HR Tech Startup Launches a Recruitment Revolution

LANDING PADS CASE STUDY

The founders of HR tech startup myInterview want to revolutionise recruitment. With support from the Landing Pads program, they are well on their way.

When the founders of Australian startup myInterview left high school and began university, they didn’t expect to have such a hard time finding a part-time job. With many people applying for each role, Guy Abelsohn and Benjamin Gillman found it impossible to differentiate themselves through a traditional resume.

This sparked the idea for myInterview, which they launched in 2014. myInterview helps employers hire the right people with a customisable one-way video interview solution.

Abelsohn and Gillman’s goal is to transform the recruitment process by bringing candidates’ applications to life and showing the people behind the paper, while making the whole process faster and more efficient.

Employers post ‘interviews’ on myInterview’s secure platform, including a company video, a role description and up to 10 text or video questions. When applying for a role, candidates have 30 seconds to review each question before recording a response. myInterview also delivers a Video Apply Widget that authenticates cover letters by giving candidates the opportunity to pitch themselves for a job in person.

In 2016, Abelsohn and Gillman began planning a research and development centre in Tel Aviv to underpin further technology development and business growth. To support this endeavour, they applied for the Tel Aviv Landing Pad as part of the Landing Pads program.

‘There’s so much tech going on in Tel Aviv, it’s quite mind-blowing,’ says Gillman, who is currently basedin the coastal city. ‘We wanted to tap into both the talent and the investment, as well as the time zone, which makes it easier to do business with Europe and the US. The Landing Pad was a great way to do that.’

As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, Austrade has established five Landing Pads in Berlin, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and Tel Aviv. Landing Pads supports market-ready startups/scaleups to go global.

Participants are given an operational base at a Landing Pad for up to 90 days, where they benefit from Austrade’s extensive global network of contacts and tailored business development assistance.

A world-leading startup ecosystem

In November 2016, the myInterview team arrived in Tel Aviv. Gillman was on the ground full-time for 90 days while Abelsohn visited throughout. They were housed at SOSA (South of Salame), a vibrant four-storey space and community founded by a group of innovation stakeholders, including some of Israel’s most prominent angel and venture capital investors.

Abelsohn and Gillman arrived with a clear plan to access expertise from key advisors, investors, CEOs and CTOs that would allow them to refine their business model and technology. They wanted to take things to the next level and ensure their technology was cutting-edge.

‘SOSA is an amazing resource,’ says Gillman. ‘There’s a huge buzz around it. We had the German Government come through last week and the President [Frank-Walter Steinmeier] was here. It’s really one of the greatest hubs in this country.’

myInterview had access to an extensive range of experts and events, as well as onsite value creation associates who connect startups with valuable contacts. They also received one-on-one support from the Austrade Landing Pad Manager, Omri Wislizki.

‘Omri basically acts as your business development guy,’ says Abelsohn. ‘We call him “the super connector”, because he can open doors into all types of companies. Without that support it probably would have taken us six month to familiarise ourselves with the landscape.’

Forging powerful connections

Through the Landing Pad, myInterview connected with major global tech companies, potential corporate partners and venture capitalists, and raised enough capital to expand its R&D efforts.

‘I had a casual chat with about 20 venture capitalists in the space of two months, which is huge,’ says Gillman. ‘Those meetings usually take months to get, and here I could sit down and speak to them in a matter of minutes.’

The myInterview team has since launched a new line of business, which involves using analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to rank candidates based on factors including what they say, their tone of voice and their confidence level.

‘We would never have taken this new direction without the influence of the people we met through SOSA and the Landing Pad,’ says Gillman.

They also hired three people, two based in Tel Aviv and one in the Ukraine, taking their team to five.

Going global

In the months after completing the Landing Pads program, myInterview was accepted into the 12-week Slingshot HR Tech accelerator program, supported by recruitment giants Seek and Hudson.

Abelsohn and Gillman are focused on continuing to develop their technology and enhancing its capabilities to integrate with HR management software. This will allow them to access a global customer base.

‘The Landing Pad is an opportunity that enables you to look at the bare bones of your business and be able to see what is needed to go global,’ says Gillman. ‘You get access to people that you couldn’t get access to otherwise. Ultimately we’re in a much stronger position from participating in this program.

‘I’d recommend people take the opportunity because it can really accelerate your business.’