[Roast] founders.careers - A platform for companies to hire ex-founders

[hedeliveredme]

Website: Founders.Careers

Product:

Being a startup founder is hard. Not everybody gets it right the first time but the founder goes through a learning process. When a founder quits their startup or has a nonsuccessful exit, finding the next full-time opportunity becomes a challenge. The chances of an ex-founder getting hired are directly proportional to the network he/she has built. Enter Founders.careers, founders get hired by great companies, beyond their network.

Business Model:

1. FREE for founders forever.
2. Charge the businesses for helping them find exclusive leadership talent that is not usually available on job portals. We are starting with a flat percentage to start with and going forward will move to a subscription for businesses to access pre-vetted profiles of founders.

Would love to hear all your thoughts on the problem we are solving and also the business model, iteration ideas.

 

[gracedaily]

@hedeliveredme I really like the concept.... good companies know that ex-founders are an asset, usually they are instantly hired if they have a good network however others might find it difficult

Where do you aim to source your "pool of talent"?

As a side note, I do find that the attitude to "failure" ie company failure in the US is different than other places around the world (I'm in Australia). Especially around the Silicon Valley, failure is celebrated... while elsewhere, especially in East Asian countries it is looked at with disappointment... hopefully this gives you an idea which areas to target first.

 

[hedeliveredme]

@gracedaily @gracedaily Thank you for your kind words budd. As of now, we don't have one channel to create this pool. We are doing a bit of everything to find founders. I guess it's mostly founders sharing with other founders in their network and that seems to be the highest source right now. We are still on the lookout for our best channels.

True. Not every geography has the same approach or understanding towards failed entrepreneurs. Silicon Valley is the oldest and more mature startup ecosystem, and they seem to accept this really well. As of India, a few years back it was hard but now I feel large organizations are more willing to have these founders in their teams

 

[mjnor1]

@hedeliveredme I think this is much needed. Many big companies are being replaced by startups. Founders are a new breed of talent and will probably replace the C suite of talent.

 

[hedeliveredme]

@mjnor1 Thank you @mjnor1. We are seeing a good number of ex-founders getting placed in top roles in startups.

 

[uno34]

@hedeliveredme Interesting idea, but not sure about it. Many reasons.

 

[hedeliveredme]

@uno34 Would love it if you can put out the top two reasons

 

[uno34]

@hedeliveredme Why should one use it? Are there any differences? Also, I do not see any job ads.

You want to collect personal info.

This is a very competitive field.

 

[hedeliveredme]

@uno34 Thank you comment @uno34. Below reasons why we started founders.careers and also our traction in the last 1 week since we went live

1. The job listing portals in the market are not suited for hiring founders
2. The jobs listed are more targetted at the regular market and not ex-founders
3. When the founder applies through the job portals usually ends up talking to the recruiter, who in most cases might not understand the founder journey
4. At founders.careers, we are curating jobs that are suited only for founders. Currently, as I type this we are in the process of signing up these positions with companies. We are speaking to them identifying job roles that are suited for ex-founders.
5. As of now, we have 3 unicorns, 2 series B funded startups, 10 Seed to Series A startups, 12 profitable startups looking for founders to join their teams. In a day we are looking to push these in simple 3 line sentences to founders in our network.

 

[uno34]

@hedeliveredme

3 unicorns, 2 series B funded startups, 10 Seed to Series A startups, 12 profitable startups looking for founders to join their teams

Can you add this phrase to the top of the site?

 

[hedeliveredme]

@uno34 You are awesome

 

[hedeliveredme]

@uno34 Aye aye sir

 

[uno34]

@hedeliveredme

1. Why do you think so?
   
2. There are many different job types and jobs.
   
3. Applicants can write their resumes better and find direct ways.
   
4. How do you do that?..

 

[hedeliveredme]

@uno34 1,2 and 3

Jobs are everywhere. No doubt. Multiple roles such as product managers, directors in different areas of the company, and so on. Most of these roles are for experienced hires with specific domain knowledge. A startup founder is usually a generalist figuring out his way to understand any domain. So when companies post these roles in job portals they come with certain filters relating to the domain experience and probably the recruiter in charge also is looking for these keywords. The founder interview slightly needs a different turn is our take.

And yes, writing a cold email to the employer is a personal favorite. But for the ones who don't want to take that route we have founders.careers

1. Once a company signups with us, we then schedule a call with them to understand the open positions that are suited for founders. Not every position but positions suited for founders. Say, chiefofstaff, VP growth, sales, product. We then go back to these companies with suitable profiles of founders with the story of their startup journey and why we think they are a fit.

 

[uno34]

@hedeliveredme Again, you can write a bit more on the website about such jobs.

And yes, writing a cold email to the employer is a personal favorite.

Actually, direct meetings with hiring managers and their bosses are better. I got some jobs that way in the past. One of them as a last year student. One temporary job before I started my uni (and they wanted me to stay there).