relevant industry insiders, or ‘mentors’, that are eager to provide help in the form of a recommendation. But the mentors do more than simply churn out referrals. They will give you valuable industry insights, help with polishing your CV, and could even potentially help you with getting a job at their company. There’s no previous experience required, but having it will often prove advantageous.
So far, the startup has been laser-focused on the tech industry, more specifically the sales sector. If you’re using Tangent to help find a job, you should probably expect something along the lines of a business development rep, sales manager or tech support, at least currently. One of the more common transition routes is going from working in retail to a B2B sales manager.
Tangent has already garnered over 400 mentors on their platform. And, with it being a British startup, most of the mentors represent British companies.
To begin using Tangent, a potential candidate must first sign up. The company promises that signups will always remain free (though we have seen similar promises being broken once or twice in recent memory).
After signing up, you’ll have to complete Tangent’s BDR (business development representative) training course. Its main objective is to help you determine whether this job is the right fit for you and give you more clarity when it comes to the process. It should also help you make the most of your mentors’ time. Getting the badge for successfully completing the training will be a huge plus for your potential mentor.
The next step is recording a short introduction video that will help the mentors get a better idea of who you are as a person. Tangent even has a handy AI tool that will help you with drafting a script if you’re struggling. After your video is uploaded, mentors will be able to contact you through Tangent’s built-in chat. There’s no limit on how many mentors you can connect with, so a decent candidate should in theory be met with many options.
So far we’ve only talked about how Tangent helps job seekers, but it can be extremely useful for employers too. For companies, the platform opens up another way to get candidates through referrals. And that’s a good thing, because candidates who get hired through a referral end up working 70% longer than ones who have simply applied through any of the established channels.
What’s more, a large number of companies have bonus systems in place which reward employees for successfully referring a candidate, but few employees have the time or the means to network in search of said candidates. Tangent solves that problem. Meaning that instead of having to pay 15-30% of a new hire’s salary to a recruitment agency, businesses can get away with paying 1-3% to an existing employee as a bonus. It’s a win-win.
Tangent recently came out of beta and has since raised $1 million in additional funding. The startup has already raised funds once before, during the pre-seed stage.
What’s the gist?
If companies weren’t already offering referral bonuses to employees, selling users on a platform like Tangent might have proved difficult. Because there’s nothing worse for a startup than trying to convince potential clients about their product’s value. However, Tangent isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel — they have simply created a tool that makes an existing practice more efficient and robust. In our view, that’s an excellent approach.
Herein lies today’s first lesson — wherever you can, avoid having to convince. If your service helps businesses improve a process that already exists, rather than creating new processes, it will generally be much easier to sell.
An important thing to mention is Tangent’s approach to inclusivity when it comes to candidates. A lot of them are people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, who may often find it hard to net a job in the current market. And for many of them, Tangent could prove one of the few viable avenues to finding a decent job, which, once again, makes the value proposition extremely clear.
Meanwhile, most developed countries are currently experiencing a drought when it comes to highly skilled workers. It’s becoming increasingly harder and more expensive for businesses to find and attract top talent. To begin systematically solving this problem, we need to create more platforms and tools that help companies find talent in unlikely places — platforms like Tangent. Recruiters often overlook candidates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, but some people need just one chance to be able to shine.
Luckily, there are more and more startups popping up that leverage technology to make the job market not only more accessible, but also more inclusive. Another demographic that’s often overlooked by recruiters are people with disabilities — despite the fact that, in the US, 26% of the adult population have some form of medical disability. That’s an enormous number, and a large pool of potential candidates to choose from.
One of the most promising startups in this space is Inclusively, which has raised almost $20 million in funding since its inception, $13 million of which came in the last year. The company has started with a focus on helping people with disabilities find employment, having since expanded to help more groups that are underrepresented in the job market.
Another place where employers can find top talent is, well, abroad. Especially in places where finding a decent job with a respectable salary might prove difficult for the locals, and where finding a remote job for a foreign company is one of the few ways to make a decent living. Promising startups like Microverse are trying to fill that gap by teaching programming to people from Africa and Latin America, and later helping them get hired at European and US companies.
Drawing conclusions
While today’s job market may seem daunting for job seekers and employers alike, there are companies that are actively trying to remedy that for both sides — by making jobs more accessible to various underrepresented groups. With time, this will play an important role in solving the talent deficit that many countries are currently experiencing. The key is finding a way to help companies recruit consistently and in large quantities, without compromising on the quality of the candidates.
We’ve already mentioned some specific groups, such as people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and people with disabilities. Many industries, failing to keep up with the times, are also lagging behind when it comes to women. The tech industry is a prime example of that. While the last decades have seen drastic improvements for women’s work opportunities, many issues still exist, and women remain unfairly underrepresented in a variety of roles. Thankfully, some up-and-coming startups are working to fix that as well.
The issues facing today’s job market are complex, and many questions still remain. But there’s a whole slew of promising companies ready to tackle those issues head on. All that’s left for us is to hope that they can deliver on their goals.
Company info
Tangent
Website: https://www.jointangent.com/
Last funding round: €1M, 18.04.2024
Total funds raised: €1M+ over 2 rounds