Mashing Together A Job Search Engine: SimplyHired CEO Gautam Godhwani (Part 10)

SM: Go back to 2004 and trace to 2008 – what were the milestones in terms of traction and bringing the solution to market?

GG: When we made the LinkedIn partnership in April 2005 analysts covered that as the first time job searching and social networking were blended. In the fall of 2005, in a more lighthearted side we launched SimplyFired where people could come and tell their stories about being fired. That was a lot of fun and it was a bitter sweet feeling because in three days the traffic of SimplyFired passed the traffic of SimplyHired.

In 2006 we really extended our product set and created a broader set of products and scaled our partner network. We received investment from News Corporation and we launched on MySpace in May of 2006. Towards the end of 2006 we launched services which allowed any publisher to create a job site of their own.

SM: What do the publishers get out of this?

GG: They get revenues both from the listings they sell and the listings we have already sold. That was a great milestone for us as well. As we moved into 2007 we saw a dramatic growth in the publisher network. The search engines like Google started to recognize SimplyHired as a much greater authority during this time. As SimplyHired has moved forward as a company it has been great to see growth across a number of different areas. I feel very good about the fact that the company today stays very true to its mission. The fact that you hear the mission articulated in meetings as a way to make decisions is a very healthy sign that the company really knows what it is about.

SM: How many people do you have?

GG: About 50, all of them here in the Valley.

SM: You had enough money to do this without external financing. Tell me the history of the funds you raise and why you chose to take external money?

GG: When we started this company the founders and an inside group of people affiliated with the company were all affiliated at AtWeb before this. We decided to put in an early round of $1.2M and called that Series A although it was really seed money. At that time we were really using this to explore the concept and launch the initial site, which we did in March of 2005. Once we saw the reaction of the market and we saw early traction we decided we would formally launch the company in the fall of 2005 and decided to raise a round in the same timeframe. Our objective was to cap the round at $3M to avoid dilution while adding a few strategic investors beyond the same group. The same group decided to invest further in that round and then complement that with a few strategic Angels.

Following that round of investment, we then had enough money to go forward for a significant amount of time. However, one of the advisors of our company became a partner at Foundation Capital. We had adviser agreement in place prior to him sitting on our board as a board member. We brought in a larger round even though we clearly did not need it because we acknowledged there was a very large opportunity.

Additionally, we had been approached by News Corporation in August of 2005, before the company was even formally launched. As we talked to them it was very clear that they saw a big opportunity for a disruptive classifieds company in the United States. They did not have a significant number of classifieds assets but they did have a significant online audience. A lot of the discussions there led to a global agreement with News Corporation and Fox Interactive Media in March of 2006. That combined round was $13.5M.

SM: And you have significant runway with that money.

GG: That is the reason why we are here where we are in March of 2008. This is a time where we feel like we have a great opportunity to move ahead, and we are in a position where we can use the investments within the company to build it. We see a big upside looking at potentially creating even larger opportunities, and that is where we will continue to explore our options. For the moment we are very content to grow organically as we have.

SM: This has been a great discussion, I enjoyed listening to you.

This segment is part 10 in the series : Mashing Together A Job Search Engine: SimplyHired CEO Gautam Godhwani
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