The Invisible Network
The Invisible Network allows job seekers to anonymously share that they're looking for work. Employers can then quickly find talent, while reducing bias in their hiring process.
Tell us the story of how and why you started your company
I recently changed jobs and, in the process, was reminded of how stressful the experience of looking for a new one can be. As I looked around, I realized that almost all of the job search tools that existed were oriented around job seekers convincing employers to hire them, not the other way around, which felt wrong to me.
Having connected a handful of friends with jobs in the past, I tweeted about a people/company job matching experiment, and the response was so overwhelming that I had to figure out how to manage and keep track of everything. This is why I built The Invisible Network.
At a high level, The Invisible Network is a place where people can anonymously share that they're looking for work, without alerting their current employers or getting spammed by recruiters. It's also a place where employers can quickly find talented people to hire, who they might not be able to find elsewhere, while also reducing bias in their process.
It started out as a side project that I worked on over nights and weekends. I built a light-weight MVP, launched it in mid-December 2018, and made my first $100 on day three. I took three weeks off between jobs to focus on it, and made a lot of really good progress. However, that progress slowed after I started working full-time again. Between the new job and spending all of my waking hours outside of work on it, I found myself burning the candle at both ends. Something had to give.
Presenting at Minnedemo in February was an inflection point, and after a handful of unsolicited offers for funding, in combination with a few trusted advisors asking me point blank why I wasn't devoting all of my time and attention to it, I finally decided to quit my job.
My last day at work was two weeks ago, and I'm planning to run hard at The Invisible Network for the next six months. With that, I'm really looking forward to participating in the BETA Cohort, as it seems like the perfect amount of support for a company at this stage.
What's your most recent success or milestone hit?
The big personal milestone was quitting my job to focus 100% on The Invisible Network.
From a business standpoint, we just broke 150 job seekers who have added themselves anonymously to the site, which is impressive because we’ve done almost zero marketing to date. To me, this shows that there's clearly a big problem here, and the approach we're taking in solving it is resonating with our users.
Where do you see your startup in 1 year?
Emerging from a team of one working on a "lifestyle business" to a sustainable business that's building a platform and expanding to other markets.
