Recruiting the Right Way with Sean Fahey

foreign [Music] welcome to Super entrepreneurs podcast today we have with us Sean Fahey Sean how are you good how you doing excellent did I pronounce your last name correctly uh yep that worked all right that's awesome glad to have you here my friend why don't you take the stage and kind of introduce and let everyone know uh what you do sure so my name is Sean Fahey and I run a software company called vidcruter we sell recruitment software to help automate and streamline the hiring process so other like for staffing agencies this would be an app that they would use uh yeah we do offer our products to staffing agencies as well as just normal companies um so anyone who's doing any kind of hiring at all at least hiring at least 50 people a year or more in their organization I would use our products to help accelerate that process okay that's cool so now your platform when you're bringing on Talent do you have some kind of a structure that you follow or anyone basically that's looking for a job they'll just uh sign up so we have a series of products that organizations would purchase so let's say you're hiring you know 10 20 30 people and our products will uh allow those organizations to accelerate their hiring process so depending on what they're already using we have certain products that they could pick and choose from but like the first product we have is like what's called an applicant tracking system so it's kind of like a CRM for recruiting and it creates application forms and filtering questions that candidates would go through that sort of qualifies them scores them and puts them into different folders for you to say you know here's the pool of candidates that you have to look at then from there we have the option to if you wanted to if they score high enough automatically send them to go do a skill test um so you could set up a skill test in the product to check like let's say you're doing a data entry job let's check their Excel skills or this kind of different kinds of skill testing then if they pass that exam or test you would generally send them to um maybe an asynchronous video interview or pre-recorded a video interview and how that works is the candidates at home by themselves and they pop on their phone or on their webcam and they record themselves answering your interview questions sit down in your office and then get a profile that has a resume all the basic questions answered maybe a little skill test done all their interview questions answered and look at that profile and say is this someone I want to meet are they qualified to work with me yeah so instead of just looking at a resume you have interview questions you could have you know what we call kick out or Knockouts dynamic yeah so you're you're looking at this profile and you click a button and say Yes I want to move forward that sends them to a calendar kind of like calendly but for recruiting and it sends them to go book themselves in a time that they can talk to you they pick a time that you're free and then on next thing you know you got a candidate in your live video conference or in your office walking in a time that you've pre-booked so it simplifies the process it makes it easier for a business exactly and we then have an automated reference checking product so you just click that and then it goes and checks the references for you so even the reference check so how do you so the actual applicant has to enter all the references I assume yep and then we email the references they log into a separate portal and then answer all the questions and then that could be scored as well oh this is awesome so it actually it creates it it makes it more um Dynamic for the business owner because they just have to set it up one time and they can get the ideal people coming in we actually set it up for you so the business wouldn't just sort of calls us and says hey this is what I want these are the kind of questions I want to use you know this is what I want to streamline I already have this technology I just need this product or that product we can mix and match these products together and then um yeah we basically set them up with the template here's your template there you go and then away you go you start hiring huh so what what would you say the the number one uh industry or number one type of talent that you see coming in uh we sell to all sorts of organizations around the world really uh so they range from you know Samsung and U.S foods and some of the biggest companies in the world to you know some staffing agencies as well those are less our clientele but mostly corporations that um are hiring at least 50 people a year or more will benefit from some of our products if not all the products can ask why a staffing agency wouldn't be utilizing this wouldn't this wouldn't this make their job easier we do have staffing agency as clients there's too many sorry uh we we tend to focus more on corporate clients but we do have a subset of staffing agencies as well that use our products so the the corporate world must be loving this because it is it is time consuming right the whole process yeah and then there's this hybrid new environment where some people are at home some people in the office and yeah we also have this interview compliance product that ensures that everyone's treated the exact same way interviewed the same way under the same sort of structured interview methodology so it doesn't matter whether the managers in person or in a video conference or both you know we can accommodate all those different scenarios and needs yeah it covers all the Angles and are you are do you have actual applicants that are at a higher level like CEOs or CMOS yeah we have all different kinds of roles that we hire for hmm and how long has this been uh going on for this company uh Victor we started in 2012. yeah so how has the growth been ah it's been pretty good I mean uh you know we started with two people and now we're 180 uh employees around the world or 190 I should say and what were you doing before this uh personally before this I had another company in retail like a retail store yeah retail kiosks in malls actually oh nice yeah you sold out you sold that out you sold out of that then I guess yeah it's just selling belts and belt buckles and little kiosks all across the country yeah that was just like a university project that I was doing for fun and then the recession kind of took the um the steam out of the sales there I guess you would say and so we had to do something else and so we started software instead yeah so you know from kiosk to HR software platform you know it's it's a big uh change in vertical so how did how did this happen is there a story behind it uh one of my business partners in the retail organization was a computer programmer oh so you guys teamed up yeah so he was kind of the the the the coding behind I was just the entrepreneur behind so um yeah well how do you you notice a need in the in the Staffing world like is this something that you had a whiteboard trying to figure out what software to develop to come up with this or was it a passion from before that's a good question yeah so what happened was when the recession happened our retail business started to die and in 2009 I had to go get a job and that was really complicated and I had built a company um of 50 employees uh by myself you know all around the world the U.S Canada and no one would even give me an interview you know and I was kind of surprised that I couldn't get interviews uh for jobs and then finally I got hired as a as a Salesman and insurance company and I became one of the top reps in three months and then they told me that uh they wanted to hire 200 people across the country over A Five-Year Plan and I said well I started thinking about the math and the work involved and everything and I said well what if we could just do that in like 30 days with some kind of software that would just sort of streamline this higher process and then I realized that was kind of a good idea so um I ended up quitting that job and starting the software company from that idea from that need to hire these people having gone through it as an applicant seeing how hard it was to get interviewed yeah you know my my resume wasn't you know CEO of a retail company with 50 employees isn't something that you can most recruiters look at that and say well this this doesn't match a profile for a job you know even though I had worked it was you know I would consider myself someone who would work hard and do good at work but I couldn't even get interviews because my resume didn't match I criteria for the kind of Roller World we have a lot of people that we've gotten feedback from as applicants that they don't they can't get interviews and now all of a sudden they get interviews because you get an automatic interview with our product and now they're getting hired because they're great candidates they just don't have a right the resume may not be perfect right or they haven't been in the job market for a long time or you know so it it's kind of like giving every applicant a chance to interview now yeah yeah it's like you're basically matching the ideal um employee with the ideal employer exactly they both win yeah so um that's the goal and then it makes it faster for employers because all of a sudden yeah you sit down in your office and you got 10 interviews done already yeah I love it we haven't done anything yet you just sit down that's great it's great shot and and you know what the the best part about what I do and interviewing and this podcast is that little bit that you shared you know that that story that that how you know you couldn't get a job and then you you you were working somewhere and then they told you that they want to hire 200 employees and then this idea came about and then you put it together look what it's doing now for others it's just amazing I love this stuff cool well thank you yeah it's kind of wild how that happens right you wake up in the morning and you're like what if someone was to solve this problem you know I love it yeah it's great and then from there when you solve that problem right to the to that employer you guys were probably like feeling some excitement you know you're like oh wait a minute this is this is good like we gotta get this out up out to the market so from there what's the story from that point on like how did you come about developing and then launching and did you get any investors and like how does that all look like if you don't mind sharing yeah I mean from 2009 to 2012 not having a software background not having a recruiting background really had to spend a lot of time understanding the market um so I was just cold calling and calling people and going door-to-door and doing whatever I needed to do to ask recruiters is this something that you would use um in a lot of people like I'll try a little prototype that you have so we built a prototype and then a couple people tried it and they liked it and the candidates liked it so because the recruiters can record themselves too so you can record yourself asking the questions so it doesn't have to be script only they can record the question yeah so imagine I record a question like hi I'm Sean I'm here at vidcruter we're hiring uh you know we our office is an old cookie factory and we're super excited about meeting everyone but one question we have for you today is you know what what's your favorite pizza topping right or whatever the question is yeah so they get to see the employer and get an idea and then we can have different people from the company record these questions and when we started to do it more interactive like that um I believe has had great feedback recruiters have great feedback because they're everyone's saving time you know you don't have to go anywhere you don't have to take time off of work to do an interview and you're and so um the feedback was good so we ended up building a prototype and then we ended up getting some investors and then it that took a couple years to really learn and in 2012 we raised a bunch of money and started the company officially so it's actually three years before that we that I had the idea oh it took some time it takes time yeah especially if you don't know what you're doing not that I didn't know what I was doing but I didn't have a software background in that world yeah yeah yeah you have to sort of learn that industry you know they say it takes 10 000 hours to get good at something and that's kind of three years and that's kind of what that was is two three years of learning about the challenges of recruiting and the needs of the applicants and the needs of the recruiters and making a product that would um work for that and so we we scrapped our first product and then rebuilt it again um yeah it was a huge thing and that and then it took a lot a while because back then video interviewing wasn't really popular which is like today is common you know we're doing in a video now you know we have a video conference product as well um but it was it was part of it we do also video conferencing as well yeah it's within the within the platform Auto scheduling book the video conference your interview questions are built in it has all these cool features for recruiting yeah yeah and and really if I just look at it in the business in the corporate side of things they set and go kind of thing right so um if they had to hire one person would that you know once they call you and say hey I need to set it up for that one person that they need is that okay with you guys or do you say no I need minimum 200 people or whatever like is there some kind of criteria we try to only do contracts with 50 hires a year or more oh yeah you said that yeah less than that you kind of it doesn't make sense to pay for the product from the time that you're saving yeah you know what I mean like you're not going to pay for a product when you can just um do it manually for cheaper right um yeah even though it automated everything it's just star why is not there on one job so yeah there is like other companies that we um in the market that do like a one job kind of cycle we're not really that kind of business but there's other companies so the one the one job the real question was basically say you hire say someone signs up with you and has you know 50 they want to do 50 but 49 is one type of job but then within it there's just one uh seat to have to fill will you do that entire setup for them for that one seat uh at VidCon what we typically do is we'll build a template okay so it's like here's your general questions your general template your general workflow do you want automated reference checking or not do you want the scheduler or not and then how do you recruit right what is your process and then we map out the process in the product for them if you want a skill test or not do you already have an applicant tracking system or not and then basically we'll layer on whatever you need and say Here's your template and here's where you click to add a question and here's where you click to add your calendar so we kind of give them a training guide for that yeah that's what vigruder does basically yeah and and did you guys consider allowing the actual client to set all this up or this decision that you guys made that you will do it in-house for them was part of the whole you know making it easy concept yeah we generally try to make it easy I mean they can do everything we do when we give them training guides it's just like the first time you buy a product or software um you don't really want to have to learn how it works you want to get the results from yes from that right so we tend to have you know let us set it up for you at first and show you how you could keep using your templates and create templates and everything but they get the benefit faster um and that's kind of a higher Roi for their time and our time to do it that way so that we can you know it's just a better experience for them so we try to just help clients set up for them they can focus on other things they can tell us what they want and then um they could change it if they wanted to but the goal is just simply to ensure that we do it for them so from all the years of experience and you know starting to start up what would you feel your number one advice would be for someone that is going into a software startup what to look out for or what they could do to make the journey easier um first you either need to know computer programming or have a computer programming partner right that would be the step one which you know you need to have the right people on the team um and I would do that before getting investment you know like make sure you can build a product because you can build the product with people without getting investors right and then the second thing I would do is get someone to validate that that product has some kind of product Market fit before getting investors now sometimes people like oh well you know I can get investors and I can do this and stuff like that but then typically your First Investors are like friends and family and if you didn't validate that the product could actually go to market then you end up maybe wasting their time and or money so it does take a little bit longer you know it took me a couple years um instead of starting immediately but I was doing that on the side of doing that other job right yes yes and so um and we did get a little bit of a money at the time and then just you know work on it full time for a little bit set up some uh SEO and websites and see if people would come in and then eventually uh that started to come in we started to get clients and then we got investors so we had a proven business model with clients to then go to investors with and say hey here's a business that works it has clients it has Revenue we want to get it to the next stage and it's easier to do it that way in my opinion and do you guys um are you open with with working with like third party helping P these uh employers and employees you know some companies they have these this Marketplace for example that can serve both sides have you guys branched out to anything like that we have a lot of resources online to help candidates um like how to do a good interview what to look for how to prepare your interview here's a tech Check website we can double check your equipment we also give them 24 7 technical support So if you're in the middle of an interview or you're practicing or we also have equipment testing pages on every single interview so that they can practice double check their equipment talk to someone in real time if they have any problems you know I don't want you to have a bad interview experience because of your device because you didn't click the right button or something like that right so yeah we do all that for candidates um to make sure that they have a good experience [Music] excellent that's good 30 or 40 full-time people just dedicated to applicant support amazing that's great you know I see this going some um to other countries as well like is it available all over the world or is it just in the USA yeah we sell globally and uh we have translated the product into more languages than I can count oh wow that's great yeah so we sell globally that's good that's excellent now what would you consider your or what would you think or feel your inner most superpower is that got you to this point uh I have a a lot of grit grit is like persistence uh that and drive so persistence and drive put together you can accomplish anything yeah and so a lot of a lot of people don't realize but that's kind of like a muscle if you think of it like a muscle willpower is also a muscle if you think about it and so developing that cholesterol yeah a lot of people don't realize that that is a something that you could develop you know they think about going to the gym and developing your biceps yeah that same concept apply that to that personality trait yes is sort of a requirement to become an entrepreneur in my opinion yeah yeah like all of our higher mental faculties right like reason imagination perception um will these are all something that we are able to increase the strength of just like going to the gym and you're absolutely right um Sean so it was great to have you on the show love learning about this stuff your story is inspiring hopefully you know we can we added some value in the marketplace and other fellow entrepreneurs are thinking about um scaling or or diversifying or whatever they're looking into doing I hope this episode finds them and gives them that value and they can move ahead if you have any final words that you would like to share with the audience please go ahead awesome well I really appreciate you having me on today and uh one question I find that's really good is someone asked me the other day you know how what would you tell your grandchild if they came and asked you in 40 years from now what was the secret to uh success and in my opinion it's set up your life so that that automatically happens so whatever it is for you just set up your habits to automatically create that life that you're looking for great thank you so much Sean amazing great words great concept you know it's it's saving entrepreneurs is saving companies time you know it's so precious especially such a important component in in the business growth right finding the right people is is everything you know as the company is not the bricks right it's the people you know and and you're providing this service and I I commend you for this and hopefully you see more growth in this and and and help more people and audience yeah thank you I appreciate that thank you no problem Sean and audience thank you so much for joining us again today for another episode Sean's show notes will have all the information for you to get in touch or to see his uh platform if you're looking for a job if you're looking to get hired um you know Sean just laid it out for you this is a great concept because the training is also provided you know the healthy every step of the way and if you're looking to get a job more quickly than the traditional way is definitely something you should be checking out and thank you for all your support and I I'm we're very grateful to have you guys as part of our audience I love the fact that you guys shared with friends and family appreciate and all the love that I get on the messages and and on social media love you all thank you so much and Sean thank you again and keep in touch thank you sir have a good day you too [Music]