Page 52 - Forbes - USA (November 2019)

Jobcase Cont.

erick Goff, Jobcase’s founder and CEO, after company went under in the 2008 financial crisis,

hearing Contreras’ story. When he founded the he persuaded his partners to back him in new-
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company in ly formed Percipio Media, a firm that created

2015, he set out to do what LinkedIn hasn’t been no-frills job boards that aggregated listings from
able to accomplish—create a site where the 80% other sites.
48 of working-age Americans without a four-year The company did well, but in 2014, at an HR

college degree can network, find jobs and man- conference in Las Vegas, he realized the peo-
age their careers. (A LinkedIn spokesperson says HOW TO PLAY IT ple searching his job boards needed support.
S

R its mission has always been to support the entire by Jon D. LinkedIn, with its polished, résumé-like profiles,
U

E workforce.) Markman offered nothing for his buddies back in Toledo
N Goff has raised $118.5 million at a valuation toiling away at Kinko’s. Goff moved Percipio’s job

E Helping people
R for Jobcase that Pitchbook has at $445 million. become employ- boards into a subsidiary, reorganized his team
P

E Revenue, which Goff pegs at $100 million over able and dis- and launched Jobcase. He says his priority was
R cover opportuni-
T the past year, comes from 2,000 companies in- ties can improve to build a “community.” Its core is the stream of
N cluding Amazon, Pizza Hut and FedEx. They pay
E society and the posts that gave Sasha Contreras emotional sup-
economy. One

• from $199 for a single job posting to as much as port during her five-month job search.
way to play
N $5,000 for a hiring event organized by Jobcase. this trend is How many members find work through the

A
I Jobcase has already signed up 110 million of ManpowerGroup, site? Of the 31 interviewed for this story (Forbes
R a staffing com-

A the 197 million Americans it’s targeting, and Goff pany that grew contacted all but 2 independently), only 2 land-
R
T plans to take the site global in the next 18 months. from a single ed jobs through Jobcase. But all said they liked

N In the G20 countries, 84% of people don’t have Milwaukee office the community. “It’s been a really good forum

O in 1948. Today the
C college degrees. Tapping that market, he says, will company puts to rant,” says Rhonda Yates, 51, a member who
put his company on a fast track to a billion mem- millions of people found work through another site as a production
bers and a $1 billion valuation. to work through a scheduler at a packaging supplier in Lexington,
network of 2,600
Goff, 52, relates to the challenges his mem- offices in 80 Kentucky.

bers face. His father, a former marine, worked as countries. Units Most members don’t report when they land
provide work-
a transmission repairman at a Chrysler plant in jobs, but Goff estimates 1 million, or 1%, found

force consulting,
Toledo, before becoming a life insurance sales- professional out- work through Jobcase last year. That tiny ra-

man. Goff earned a master’s at Carnegie Mel- sourcing, training tio doesn’t discourage employers. At a time of re-
and career
lon, but he graduated into the 1990 recession management. cord-low unemployment, companies don’t expect
and spent four months washing dishes in Tole- The business listings will lead directly to applications, says JR
do. He worked a stint as an options trader in New generated $22 Keller, a professor of human resource studies at
billion in sales in
York before earning a second master’s, in tech- 2018 and profits Cornell. “Companies are just so desperate to find

nology management, at MIT. He endured an- of $796.7 million. really good people that if you have a community
Shares are up
other recession and took a job he didn’t really of 100 million people, they’re going to post a job
39% in 2019, yet
want as CIO at an Oklahoma City energy com- there is plenty of there because they don’t want to miss out,” he says.

pany before landing at a Cambridge hedge fund, growth ahead as Jobcase was profitable from the get-go, says
companies seek

Percipio Capital Management, as CEO. After the flexibility amid an Goff, but since early 2018 he has been plow-

intense demand ing money into recruiting members. In June
for skilled labor.
he sponsored the Chicago Urban League’s city-
Jon D. Markman wide job fair and walked away with 8,000 new
is president of
The Vault Markman Capital members.
Insight and author Goff dreams of a world where Jobcase has so

POWER USERS of Fast Forward
Investing. much visibility that workers will be able to use
At first LinkedIn also strug- the platform to advocate for better conditions at

gled to make money, trying
to charge consumers a few work. “We want to support capitalism by putting
bucks to use the site. Then it not just shareholder value but worker value at the
discovered the sweet spot. From 2012:
top,” he says. “It starts with the members.” F
Rather than try to wring 20 bucks here and there from
individual users, [CEO Jeff Weiner] refocused the

company on selling a vastly more powerful service to F I NA L T HO U G H T
corporate talent scouts, priced per user at as much
as $8,200 a year. Today thousands of companies use “IT IS HARDLY POSSIBLE TO

LinkedIn’s flagship Recruiter product to hunt for skilled BUILD ANYTHING IF FRUSTRATION, PATRICK WELSH FOR FORBES
achievers. In human resources departments, having BITTERNESS AND A MOOD OF
your own Recruiter account is like being a bond trader
with a Bloomberg terminal—it’s the expensive, must- HELPLESSNESS PREVAIL.”
have tool that denotes you’re a player. —Lech Walesa
F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9