The job search is a burden from any point of view. Entering the same information into applications over and over again is a process that is ripe for a digital update and Simplify is an early-stage startup is trying to do this by combining quizzes, job search, job search, auto-complete applications, and help answering text-based questions into one program.
Today, the W21 YC grads They are announcing a $3 million seed as they continue to work with applicants and employers to try to build a business model around the idea.
The company's CEO and co-founder, Michael Yan, says that a long time ago we started applying for jobs more intelligently than we typically do today. “People spend dozens of hours browsing job boards, searching for opportunities and often submitting hundreds of repetitive applications. So what are we doing? At Simplify we are creating what we like to call 'an always-on professional AI agent.'”
He compares you to a Hollywood agent, who understands your career, background, skills and salary requirements and helps you find the right match. He can take a test to help the algorithms understand his skill set. It probably works best for people with technical background and a specific set of skills, such as programming languages and development tools.
You can also set preferences such as work-life balance, diversity, or innovative technology, among other. Additionally, you can set your salary expectations and the software will find jobs that match your answers. The company also offers a more detailed resume building application on its website.
But it doesn't just find potential jobs, it helps you fill out applications by automatically filling out the most common information, the kind you have to fill out over and over again with the same information, and is easily handled by automation. The company is deliberately setting itself up as a separate tool from LinkedIn, which Yan says should make it more private because no one sees its information except potential employers.
In terms of job postings, it presents you with a set of matches pulled from the web that match your skills and requirements, or you can download the Simplify Copilot Chrome extension and automatically apply for jobs as you find them in your job search with others. tools outside of Simplify. The Copilot tool can also help you answer questions on the application based on your background and skills.
The co-founders conceived the idea for Simplify a few years ago when they were in college, applying for hundreds of jobs and filling out the same information over and over again. They thought there had to be a better way and launched Simplify in 2021, joining the Y Combinator Winter 2021 group.
Today the company has about 10 employees. It's too early for now, but Yan said that could change in the near future. When it comes to hiring, he sees diversity as particularly important for a company like his, where biases could easily creep into the job search. "If you have a product designed by all the men in a small room with similar backgrounds, it will probably only serve those men with similar backgrounds," he said.
For now, the company has a good pipeline to test the idea, but they are still experimenting with monetization methods. The $3 million seed was led by Craft Ventures with help from YC, Hyphen Capital, GFC, and several industry angels.
