
Lever (YC S12) Raises $20M for Hiring Software at Netflix, Reddit and Lyft - nateps
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2016/01/26/lever-raises-20-million-to-help-lyft-hire/?hn=1
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nateps
Founder and CTO of Lever, here.

We are so thankful to our many users in the YC community. Would love to hear
from anyone already using Lever or companies looking for tools to help them
refine their hiring process on how we can continue to improve. I'll be
following along today and respond to any ideas!

Hiring is the most difficult and important thing most companies and founders
have to learn, and we are hoping to do our part in providing software to make
it more successful and a better candidate experience. We believe the very best
hiring is accomplished by building long lasting relationships with candidates.

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rezashirazian
I hope you guys replace Taleo as soon as possible. I can't believe how many
companies use that garbage. Whenever I see it, I automatically back out.

~~~
nateps
We certainly do hear from candidates that appreciate how much simpler it is to
apply for a job with Lever on a regular basis. Not just that, but when
companies have better tools internally, the candidate experience becomes much
more personal. For just one small example, when you send an email to a
candidate with Lever, we default to sending from your real email address and
then use IMAP to sync the emails from your inbox. It is technically more
difficult to implement than forwarding the email through some random email
address like XXXX123-reply@ats-product.com, but the difference in establishing
a real human connection is worth it.

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PascLeRasc
Is Lever specifically designed to not allow for general searching for jobs? I
like the interface and in general the companies using Lever are pretty
interesting, and I'd like to see which of them are looking for engineers in my
field. I suppose it might be so that every applicant through Lever had to find
the company first and know a little about them, so they have some motivation
to work there specifically.

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AJ007
Google can provide some value depending on how you want to search - "some job
skill site:lever.co"

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nateps
Great idea. Actually slightly embarrassed I didn't suggest that since I was a
PM on Google Search once upon a time.

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fecak
As an agency recruiter I've been underwhelmed by some of the software on the
market. Is Lever designed for use by agencies as well as hiring companies, or
is it specific to internal hiring? There would be a fair amount of overlap in
functionality, but significant differences as well.

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AJ007
Can you list one or two of the things/features that you feel are the biggest
failures with what you have tried?

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fecak
Categorizing candidates beyond just buzzwords, integrations with other common
tools/sites, general applicant tracking issues through full process, effective
mail lists/merges. I've used a few systems but none that I've seen seem to
entirely "get" agency recruiting needs, so I've typically bought based on cost
and tried to modify as much as possible or used several tools where one great
one would suffice.

~~~
nateps
Wow, that sentiment rings incredibly true. While the specific use cases may be
a bit different, many companies are similarly fed up with the legacy ATS
products for internal recruiting. Every time we encounter a recruiter or a
hiring manager using a spreadsheet we ask ourselves why. We take design very
seriously at Lever, and the workarounds extreme users do are some of the most
insightful ways to learn what the real needs are.

~~~
fecak
Agreed - I used spreadsheets longer than I care to admit. If you ever want to
pick an agency recruiter's brain to get another perspective I'm happy to help.

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gomox
Good job guys. The SMB space desperately needs some new players.

~~~
nateps
Thanks! We certainly have seen a lot of success in SMB because of Lever's
modern design. Design is a huge part of what makes the product work so well
for such a wide variety of company sizes, from 5 employee startups doubling to
10 all the way up to industry leading public companies like Netflix.

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shockzzz
Thanks! Is there a press release for a website that doesn't discriminate
against AdBlock users?

~~~
nateps
This is the first announcement that has been published for the current round.
We have additional press links from a variety of sites on our press page:
[https://www.lever.co/press](https://www.lever.co/press)

