Startup Tomigo raises $500,000
Company develops job recruitment platform using social media networks in which clients can reward employees for recommending right applicant. Investor Yaron Carni and Tel Aviv Angel Group made name for itself when it sold LabPixies to Google
Tomigo’s solution allows companies to circulate information about job openings through their own employees on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus.
Just last month, the Angel Group invested $500,000 in the startup Neomatix, which created an application for recognizing tire pressure in car tires.
Yaron Carni and the Tel Aviv Angel Group, which is comprised of private investors from the United States and England, made a name for itself when it sold LabPixies to Google and part of Contextit to the Spark Fund.
The social recruiting system developed by Tomigo manages the process of rewarding those employees who recommend candidates that are then hired. Additionally, the system makes it possible to send negative or positive referrals regarding the candidates that apply.
Current recruitment methods harm reputation
“Job recruitment through employee referrals has been going on for years. However, it is done in a haphazard way, not in an organized fashion, and therefore, it does not maximize the potential inherent in social media networks,” company CEO Tal Moran told Calcalist.
“The unique advantage to the employee referral method is the quality of the candidates that it brings in. Employees generally know what their employers are looking for, and employees' associates are often better matches than individuals who apply through wanted advertisements or employment agencies.”
"The problem begins with the fact that multiple parties are involved in the recruitment process. Providing applicants with appropriate feedback is crucial in order to keep the process running effectively. Unfortunately, this doesn't always happen. When an applicant sends a CV in response to a job posting, he does not always receive a reply or know if anyone has even read his CV.
"Tomigo provides an auto-direct channel that offers ongoing feedback to all involved parties. This reflects well on the company using the system; in effect, raising its reputation.”
“Even when the employee referral method is implemented, companies tend to do so in a way that is less than optimal. The channels of communication between applicants, employees and recruiters are not always managed well. There is no clear destination for questions that arise, and applicants do not always receive feedback about whether the job is a relevant one for them. Beyond the personal insult to the applicant, this can also have a harmful effect on the company’s reputation.”
Customers come through colleague referrals
Currently, Tomigo works with several dozen companies based in Israel and the US, among them Matrix, Microsemi and Giyus Isky. Most clients have heard of them through word of mouth.
“HR directors tell each other about us and that is how we have succeeded in working with many companies, and branching out to the US, "said Moran.
Through the system, employees receive information about job openings and share job postings with contacts by clicking on a “share” link, which posts the job on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Those employees who are interested can also register to have the job openings automatically posted weekly on their personal social network accounts.
The system also allows for jobs to be directed to specific groups, and makes it possible for recruiters to provide applicants with personalized responses, tailored to the individual. Finally, the platform tracks and then rewards any employee who referred an individual who was hired.
According to Lior Atias, the company’s business development manager, Tomigo’s business model is built around monthly service packages sold to companies interested in recruiting new employees. The client company can pay monthly according to the number of jobs and the number of employees that it is interested in involving in the process.
Tomigo does not charge a commission for each individual hired. According to Atias, a fee of several hundred dollars a month is worthwhile for companies because the alternative would be paying employment agencies the equivalent of a full month’s salary for each new hire.
Your competitors include companies such as Zao, founded by Ziv Eliraz, and the new startup Workwith.me, founded by Revital Hendler. What is especially innovative about your solution?
According to CTO Nimrod Moran, “We are making progress in the automated processes but are also taking great care with personal feedback. Additionally, in other companies the reward granted for successful recruitment is divided among many different parties, not all of whom were particularly involved in the process. We try to emphasize a sense of order, to recognize the employees’ contribution and to keep track of the reward that they should receive.
"Throughout the whole process, we display information about who should be rewarded. We also make it possible to reward employees based on effort, not just based on practical results or people hired. For interested companies, we provide a chart, visible to the whole company, in which one can track how many employees brought CVs of their friends, how many are responsible for successful recruitment, and what they earned as a result."
Useful tool for hearing- impaired
The company was founded by Lior Atias and brothers Tal and Nimrod Moran, 28, all three childhood friends who met at the Chugim School in Haifa.
Tal and Nimrod Moran are twins who, at age 15, created the movie critique website Bikornet and then served together in an intelligence unit in the Israeli Navy. Their paths diverged when they each studied computer science at different universities, Tal at Tel Aviv University and Nimrod at the Hebrew University.
One thing that differentiates them from Atias and their entrepreneur peers is the fact that they are both hearing- impaired since birth.
“We know many hearing-impaired people unable to find a respectable, established place to work, or any job at all – not even in high-tech, which is considered more enlightened, if you will. We decided to create greater efficiency and transparency for everyone involved in the job search process,” said CEO Tal Moran.
“The difficulty usually stems from initial communication with the first interviewer. Interviewers tend to rule out hearing- impaired candidates or other handicapped people too quickly, whether on the phone or at an in-person meeting.
"Through our platform and via social media networks, we are creating a direct channel between recruiters and those candidates who may be suitable for a job but would be disqualified due to a first impression – people who might not make it to a job interview any other way.”
