5 ms·

Show HN: Non-technical founder MVP = Hustlebee

16 points by danielayele 15y ago

danielayele 15y ago
The site was inspired by iwannaworkatinstagram.com. I want to build a recruiting tool that makes it easier for people to get hired by companies that they're really passionate about working for. Check the blog at http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com for more on my journey and where I'd like to go with this.
dools 15y ago
I think you may have accidentally left Working Software off the list. Easy mistake to make.
dyc 15y ago
Great idea. I definitely see potential in what you're doing. Why did you only include YC companies?
- danielayele 15y ago
  I wanted to start with startups because they have the most difficulty finding candidates and have the least resources in terms of recruiters/HR/etc to help. YC has a great list of awesome startups so I figured they would be a good jumping off point. I may expand later but I'm not sure how/when that will happen.
phlux 15y ago
So what happens if this takes off and you get 10 / 100 / 1000 seekers for a job at X? Is it on Hustlebee to pre-qualify? Are you now a technical recruiter taking some % of the annual salary for the first 6/12 months? Why is hustlebee better than applying directly? You only place designers/engineers? Even if the company has other openings? Can you have a page that shows all the opening from that drop-down of companies in one place?
- danielayele 15y ago
  1) I'll be sending applications to companies and they can choose whether or not to interview candidates. 2) I haven't figured out specifics but I'll probably charge companies that successfully make hires through us something similar to what they'd pay via employee referrals. 3) Hustlebee is better than applying directly because companies will treat you as a more serious candidate (just like if you were to create a website dedicated to why you want to work for a company). This streamlines the process for people that REALLY want to work for a company and cuts down on the number of applicants that companies need to vet and the number of companies that people need to apply to. 4) I decided to start with designers/engineers because those appear to be the positions in highest demand right now. I may expand to other positions later but haven't yet decided exactly how I'll go about doing that. 5) I'll try to do this.
  - retube 15y ago
    3) Why? All I've got to do is fill out your very simple form. Hardly the same as building a dedicated site targeting a particular company, and no harder than just applying directly. If anything it's easier: no CV, no covering letter etc.
    - ktsmith 15y ago
      I would add that it does nothing to help determine if the candidate is qualified which is the larger hurdle for most companies than attracting job applicants. This doesn't address that point at all.
    - danielayele 15y ago
      Because if you apply to a company through us, are accepted, and don't go through with it we won't allow you to apply to other companies through us. This makes it so that companies can actually trust the service to get committed candidates as opposed to just candidates who, if they applied via a similar service that was listed directly on the site, had no recourse if they didn't go through with the position.
erik_p 15y ago
I'd love to hear more about the trials and tribulations of mvp'ing your product as a non-technical founder... and it would be cool to see some background as just how non-technical you are :) One small suggestion: You have a required field that's only has one checkbox option. This is weird to me from a UX point of view. It's also a weird question. I think what you're trying to do is find out if the user is serious about their application or not...
- danielayele 15y ago
  Yeah definitely the next blog post will be about how I launched the page/what I'm using in terms of tech. I am probably as non-technical as they get...I've been reading HN for a while now but have done no db programming before and my skills are limited to front-end stuff (read the blog post at http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com if you want to know more about my background). Re: the required field, the goal of the site is to have people commit to take the position upfront. This is what makes it valuable because it allows companies to cut down on time spent trying to gauge how committed their applicants are. Thanks for the feedback!
  - ktsmith 15y ago
    No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms first. Working for hustlebee might be my dream job but if I were offered $0.50/hr then you could probably imagine what my response would be. No check box on a recruiters sign up page is going to change that. More importantly it's almost certainly not binding and so the applicants have no reason to not check the box. If I were launching this site I'd be more worried about how this would hurt the number of people that take you seriously. Going back to the first point, if I'm not going to agree to accept a job without seeing the terms I'm also not going to work with a recruiter that requires me to accept any potential offer.
    - retube 15y ago
      > No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms first Quite. I list a few obvious reasons why a candidate wont want to take a job in a thread above - but this is not to mention the Service Agreement / Employment Contract which could be pages and pages of detailed legalese and, particularily with startups, could have lots of contentious stuff with stock options and so on. Having your USP as "the candidate promises to accept your job offer" is unreasonable, unrealistic, impractical and most likely unlawful.
catshirt 15y ago
"If I'm offered a position with the company I agree to accept it." i'll... pass.
- retube 15y ago
  even if the salary offered is 10 bucks a day...
leeanon8 15y ago
To be brutally honest, your product makes no sense to me and I have reservations about the problem it is solving actually being a problem. It's defining hook, that people using it must accept any job offer, is outlandish. On further inspection I can use Hustlebee to submit applications to multiple companies. Doesn't that make the promise of more dedicated employee leads empty? Why doesn't it at least check the email address to allow only one submission? If you decide to go back to the drawing board you need to re-examine your views of the job market. There are many more potential employees than there are employers, that is why people apply for multiple jobs at the same time. It really isn't that big of a deal to a company when they extend and offer and it is turned down. Essentially, you are solving the wrong side of the problem here.
zmblum 15y ago
Have you talked with anyone of the companies on your site about whether the problem your site solves is in fact a problem for them? If not, and you are still committed to finding product-market fit, perhaps their feedback would be helpful as you refocus on a different problem.

16 points by danielayele 15y ago

The site was inspired by iwannaworkatinstagram.com. I want to build a recruiting tool that makes it easier for people to get hired by companies that they're really passionate about working for. Check the blog at http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com for more on my journey and where I'd like to go with this.

dools 15y ago

I think you may have accidentally left Working Software off the list. Easy mistake to make.

dyc 15y ago

Great idea. I definitely see potential in what you're doing. Why did you only include YC companies?

danielayele 15y ago
I wanted to start with startups because they have the most difficulty finding candidates and have the least resources in terms of recruiters/HR/etc to help. YC has a great list of awesome startups so I figured they would be a good jumping off point. I may expand later but I'm not sure how/when that will happen.

phlux 15y ago

So what happens if this takes off and you get 10 / 100 / 1000 seekers for a job at X? Is it on Hustlebee to pre-qualify? Are you now a technical recruiter taking some % of the annual salary for the first 6/12 months? Why is hustlebee better than applying directly? You only place designers/engineers? Even if the company has other openings? Can you have a page that shows all the opening from that drop-down of companies in one place?

danielayele 15y ago
1) I'll be sending applications to companies and they can choose whether or not to interview candidates. 2) I haven't figured out specifics but I'll probably charge companies that successfully make hires through us something similar to what they'd pay via employee referrals. 3) Hustlebee is better than applying directly because companies will treat you as a more serious candidate (just like if you were to create a website dedicated to why you want to work for a company). This streamlines the process for people that REALLY want to work for a company and cuts down on the number of applicants that companies need to vet and the number of companies that people need to apply to. 4) I decided to start with designers/engineers because those appear to be the positions in highest demand right now. I may expand to other positions later but haven't yet decided exactly how I'll go about doing that. 5) I'll try to do this.
- retube 15y ago
  3) Why? All I've got to do is fill out your very simple form. Hardly the same as building a dedicated site targeting a particular company, and no harder than just applying directly. If anything it's easier: no CV, no covering letter etc.
  - ktsmith 15y ago
    I would add that it does nothing to help determine if the candidate is qualified which is the larger hurdle for most companies than attracting job applicants. This doesn't address that point at all.
  - danielayele 15y ago
    Because if you apply to a company through us, are accepted, and don't go through with it we won't allow you to apply to other companies through us. This makes it so that companies can actually trust the service to get committed candidates as opposed to just candidates who, if they applied via a similar service that was listed directly on the site, had no recourse if they didn't go through with the position.

erik_p 15y ago

I'd love to hear more about the trials and tribulations of mvp'ing your product as a non-technical founder... and it would be cool to see some background as just how non-technical you are :) One small suggestion: You have a required field that's only has one checkbox option. This is weird to me from a UX point of view. It's also a weird question. I think what you're trying to do is find out if the user is serious about their application or not...

danielayele 15y ago
Yeah definitely the next blog post will be about how I launched the page/what I'm using in terms of tech. I am probably as non-technical as they get...I've been reading HN for a while now but have done no db programming before and my skills are limited to front-end stuff (read the blog post at http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com if you want to know more about my background). Re: the required field, the goal of the site is to have people commit to take the position upfront. This is what makes it valuable because it allows companies to cut down on time spent trying to gauge how committed their applicants are. Thanks for the feedback!
- ktsmith 15y ago
  No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms first. Working for hustlebee might be my dream job but if I were offered $0.50/hr then you could probably imagine what my response would be. No check box on a recruiters sign up page is going to change that. More importantly it's almost certainly not binding and so the applicants have no reason to not check the box. If I were launching this site I'd be more worried about how this would hurt the number of people that take you seriously. Going back to the first point, if I'm not going to agree to accept a job without seeing the terms I'm also not going to work with a recruiter that requires me to accept any potential offer.
  - retube 15y ago
    > No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms first Quite. I list a few obvious reasons why a candidate wont want to take a job in a thread above - but this is not to mention the Service Agreement / Employment Contract which could be pages and pages of detailed legalese and, particularily with startups, could have lots of contentious stuff with stock options and so on. Having your USP as "the candidate promises to accept your job offer" is unreasonable, unrealistic, impractical and most likely unlawful.

catshirt 15y ago

"If I'm offered a position with the company I agree to accept it." i'll... pass.

retube 15y ago
even if the salary offered is 10 bucks a day...

leeanon8 15y ago

To be brutally honest, your product makes no sense to me and I have reservations about the problem it is solving actually being a problem. It's defining hook, that people using it must accept any job offer, is outlandish. On further inspection I can use Hustlebee to submit applications to multiple companies. Doesn't that make the promise of more dedicated employee leads empty? Why doesn't it at least check the email address to allow only one submission? If you decide to go back to the drawing board you need to re-examine your views of the job market. There are many more potential employees than there are employers, that is why people apply for multiple jobs at the same time. It really isn't that big of a deal to a company when they extend and offer and it is turned down. Essentially, you are solving the wrong side of the problem here.

zmblum 15y ago

Have you talked with anyone of the companies on your site about whether the problem your site solves is in fact a problem for them? If not, and you are still committed to finding product-market fit, perhaps their feedback would be helpful as you refocus on a different problem.