My motivation comes from the want to have a feature on my website which let’s Founders or Hiring Managers visiting my website to explore if I would be a good fit - if no refer me in case you know if I would fit somewhere else, otherwise set a call with me.
This would be quite a separate development - hence I do not want to mix it with the Portfolio Website code and instead have a separate product that can be integrated with any website.
Target Market
- Individuals looking for a full time job
- Companies or Individuals looking for contract based/consultancy work
- Students looking for internships or their first job
- Individuals looking for a job switch
The market looks quite big, everyone weather having a job already or otherwise would benefit from this tool if they want to explore opportunities in the market. The only limiting factors are:
- They are not exploring, like entrepreneurs already building something or leadership team members already serving more than 10 years with a company (might likely retire with the same company)
- They do not have a website, since the widget has to go somewhere digitally - a portfolio website is the best option. But we can explore how they could use this tool to say with their Linkedin profile or their Naukri profile. However these would require brand collaborations - and hence bottlenecks for now.
- Already using a similar tool - built inhouse or a competitor product. Consultancy agencies would have enough money to make a sales tool like this.
- Minimal Website Views compared to social media profiles - I think this is a biggest bottleneck pushing our Obtainable Market based on minimum monthly visits like 1000 new users. It would be a good to have product for websites having traffic less than this.
Similar tools in market
Well the age old chatbots that appear dancing on the lower left of the screen. How do we differentiate with them? Almost always I have seen chatbots with two functionalities: either to close sales by improving conversions of any layer of the funnel OR serve users in terms of customer support.
Chatbots built specifically for closing a work opportunity might be a new niche - but principally still a sales gig given that an individual are selling their skills to convert work opportunities.
I don’t really adore the name Chatbots - because they are meant to give a very machine vibe. I mean the name itself has bots in them. In context of any sales where its about building relationships - it’s as much good to have a human touch as possible. Or if human touch is not very cost effective - make it into a UX instead of a machine conversation.
The tool I built - I would prefer it not to give out that machine conversation vibe. Instead a UI-UX flow.
I imagine something like,
- Place a Status Indicator anywhere on the website.
- The user clicks to open a Typeform like full screen experience
- Understand what the user expects to learn, give some recommendations to get started
- Based on expectations, share relevant user content - can be text, voice, or video
- Convert call to action - drop a message, book calendar, other custom CTAs
Where to find target market?
Students
- Instagram or Youtube or Reddit (maybe X/Threads not sure)
- Colleges
- Google Ads — Search and Youtube (Meta Ads on IG might work as well)
Working Professionals
- LinkedIn and X
- Offices - Wework, Indicube, etc
- Daily Chores - Food Delivery, Household Services
Agencies
- B2B Reachout - Sales Heads or Founders, preferably via referrals (might require separate landing page)
- LinkedIn and X
Competitors
→ Linkedin OpenToWork status provides visibility to recruiters and also profile summaries or expectations in a tabular format. Recruiters pay to find talent faster.
In comparison our product is where the person looking for work pays to convert opportunities from websites better.
→ Naukri and other JobBoards
An Achilles Heal to these competitors is that all their users have to rely on their proprietary algorithms working in their favour. In many such tools there’s considerable effort required for opportunity seekers to build their profiles to top 5% of competition, this same or lesser effort if they put in their own website - they would atleast have full control.
Personal websites, contacts, and conversions mechanism are lifetime assets that can compound.
Go To Market
Phase 1: Inception
- Instead of a Waitlist I think there should be a minimal product that can be launched - even if it is directly not related to the main idea, it should engage the user in some secondary way.
- Build in Public on X and Linkedin, seems like a good idea. There would be copycats and might need a plan to deal with those. But I think regardless of not being in public there can be copycats given the recent advancements in development tools.
- Post on platforms where the users live as listed above
- Cold reachout to get first few users - a separate video webpage might help or upload a video post on social media
- Product Hunt launch. Be ranked on TrustMRR, IndieHackers, other such places.
- Newsletter Sponsorships - the ones that our audiences read
Phase 2: Growth
- Outdoor Advertisements
- Google/Meta Ads
Monetisation
Primary: SaaS Pricing (can launch lifetime for first few customers). Those looking for opportunities pay.
I cannot imagine any secondary monetisation means as of now.
What would be the MVP?
I can just make an indicator that people can use to communicate availability. On click it gives an option to book calendar.