If you are a working for a B2B company, you may want to look at this startup’s path. They participated in a Hackathon purely for fun, and were connected to B2B companies where they were able to introduce their services organically. This service was officially launched in January this year, but 15 companies are already using it. These companies include unicorns like Airbnb, Stripe, and Yelp, who have more than 500 employees and are worth more than a billion dollars each.
The company is called Goodtime. They have reduced the chores of HR staff in Silicon Valley by organizing thousands of interview schedules.
Platum: Please introduce your company and the work you are doing.
Goodtime: I’m Ahryun Moon of Goodtime, which is an enterprise interview schedule automation system. Goodtime literally means ‘good time’. In large corporations based in the U.S., there are staff members designated only for setting up interview schedules every day. When they do this job, they manually utilize various tools such as Excel, calendar, and e-mail. In Goodtime, we automate all this. Currently, 15 companies with more than 500 employees, including Airbnb, Strip and Yelp, have adapted our system. They are so-called unicorn companies.
Platum: It seems like intelligence is combined to existing calendars to improve the efficiency of scheduling interviews.
Goodtime: The hypothesis we built when we created Goodtime was that scheduling with calendars is a stupid process. It’s just adding information and it is not much more than that. Since there was no information about the interviewee on a typical calendar, there was extra work when there was a new event or an interview. We have combined peoples’ information and calendars so that we can systematically manage schedules. It is more intelligent. A U.S. corporate HR staff member meets an average of 7 to 8 interviewees per day. They do not meet randomly, but only those who have been categorized according to departments and situation. Usually, it takes more than an hour and a half to create a schedule. At Goodtime, we distribute applicants to the interviewers and schedule the interviews by combining the information and the schedule on the calendar. Both interviewee and interviewer get to choose the time that works for them.
Platum: It seems to be a more necessary service for big companies.
Goodtime: Yes, we actually only introduce the service to companies with over 500 employees. It was designed for large companies. We plan to develop a system suitable for small companies in the future.
Platum: It is not really a familiar service.
Goodtime: In fact, there are people in Silicon Valley who do not understand our business. However, those who are involved in the recruitment process, including HR managers, say they want to thank us. We are certain that there is a strong need for our service.
Platum: I guess you started the business after seeing that there is high potential in the market.
Goodtime: The HR market in the U.S. is very large. It is estimated to be about USD 2.5 billion. Now it is only aimed at the HR market, but we are certain that it can be expanded to other markets. We can also apply it to sales scheduling if we refine the service a little bit.
Platum: How about applying it in Korea?
Goodtime: I know that the size for open recruitment in Korea is larger. I think it will also work in Korea if we localize the current system. However, in order to aim at this market, we need to study and understand first. I think sufficient understanding and localization is crucial in order to expand to other markets. Just for reference, we are currently discussing expanding to Europe.
Platum: I heard that you had no HR experience before creating this service. It’s not easy for non-professionals to create services targeted for professionals.
Goodtime: I was a financial analyst before. I first joined that company to do financial analysis but it was a bit different to what I had thought before. As I was worried about my career for a while, I started learning Python, a computer language, as part of my self-development. Based on this, I created a software that can automate my work at the company and save time. It was accepted by the company and it was adapted as part of the internal system. This was the turning point of my life. I moved to San Francisco from Austin because I wanted to do something for myself. After that, I have just been coding for the last three years, winning all three Hackathons that I participated in with my husband, who is also a co-founder of my current company.
Platum: It is not easy for large companies to adapt a new system that is not very well known.
Goodtime: The first company that used our service was Yelp. We met with Yelp’s representative at a Hackathon. We suggested that they could use our service for free and they shared it with their HR team. The feedback was really good, and it was the start of the business. After that, Airbnb and Stripe were also added to our client list. Sales cycle for B2B is very long and it takes a long time to apply. We have a lot of B2B customers and we have to train them. After one month of pilot testing, they sign a formal contract.
Platum: Last year, you raised USD 180K and USD 1.8 million this year. How do you plan to use it?
Goodtime: We want to expand to other markets and stabilize the service so it can be used by small businesses as well. I think it will take some time to complete it because we are still validating the system.
Platum: You are also recruiting in Korea.
Goodtime: We are not hiring only in Silicon Valley but also in other areas. I care most about hiring great talents in Korea because there are a lot of talented engineers who are also good at speaking English. We are looking for someone to work with us in the U.S. after a few months in Korea. Our goal is to revolutionize scheduling itself and we hope we can meet someone who has a similar vision.
Platum: Please tell us three things you want to achieve in the future.
Goodtime: I want to grow our engineering team by recruiting great talents. With them, we hope to reach USD 1.3 million in sales as soon as possible. We hope to be listed as a Fortune 500 company. Please wish us luck.
(Top photo from Goodtime website)
This article, entitled “Interview: How Goodtime develops HR solutions for unicorn companies in the USA”, was written in Korean by Stephanie Seo of Platum, edited by AllTechAsia.