‘Tinder for jobs’ app Getahead raises $1.38 million to disrupt the job hiring process
Getahead’s pre-seed round was led by Pipeline Capital and supported by Di Bella Coffee founder Phil Di Bella.
Job seekers and employers can now swipe to their hearts’ content in a bid to find their dream job or their ideal employee, following the launch of Brisbane-based recruitment technology startup Getahead which has been described as ‘Tinder for jobs’.
Getahead has raised $1.38 million in a pre-seed round led by Pipeline Capital, the founder of Ezidebit’s Michael Dempsey’s investment fund, and supported by Di Bella Coffee founder, Phil Di Bella.
Leaving the usual painful paper trails of resumes and cover letters behind, shortening the hassle of scheduling job interviews and making it mandatory for employers to disclose salaries on the app, the platform is set to be a gamechanger for businesses and jobseekers across Australia after launching on the app store in December 2022.
Getahead matches jobseekers with employers by matching their preferences for work hours, salary expectations, lifestyle, benefits and prior experience. Like Tinder, users swipe right in order to match with an employer.
Jobseekers need their requirements to line up with that of the job’s to apply, which removes the need to submit a cover letter, resume and sit through several follow-up interviews.
Employers then get access to a pool of qualified candidates who match their requirements, instead of spending time sorting through countless applications that don’t fit the role description.
Once matched, employers can contact the candidate through direct message or video call.
During the first 24 hours of launch, 1156 signed on and since then Getahead has gone on to host applications for more than 1500 job seekers.
The jobseeker app currently has two full-time employees with a contracted team of 12 people.
Getahead founder and CEO Sam McNamara confirmed that the funding from the pre-seed round will be used to buoy the company’s growth, with Getahead aiming to triple its headcount by 2024, expand to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, and add more capabilities to its platform and consolidate its rapid growth.
“Getahead cuts a lot of the fluff out of the hiring process,” McNamara told SmartCompany.
“My goal is to decrease the hiring time from an industry average of 24 days to below 24 minutes. That’s my initial goal and I would love to help every hospitality and retail business Australia-wide.”
McNamara says that Getahead was born from his own pain points of finding a job when COVID-19 hit.
“Writing a new cover letter for every job application, attending interviews not knowing even what the salary was on some jobs, wasting time with fake recruitment ads. It was a nightmare,” he said.
“The system has long been broken. But our timing in launching Getahead couldn’t be better. We’re helping employers find talent in what is an incredibly difficult recruitment market, marked by low unemployment.
“We’re saving both them, and their candidates time and effort, and that’s why our growth has exploded in the past few months.
“Our goal now is to keep the momentum up, expand to other states and add more functions to Getahead to save jobseekers and employers time. Our broader long-term goal is a US expansion as we feel the market is a great fit for Getahead.”
Major brands who have signed up to the platform include Wyndham Hotel Group, Acai Brothers and Retail Prodigy Group.
McNamara says they are seeing an influx of companies from a variety of fields reaching out about the app, including a law firm.
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