But venture Capitalists were not forthcoming to fund the startup led by Mehul Patel, when he was in touch with them for the same. The market potential or user growth were not the criteria for them but for the timing of the profitability of Hired.
Patel highlighted efficient running of his company to triple annual revenue in 2016 and a forecast of profit in 2017. He said, "The conversation had really changed from a year ago".
Last year the valuation of Hired was $200 million. Patel could muster $40 million from the investors at an undisclosed valuation, different from the previous round. Lumia Capital along with Comcast Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Sierra Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank were the investors for the current round. Hired proposes to increase the operations to other cities and industries including health care and law.
Segment wise, players of online jobs market,are CareerBuilder.com, Indeed Inc., LinkedIn Corp., and Monster Worldwide Inc. who are the earlier and bigger competitors to Hired. The revenue of Monster in 2014 was $770 million and LinkedIn’s was $862 in the last quarter. Hired expects a “run rate” of $100 million in 2016. (Calculation is done, with basis for one period to a full year).
Hired creates the profiles of job seekers, which is free, based on skills and background and the acceptance rate is 4 percent. Payment is got from recruiters like American Express Co., Comcast Corp., and Facebook Inc. to get these candidates and offers sent to them by e-mail. The reach now has sales, marketing and other professionals in 15 cities which started from tech workers in San Francisco. Expansion carried out internationally with acquisition of two small startups in Paris and Melbourne.
Patel makes the above possible by being frugal in spending. To avoid long term lease he resorts to changing office and has done three times in three years. San Francisco office furniture is from Ikea. The startup had the home office from Herman Miller which eventually wound up. "That's still my office chair," he said. "It reminds me not to let things get too crazy."
