Executing a public job referral model in a down market is a very tough challenge, in fact executing a public job referral model is challenging in a healthy market.

The team at 2Vouch have made the very hard decision of switching this service off for a while whilst we focus our team and resources on building out the new application we have developed The JobGenie.

Jeremy and I would like to say a big thank you to all of those early adopter companies who advertised jobs on 2Vouch and also a BIG thanks to all of you who signed up as referrers on the 2Vouch platform.

We are still very passionate that there is a market for job referrals globally but recognise that you have to have the right business model and funding. We think we are heading in the right direction with the JobGenie.

A few points on what we have learned through the 2Vouch experience.

1. Ensure your start up is well funded to get you through the development phase with enough cash to execute your sales and marketing plan.
2. Focus, focus, focus - build enough functionality in your web application to execute your core offering. We built a BIG comprehensive application that did a lot and it probably did too much. We only know this with the benefit of hindsight. Think Twitter!
3. Venture Capital funding from Aussie venture firms is not realistically a funding option if you are a pre-revenue start-up in Australia.
4. Build the parts of your applications that generate revenue as a priority.
5. Launch early and iterate. If people like your design and think your application is slick at your launch. You’re too late to market!
6. Have the right project management and collaboration tools to manage your agile development. We use Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence. Thanks guys you rock!
7. Make sure you have direct access to your development team. We do now! We didn’t initially and that was a disaster! I will go public with who the Australian Web Development Company was that we engaged first time around but now is not the right time. Needless to say - I would never use them or recommend them!
8. As a Recruiter and then CEO of a tech start-up - I have learned so much. The last three years have been a wonderful ride and I am taking everything I have learned and applying those lessons to the development and deployment of JobGenie On Demand Employee Referral Platform.

All the Best,

Riges Younan

CEO, 2Vouch.

@rigesyounan

By Riges Younan

You can listen to the interview I did with @keithkeller and @annemariecross here

A plug for Career Communique below - they are nice people!

Career Communique Radio - A positive alternative to the doom and gloom
Career Communique Radio - a weekly Internet radio show based in Australia  - is hosted every Monday morning (Melbourne time) by Keith Keller and Annemarie Cross.
Each week Keith and Annemarie provide practical tips to help you find real meaning and purpose from your work, as well as giving you proven strategies to help you in your job search.
To listen to the next weeks show or to download previous shows, simply click on the link below
www.careercommuniqueradio.com

By Riges Younan

A nice little piece in the Herald Sun on Saturday 20th here

As you can imagine, building a site like 2Vouch is not a trivial exercise. A lot of people have put in a lot of hard work and we just want to acknowledge them publicly and say a huge THANK YOU!

One of the great things has been the support and effort put in by our development team, designers and html/css guys. All nighters, lots of back & forth and very high expectations… again, thanks to all of you.

The other thing that has been exciting has been telling the 2Vouch story to our launch partners and having people take a leap of faith to support us before we even had a site live. This includes some of the leading charities in Australia, industry associations and of course advertisers - some of the most innovative, leading recruiting firms and businesses in the online space.

Our launch charity partners are:

• The Salvation Army
• Diabetes Victoria
• The Heart Foundation
• The Breast Cancer Network
• Sids & Kids

Referrers can automatically make donations to any of these charities when they process their referral rewards.

We have had great support from:

• The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association
• The Game Developers Association of Australia
• The Recruiting & Consulting Services Association
• JobAdder
• Pollenizer (Phil, Mick & Bruno)

And our launch clients

• S2M Digital
• Happener
• Online Recruiting
• Reactive
• eServices Interactive
• Tantalus Media

Finally, and certainly not least, to our friends and families who have heard us talk about this idea for ages… thank you for putting up with us.

Cheers,

Riges.