We continue our interview with Sean on babajobs, his business model, partners and more…
I get your point. How do you plan to expand your partner network? Have you thought about partnering with existing networks like Bangalore One for getting mentors?
We are definitely looking at partners. We are talking to a lot of telcos, handset providers and also MFIs (Micro Financing Institutions). Telcos and handset providers are different kind of partners, whereas we look at MFIs for giving us the mentors and also spread the word in the job seeker world. A lot of job seekers come through them. And a person who has taken a MFI loan automatically becomes a job seeker with trustworthy credentials.
We have already partnered with IDEA and Reliance and partnerships with other companies are in the anvil. We are looking at them to provide job alerts as a value added service.
Handset makers can play a different role as partners. They can provide an application that will run in their handset and enable the mobile owners to search for better paying jobs more easily. You know, Nokia offers an application to farmers that will alert the farmers on the price for the produce in the nearby markets. Such applications make a handset more attractive . Also Handset makers are looking at this segment now, because the existing segment will saturate sometime soon and they need to have a new pipeline.
I see that you are trying to work with every link in your distribution chain. Does make sense. What are your key learning in this venture? How did you learn and how have you changed?
Two things: First and foremost - Look at the market. Keep focusing on the market. Sell what they want and not what you think they want. The example here - We initially overestimated the impact of social networking on getting a job. So we created babalife and babajobs. We analyzed and found that most of the jobs were negotiated based on the price rather than on the social network. We took a sample of 130 jobs and found that they have got 20.1% better pay and without any social network background. So we are kind of retiring babalife. We are pulling resources from babalife and putting more resources on to babajobs.
The second key learning is - Our good intention cannot screw up the system. Initially we did not show the current salary of the job seeker in the search results. We thought that the employer will shortlist on lowest salary only and not consider other factors. But what we found was that employers called up job seekers and offered them less salary than what the job seekers were getting already. It defeated the purpose of our venture. So we decided to show the salary.
Yes. At the end, it is a matter of price. Your team must be putting in a lot of hard work. You deserve those laurels that I see on lot of articles in every media. How are you managing to find the talent and how do you retain them?
Thank you. Actually it is not that difficult here to get good talent. Our mission motivates people. We have applicants from babajobs and the vacancies get filled easily. The prime reason is that there is a mission and accomplishing that makes them stay with us.
In these days of recession every company is seeing a downward trend in attrition, for other reasons. In your case it is different and is more sustainable too. Good luck. What’s your plan for the coming years?
Lot of partnerships. And we are looking at going international too.
Ok Sean, something out of Babajobs. What’s your favorite pastime? How are you unwinding yourself?
Yes, I have a lot of them. I work with Industrial bodies like NASSCOM. Then work on community building, connect with Americans in India. I am a very people oriented person and I keep interacting with people on different levels and on different subjects. Yes, I have pet animals too.
If given a chance to restart your life from the beginning, what will you do differently?
I think staying abroad / staying away from hometown makes one more sensitive to humanity. I would have chosen to stay abroad early in my career. It would have enabled me to start this venture even earlier.
What does being a TED fellow mean to you?
TED inspired me because of their excellent track record of amazing speakers who are there for a purpose and are extremely good at their purpose. So it means a lot to interact with those super individuals obviously to improve myself and to get motivated.
Thanks Sean for your time and interest. I will keep you posted with links of other interviews too. Good luck.
Pleasure is mine. I look forward to knowing about the other TED fellows.
Sean can be followed in twitter – http://twitter.com/babajob
His blog is - http://seanblagsvedt.blogspot.com/
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