Thread by @sajithpai

Thread. Thoughts on hiring / recruitment tech in India.

Spurred by an interesting discussion on desi startup twitter led @banglani & @arnav_kumar on why hiring is broken in India.

In turn spurred by a response to a tweet by @avlesh

https://twitter.com/avlesh/status/1268529040329068545

1/13

From all of that discussion + data from our blue collar thesis research that my colleague @SanchitaBamnot1 is driving, here is what I make out.

The resume is the basic unit of hiring, thus far. All business model innovation happens around that or reinventing that.
2/13

However the resume is largely useful only for organised sector white collar jobs which btw only number ~35m or so in India.
3/13

https://twitter.com/banglani/status/1268919850115764232

Source of 35m
indianstaffingfederation.org/wp-content/upl…
4/13

Naukri won the web 1.0 hiring war by being the demand aggregator for all white collar resumes.

Aggregators -> winner take all marketplaces & is hard to displace them. That said Naukri, India’s largest hiring portal is only a ~900crs ($130m) biz; (50%+ profitability though!)
5

The only meaningful competitor to Naukri is LinkedIn which reinvented the resume by aggregating resumes through an online profile - your linkedin page which is effectively a resume

It probably did about Rs 600-650crs in FY19 (547crs in FY18; projected for FY19) in India.
6/13

Now as we saw with @jainmayank_943’s TalentPad, the resume is only relevant for ~35m or so white collar permanent jobs, or 55m formal sector jobs
7/13

https://twitter.com/banglani/status/1268919850115764232

So you have 2 choices to build a great hiring business
1) reinvent the Resume. Naukri owned the Web 1.0 resume or the html / pdf doc; Linkedin the web 2.0 resume - the social profile. We are awaiting the 3rd - online portfolio or pathway collecting your skills / achievement.
8/

2) invent a proxy ‘resume’ or filter-enabler (for that is what a resume is) for the rest of India where resumes don’t work - India2 and other sectors of India1 (nonwhite collar, freelancer, informal etc)

Again @banglani repeats

https://twitter.com/banglani/status/1268919850115764232

9/13

We are seeing a bunch of blue collar linkedin attempts to invent a proxy resume /filter to rethink India2 hiring - Kaam, Gigforce, LocalJob, Sixer etc. Interesting to see what works here - rethinking resume format (say video? or mobile-first) or recommendations or ?
10/13

Innovation / disruption occuring along 3 axes broadly
- Formal white collar - rethinking resume for web 3.0
- White collar freelance - aggregating demand - @tapchief our portco plays here
- Blue Collar - rethinking the resume / filter for mobile first world

Any others?
11/13

Before I sign off here is @arnav_kumar’s thread is here

https://twitter.com/arnav_kumar/status/1268809838915579905

@banglani and @avlesh ’s threads i have referenced
12/13

Would love to hear thoughts / views / criticism.
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