Keeping in mind the ever-growing startup ecosystem in India, Hirect came into being in 2020. It connects job aspirants with the startup leaders without any middleman, and vice-versa. The Hirect app matches job preference with job descriptions and enables the recruiters and job seekers to chat directly and schedule interviews instantly. Voice and video calling features are synchronized within the app, so users don’t have to switch platforms. Raj Das, Global Co-founder and India CEO of Hirect, talks to Ramesh Kumar Raja, to share more about this platform and its technicalities. Excerpts:

At a time when there are a number of job portals in the market, how did the idea strike you to come up with Hirect?

Startup culture is booming in India and in the last several years, we have noticed that youngsters prefer to join a startup rather than a corporate. On the other hand, hiring for a startup is challenging even if it’s critical for its success. Our vision is to connect those best talents to startups for jobs without any middleman which lead to minimal investments, and a speedier pace.

This is the only reason we are different from others and our concept is different.

What it’s all about and how Hirect is different from others in the market? What is your USP?

Hirect is a mobile-first hiring/job search app whose AI matches a job description with job preferences precisely. It further enables matching talents and recruiters to chat directly, without the involvement of any middleman or third-party hiring agencies.

We allow only the decision-makers of the startup to become a recruiter. We don’t allow any third-party consultant to hire talent. We are the only platform that does it effectively with our voice and video calling feature, so users don’t have to switch platforms to communicate. This has significantly shortened the hiring window for startups, enabling them to focus on other strategic matters. Hence, all jobs are 100% verified, with no middleman, no spam and no scam. And that’s the USP of Hirect.

How has been the response so far on both Google Play and Apple App Store? How many downloads Hirect has amassed to date?

To date, the response from the Indian user base has been really motivating for us. Hirect has amassed close to 2 million downloads, combined on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, so far. We have more than 30K startups on the application who are hiring.

What is your revenue model? Please tell us about the funds you have raised and the partnerships that you have entered into?

We don’t charge any job seekers. We also allow recruiters to post the first 3 jobs for free. However, we charge for each additional job post. We have raised dozens of millions of dollars in Series A funding from Silicon Valley investors so far.

What are you doing to popularize it among the masses and classes in India?

We are a customer-obsessed company. We make our customers satisfied and they will bring more customers to us for free. More than that, we run social media events and campaigns with the help of influencers to popularise it. We believe in organic promotion rather than pushing excessive funds on promotions and delivering less to the end-users.

The COVID-19 pandemic might have been a blessing in disguise for you. What has been your experience of solving the job crisis in one of the worst phases of mankind?

Remote jobs market (e.g. Programmers, Digital Sales & Marketing) was still doing well despite the pandemic situation across the nation. As per our research, this pandemic activated more scammers as many were looking for jobs desperately. At this tough time, we assured a safe and free job search platform for millions of job seekers across the country. We managed to onboard 30K+ companies offering 150K+ jobs despite this pandemic.

How do you look at your role in the post-COVID era?

During the COVID, the hiring industry was more supply-constrained. It was a tough time for the industry as many people lost their job during the pandemic, which has affected the Indian economy. Now, the economy is recovering, employers are gradually resuming their work from the office. We witnessed a 35% increase in job posts in September as compared to August. The blue-collar jobs market (e.g. driver, security guard, delivery boy) may be our new focus post-COVID era.

What are the features that you are planning to add in days to come, in order to make it more exciting?

Ideally, we want to hear it from our customers because their feedback is the most essential component for the company. We believe in building customer-centric services. Our major plan is to utilize AI to further improve the response rate by assessing their behaviours and preferences to the best level possible.

Is your server capable of handling a sudden upsurge in traffic and what efforts are you putting in to maintain data security on your platform?

Our server is always ready to handle the predictable upsurge in traffic. Our data security team is full of expert professionals who are well-versed in best practices in data security. This team is especially dedicated to such upsurges and maintaining the stability of the platform.

Since Hirect has an early-mover advantage to be a leader in this segment, what is your growth trajectory to deal with competition, which is very common in today’s digital world?

As we have already mentioned, we are a customer-obsessed company. In the end, it’s the company that serves the customer’s best win in the market. We will stick to our principle of customer obsession over competitive obsession to deal with any competition. Our main motive is to help customers to get their desired jobs and employees.

How is the Indian market different from other countries where you operate in and what are your expansion plans?

Indian jobs market is more supply-constrained. Also, there are multiple regional languages in India compared to other countries. We want to serve in India and USA first and gradually expand globally based on our resources and learnings.