Nov 27, 2014

Lessons in Failure in #HRTech and #SocialRecruiting

I somehow missed this news. Remember BranchOut, which was touted as the LinkedIn for Facebook?

Well looks like the company is dying (or is already dead). According to TechCrunch:

The company’s assets have been acquired by 1-Page, an HR software company based out of San Francisco but listed on the Australian stock exchange. Based on today’s stock price, 1-Page is paying around $5.4 million — $2 million in cash and 7.5 million in 1-Page shares.

The lesson? Don't build your product on someone's proprietary platform.

My friend Maren Hogan has a useful blog post for people who are too much in love with their HR Tech product the above being one point. It's useful if you are developing any product for any B2B market. One point that I resonate and see many startups who approach me is that they think "like a disgruntled customer" - now that might work in the B2C market but usually fails in the B2B product market, specially if you have never worked on the other side of the stakeholder equation.

As my friend and ex-colleague Dave Martin says "Recruitment is a multi-dimensional sell full of waste"

Lots of Indian HR/Recruitment startup examples too that have shut shop or have had to "pivot" to entirely new areas.