Thread: Help with my pitch on Thursday

My school has a entrepreneur fund and I'll be pitching my business idea on Thursday. "Students with interesting, innovative and original ideas for social entrepreneurship can receive up to $1500 towards launching or growing their business."

I've seen most if not all the episodes of Shark Tank and I've also read Made to Stick (great book btw). But what tips and/or reminders do you have for me? What are some good numbers to know (this is not an actual business yet, just an idea, so I can't talk about actual revenues, etc.)?

If you are interested in my business idea and want to help me phrase things differently, here's what I submitted in my application:

1. Give your Twitter pitch
An applicant tracking system to make the hiring process faster and easier for small businesses. Similar to CRM software but for hiring.

2. Give some background information on your idea
About a month ago, I helped my parents hire a new receptionist for their small business. We posted a job listing on Craiglist and received over 220 applications for one opening. We narrowed the list of applicants down to 20 and called each one for a phone screen. Eventually, we interviewed two of them for the position.

Throughout the process I used a spreadsheet to keep track of which applicants to call and which ones I had already called. I also wrote down my impressions of the applicants in the spreadsheet. And as I was speaking to the applicants on the phone, I used a pen and paper and word documents to write down their responses. Finally, I had to relay all of this information to my mother.

To say the least, it was an inefficient process. I knew that if there was a program to keep track of everything, I could have saved a lot of time and money.

3. Describe your product or service in detail
The product is a Software as a Service (SaaS) site to keep track of job applicants from the moment the job listing is posted until someone is hired.

The process:
1. The user (customer) creates a job listing, which can be integrated into their website (www.CompanyX.com/jobs/listing) and/or on our servers (www.HiringTracker.com/companyX/listing). They can share this on job listing sites such as Monster.com if they wish.
2. Job applicants enter their name, phone number, and submit their resume (and cover letter if required).
3. All this information (including the resume and cover letter) is automatically organized and visible within the browser once the user logs in.
4. The user then screens these applications. They can rate these applicants and apply a status update such as “phone screen” or “interview” to each applicant. Once they schedule an event such as an interview, it shows up on a calendar to remind them of what what’s happening.
5. This process continues until someone is hired.

Some main features:
1. Collaboration - those involved in the hiring and decision making process all have access to the same information. They can write down notes and impressions within the site itself and everyone else on the team will be able to see and compare notes.
2. Customization - users can create custom fields and documents for job openings. For example, they can create custom fields for a phone screen with custom questions and type the applicants’ answers into multiple text fields.

There will be a tiered pricing model starting at $29/month for the basic version. More job openings and more collaborators will cost more money. There are no file or file size limits.

Mockups (only one is up for now) is up on www.HiringTracker.com (I own the domain).

4. Describe your customer or target audience
The target customers are small businesses with a small staff and small budget. They most likely will have between 2-50 employees and probably won’t have a dedicated HR person on staff. Even if they do, this software will be helpful. The software can be used in all industries, but will be initially targeted at companies hiring for clerical and professional roles.

5. How will your business have a positive impact on the community or society at large?
This software will save businesses precious time and money by allowing them to focus on their core business, not hiring. This will benefit the businesses using this software, as well as their customers. They will generate more business and money, which will help the economy as a whole.

And by making the hiring process shorter, the wait time between submitting an application and getting hired is shorter. People can start their jobs sooner and get a paycheck faster. And as this company grows, we’ll hire people, too.

6. How would your business operate?
Organization: LLC

Structure: This business would either have a technical cofounder with a programming background or the software development would be outsourced to a third party.

In either case, I would be responsible for product features, marketing, sales, and customer support (hopefully the product would be so good there will be little need for support)..

7. Where might your business be most vulnerable?
1. There are several competitors out there, but that is not all bad news. It’s a sign there is a market for such software. We can make a better (more user-friendly and intuitive) product. Many of the alternatives require users to call the sales team or request a demo first, but we will eliminate this step.
2. Good execution and good design are important for this idea. The product has to be fast and user friendly.
3. Scaling might be an issue if hundreds or thousands of applicants apply to jobs at the same time. This is not a current concern.
Thanks!

P.S. Moderators: if URLs aren't allow, let me know and I'd be happy to remove it.

Originally Posted by CommonCents

Consider trying to take on reseller partners such as payroll companies who already have relationships/customers to sell them this service as an add-on. I think that could vault you past any existing competition on the net as you could have hundreds of sales people out there.

I would've never thought of that. Thanks!