I believe professional networking can be reimagined. Need feedback! ❤️
Erik Fiala
14 replies
Hey Hunters! Two weeks ago or so, I posted on Reddit asking for feedback about "Tinder for professionals".
Many Redditors gave amazing input. I began researching a lot and found out that LinkedIn is the only recognized global player. There are copycats, but my goal would never be to build something as boring (IMO) as LinkedIn. I want to create something different, targeted towards a younger generation. TL;DR - I want to build something cool.
I started working on the project with my friend around the same time I posted (just designing some app screens and researching WebRTC), and yesterday I launched the website for it - https://bond.so
Creating the website took me roughly 15 minutes (no-code, completely free - using Notion, Popsy, and Google Forms). It's far from perfect, but I think it does the job, and I can continuously iterate on it later when needed.
Please go check it out and let me know what you think. Also, I kindly ask you to provide as much feedback as you can. We're still very early, so we're open to any feature ideas that might make the product better for YOU to use it.
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Yaroslava Antipina 🇺🇦@yaroslava
Blend Social
Erik, hi!
The idea of professional networking is excellent. I want to emphasize two moments:
- in my opinion, video intros won't work. Maybe it's just me who won't post such intros.
- recently, we've launched MVP of a social network with video calls. And people don't like to answer video calls, especially from the people they don't know.
Good luck with your project!
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@yaroslava Thank you so much for the invaluable insight!! Will keep that in mind 🙏
We could collaborate on this. You have a new subscriber: https://medium.com/@erikfiala
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@iulian_dumitrascu Shoot me a message on Twitter about what you have in mind 🙂
Very interesting idea - I think there could be an events feature here. So when you're at a conference you often don't know who you can meet with. If there was some kind of feature that let you filter for people that were open to meet then you could watch the video and then set up a F2F meeting.
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@maxwellcdavis 🤩 we were thinking of creating events and doing exactly this! We see bridging digital and physical as a big opportunity in professional networking, and it already is on our roadmap haha. Thanks a lot! I'm super excited to receive this idea validation!
@erikfiala Great stuff - I've got a couple of contacts in the events space if you need talk to someone that organizes events
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@maxwellcdavis Sounds great! Really appreciate it. I have sent you a LinkedIn connection request if that's okay. Otherwise, Twitter works fine too.
@erikfiala Already connected :)
I would just focus on doing the one thing LI doesn't: enable the profile owner to select the types of offers he/she wishes to receive and is willing to give/provide. eliminates unwanted spam and finds the desired solutions. Switch to off when the need is fulfilled. Would not try to reproduce LI. Just find a way to integrate what's there already and do it better.
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@andrew_lvlf @natelegler Since me and my co-founder come from a tech background, we're trying to think how to make things somewhat smart(er). We really disliked the way LinkedIn works, where you have to actively go to the search bar and search for a skill or profession, or whatever, to find someone relevant to you.
We decided to let people select up to 20 tags on their profile, that sumarize their career/what they want to be known for. Then, we are able to see on what tags you swipe right on. This way we can teach our algorithm about what you're currently looking for and suggest you people with same/similar tags by doing a percentile average.
I'm not sure this would work in your case, but I hope I explained what we do somewhat clearly haha 🙂
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@andrew_lvlf Absolutely! That's also my line of thought. We're already working on how to do exactly this and we think we're gonna nail it. Thanks for the feedback!!!
Cow Saga
@andrew_lvlf Could you maybe go a little further? I'm working on changing up the way ag professionals and graduates find jobs. My idea was to have them showcase themselves with short videos and then build a resume to keep track of their skills, experience, etc. Job hunters would be able to connect with them with potential job offers, exchange info etc. From how it sounds from what you wrote you are suggesting that the person be able to select from a list of requirements in order for them to be contacted?
@natelegler @erikfiala that feels similar to LI's current algo that matches new jobs to what you click on and it's pretty good though it thinks I'm my wife given I shop for her. There are so many job boards - that space is crazy crowded and it takes a lot to get enough jobs on a board to make it worthwhile to even look there, let alone create a profile for it. That's the employer perspective. I have tried a bunch and always come back to LI because it yields the best volume.
The piece that is hard is evaluating a candidate prior to interview to weed them out as it's easy to embellish on a resume. Some sort of skill proof that is easy for the candidate to prove is needed in the market. Likewise, a better matching system is needed for the personal traits (autonomous, works well in a team, self-motivated, etc) as well as the workplace culture people are seeking (remote, fast-paced, highly social, etc). Not sure how you get to this while leveraging existing job platforms but suppose you could be more of a middle tier somehow linking existing job boards to this new process.
My other comment was solving a different problem which is an employer like me being inundated with spam from vendors I don't want vs the ones I would actually talk to given needs.