

Show HN: Non-technical founder MVP = Hustlebee - danielayele
http://www.hustlebee.com

======
danielayele
The site was inspired by iwannaworkatinstagram.com. I want to build a
recruiting tool that makes it easier for people to get hired by companies that
they're really passionate about working for. Check the blog at
<http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com> for more on my journey and where I'd like
to go with this.

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leeanon8
To be brutally honest, your product makes no sense to me and I have
reservations about the problem it is solving actually being a problem.

It's defining hook, that people using it must accept any job offer, is
outlandish. On further inspection I can use Hustlebee to submit applications
to multiple companies. Doesn't that make the promise of more dedicated
employee leads empty? Why doesn't it at least check the email address to allow
only one submission?

If you decide to go back to the drawing board you need to re-examine your
views of the job market. There are many more potential employees than there
are employers, that is why people apply for multiple jobs at the same time. It
really isn't that big of a deal to a company when they extend and offer and it
is turned down. Essentially, you are solving the wrong side of the problem
here.

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erik_p
I'd love to hear more about the trials and tribulations of mvp'ing your
product as a non-technical founder... and it would be cool to see some
background as just how non-technical you are :)

One small suggestion: You have a required field that's only has one checkbox
option. This is weird to me from a UX point of view. It's also a weird
question. I think what you're trying to do is find out if the user is serious
about their application or not...

~~~
danielayele
Yeah definitely the next blog post will be about how I launched the page/what
I'm using in terms of tech. I am probably as non-technical as they get...I've
been reading HN for a while now but have done no db programming before and my
skills are limited to front-end stuff (read the blog post at
<http://www.hustlebee.posterous.com> if you want to know more about my
background).

Re: the required field, the goal of the site is to have people commit to take
the position upfront. This is what makes it valuable because it allows
companies to cut down on time spent trying to gauge how committed their
applicants are.

Thanks for the feedback!

~~~
ktsmith
No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms
first. Working for hustlebee might be my dream job but if I were offered
$0.50/hr then you could probably imagine what my response would be. No check
box on a recruiters sign up page is going to change that. More importantly
it's almost certainly not binding and so the applicants have no reason to not
check the box. If I were launching this site I'd be more worried about how
this would hurt the number of people that take you seriously. Going back to
the first point, if I'm not going to agree to accept a job without seeing the
terms I'm also not going to work with a recruiter that requires me to accept
any potential offer.

~~~
retube
> No sane person is going to agree to take a position without seeing the terms
> first

Quite. I list a few obvious reasons why a candidate wont want to take a job in
a thread above - but this is not to mention the Service Agreement / Employment
Contract which could be pages and pages of detailed legalese and,
particularily with startups, could have lots of contentious stuff with stock
options and so on.

Having your USP as "the candidate promises to accept your job offer" is
unreasonable, unrealistic, impractical and most likely unlawful.

~~~
ktsmith
Agreed.

There's a lot of room for disruption in recruiting as many agencies/recruiters
have poor/unethical practices. Unfortunately this misses the mark for me as an
employer and would scare me away if I were looking for work as an unreasonable
requirement.

------
catshirt
" _If I'm offered a position with the company I agree to accept it._ "

i'll... pass.

~~~
retube
even if the salary offered is 10 bucks a day...

------
zmblum
Have you talked with anyone of the companies on your site about whether the
problem your site solves is in fact a problem for them?

If not, and you are still committed to finding product-market fit, perhaps
their feedback would be helpful as you refocus on a different problem.

------
dools
I think you may have accidentally left Working Software off the list. Easy
mistake to make.

------
phlux
So what happens if this takes off and you get 10 / 100 / 1000 seekers for a
job at X?

Is it on Hustlebee to pre-qualify? Are you now a technical recruiter taking
some % of the annual salary for the first 6/12 months?

Why is hustlebee better than applying directly?

You only place designers/engineers? Even if the company has other openings?

Can you have a page that shows all the opening from that drop-down of
companies in one place?

~~~
danielayele
1) I'll be sending applications to companies and they can choose whether or
not to interview candidates.

2) I haven't figured out specifics but I'll probably charge companies that
successfully make hires through us something similar to what they'd pay via
employee referrals.

3) Hustlebee is better than applying directly because companies will treat you
as a more serious candidate (just like if you were to create a website
dedicated to why you want to work for a company). This streamlines the process
for people that REALLY want to work for a company and cuts down on the number
of applicants that companies need to vet and the number of companies that
people need to apply to.

4) I decided to start with designers/engineers because those appear to be the
positions in highest demand right now. I may expand to other positions later
but haven't yet decided exactly how I'll go about doing that.

5) I'll try to do this.

~~~
retube
3) Why? All I've got to do is fill out your very simple form. Hardly the same
as building a dedicated site targeting a particular company, and no harder
than just applying directly. If anything it's easier: no CV, no covering
letter etc.

~~~
danielayele
Because if you apply to a company through us, are accepted, and don't go
through with it we won't allow you to apply to other companies through us.
This makes it so that companies can actually trust the service to get
committed candidates as opposed to just candidates who, if they applied via a
similar service that was listed directly on the site, had no recourse if they
didn't go through with the position.

~~~
retube
That's completely absurd. There could be a 1,000 very legitimate reasons why
even a serious or committed candidate will not want to accept an offer: the
pay's not right, the role isn't quite right, there's not enough responsibility
(or too much) he doesn't think there's sufficient opportunity for career
progression, he doesn't like his prospective boss or team, they want you to
work in a different location, or travel a lot, or travel too little etc etc
etc etc.

A job interview is not a one-way street. It's about discovery and due
diligence. It's perfectly acceptable for either side to pull put if they feel
that for whatever reason the other side isn't a good fit. And neither side can
be sure of a fit until they enter discussions.

You'll just end up shooting yourself in the foot and ditching great
candidates: bad for you, and bad for your clients.

~~~
danielayele
The idea is that some people can figure out most of this before applying and,
for those people, hustlebee will simplify the process significantly. I don't
expect that everyone will apply to jobs via us but I hope that we can provide
a channel for those candidates who are extremely committed to a position to
get an employer's attention without having to do the recruiting dance.

~~~
retube
But that's my point. Your form doesn't do any filtering at all. Anyone can
submit/apply. Any submissions you get you're going to have no idea as to how
reputable/qualified/credible that candidate is. So how are you going to know
who to put forward to these firms?

You're most likely going to end up having to trawl through millions of
applications with no data/info on which to judge them.

------
dyc
Great idea. I definitely see potential in what you're doing. Why did you only
include YC companies?

~~~
danielayele
I wanted to start with startups because they have the most difficulty finding
candidates and have the least resources in terms of recruiters/HR/etc to help.
YC has a great list of awesome startups so I figured they would be a good
jumping off point. I may expand later but I'm not sure how/when that will
happen.

