Shortlist: Job Matching & Upskilling the Emerging Workforce

Bringing competency-based hiring & upskilling to growing companies to level the talent playing field in India and Africa.

Hiring in emerging markets is hard, and it's only getting harder. There's way too much noise: millions are entering the job market each month across India/Africa, and job boards deliver quantity but not quality, leaving companies mired in manual-intensive job posting, resume screening, and rapid phone interviews. More importantly, the best talent is hidden behind poor CVs that don't tell the full story of their actual skills and full potential. We want to help companies filter the noise of the modern recruiting landscape, saving time and more importantly accessing hidden talent pools to help them achieve their organizational potential.

On the other side, applying to jobs is a miserable experience. Candidates lob applications into job board "black holes," and never hear back (not even a courtesy rejection). They get no feedback on how to improve, where they should learn more. This is a huge missed opportunity and completely demoralizing to millions of jobseekers in emerging markets.

Shortlist is a different way to hire, and a different way to apply for a job. Our platform helps companies build custom digital job applications, combining different technology tools to streamline outreach and screening, and help companies hire "past the CV." Some of the feature of our platform include interactive job descriptions; customizable chatbot; 100s of competency/skill assessments; and automated voice/video interviews. All of this combines into a design-forward "digital obstacle course" to collect dozens of data points beyond the CV as employers weigh who to select for interviews and offers.

It also presents a transparent, fair, and bias-free way for candidates to show what they can do rather than just being judged by what it says they've done on their CV. We use technology to improve matching and hiring outcomes, but also to improve the experience, trust, and morale on both sides of the hiring equation. 

This is just the start. We are now layering in more avenues for candidates to get feedback, bolster their skills, learn about themselves, and grow as people and professionals. With Shortlist, our goal is to "unlock professional potential" on a mass scale, and we're just getting started.

We are comprised of a world-class team that has both experience and passion for building great teams and products. Our founders have previous experience both as investors and entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Our leadership team has a wealth of experience across global executive search firms, tech and product development in financial services and startups, and process engineering and growth hacking at large multinational corporations. Our larger multinational team is driven to succeed through our core values: Own it, Act with Intention, Find the Adventure, Be a Whole Person, and One Team.

We generate revenue through both software-as-a-service and full-service recruiting options: 1) Service: priced on a per role mobilization fee + success fee upon placement (typically 10% of first year salary). 2) Licensing: priced on # of roles open per month + custom charges for bells/whistles. We are currently achieving a gross margin of above 50%. We have already selectively chosen cross-border projects with existing customers in order to achieve a growth-by-loyalty expansion blueprint.

We are applying to Solve because we believe that partnerships are essential for us to reach and impact the lives of those most affected by technology-driven transformations of work. Solve’s community would provide a unique opportunity to connect with leaders in tech, government, and other sectors, which will help us access and impact greater numbers of jobseekers in emerging markets. Since we work across industries, having the opportunity to share and discuss best practices in a room full of experts would be invaluable towards becoming the career partner to skilled professionals in Africa and India.

In order to achieve our greatest potential impact, we need to reach the maximum number of job-seekers and employers in our markets. We believe the mentorship and support provided by the Solve community will help us build an effective framework to scale across the markets that need our solution the most.