Firing Squad: Talk’n’Job's Markus Krampe
The Chad & Cheese PodcastJune 24, 202400:36:29

Firing Squad: Talk’n’Job's Markus Krampe

Automating the application process is pretty popular these days. From companies like Paradox to Humanly and others, allowing job seekers to submit their information by tapping a screen or talking into a phone is becoming big business. Then along comes Germany-based Talk’n’Job who believe they've built a better mousetrap, and they've even won a competition that says they just might. CEO Markus Krampe joins the boys in a lively Q&A to get to the bottom of things and whether or not Talk’n’Job has what it takes to compete on a grand scale. Do they survive the Firing Squad? Gotta listen. 00:00 - Talk’n’Job Intro 03:20 - Market Challenges and Opportunities 13:13 - Funding and Expansion Plans 16:27 - Blue-Collar Jobs and Easy Recruitment Processes 27:44 - The Impact of AI

Automating the application process is pretty popular these days. From companies like Paradox to Humanly and others, allowing job seekers to submit their information by tapping a screen or talking into a phone is becoming big business. Then along comes Germany-based Talk’n’Job who believe they've built a better mousetrap, and they've even won a competition that says they just might. CEO Markus Krampe joins the boys in a lively Q&A to get to the bottom of things and whether or not Talk’n’Job has what it takes to compete on a grand scale. Do they survive the Firing Squad? Gotta listen.


00:00 - Talk’n’Job Intro

03:20 - Market Challenges and Opportunities

13:13 - Funding and Expansion Plans

16:27 - Blue-Collar Jobs and Easy Recruitment Processes

27:44 - The Impact of AI

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[00:01:06] Like shark tank then you'll love firing squad And Joel Cheeseman are here to put the recruiting industry's bravest And bad as startups through the gauntlet to see if they've got what it takes to make it out alive

[00:01:22] Big a foxhole and duck for cover kids the chat and cheese podcast is taking it to a whole other level Here we go. Everybody. What's up? It is the Chad and cheese podcast I'm your co-host Joel Cheeseman joined as always Chad so washes in the house

[00:01:36] And this is firing squad as we welcome Marcus cramp Talking job Marcus Maybe this Got a cramp high Krampus only the Germans can fuck up Christmas like that scare the shit out of kids. It's all good

[00:01:51] Well, actually that's a Swiss one. Oh, it's Swiss. I'll blame the Swiss. I see how our Swiss there you go Germans Let's blame the Swiss. Let's blame this. It was new Sudeten lens fault. Yeah. No, I get it. Okay. No, it's good

[00:02:03] All right, Marcus calling in from where in Germany? Some of the Americans should know that one. Yeah, that was pretty At the moment underwater but otherwise for all pretty fine. Yeah, sorry to hear that my friend

[00:02:16] So before we get into the the nitty-gritty of the business our listeners probably don't know who you are Give us a little bit about Marcus. What makes you tick as a human being?

[00:02:25] Oh what makes me take a human being first of all, I'm a pretty old one 55 already Yeah coming from southern Germany had international studies right from the beginning or to stay the year in the US I was in 87. That was pretty pretty long time ago

[00:02:41] Yeah, are you as well word we're a tick younger than you but not by much not much Now then so working in retailing for for 12 years I mean really from from the floor up to head of strategy for the

[00:02:57] Different countries from there and I wasn't that much comfortable Marcus. We asked we asked for a Twitter bio not not war and peace All right, let's put a bio. No, no, no, no. All right. Let's get to the rules of the game

[00:03:09] Chad tell Marcus what he's won today. Well Marcus this is how firing squad is gonna go my friend at the sound of the bell You're gonna have two minutes to pitch talk and job at the end of two minutes

[00:03:22] We're gonna hit you up with about 20 minutes of Q&A So be sure to be concise or you can get hit with the crickets Which means tighten up your game at the end of Q&A you will receive one of these from the both of us a big

[00:03:34] applause That's right. Look who's talking was a box office hit and we predict talking job will be to golf clap Now look who's talking to the sequel Wasn't a box office hit neither is talking job, but it's respectable. So good luck and last but not least

[00:03:54] Firing squad look who's talking now the third installment of the movie Trilogy should have never been filmed and we're feeling the same about talking job back to the writers room my friend

[00:04:05] That's how it's gonna go. Are you ready? Yeah trying it. All right, Marcus your two minutes starts right now Okay, we are talking job a voice driven chat application means a new channel for applying

[00:04:21] Taking out all the barriers of the process means people see it somewhere on the QR code on a on a link Whatever get into that one through a digital avatar

[00:04:30] The questions are being for the job profile profiles are being asked and they're the people can respond verbally in whatever language is preset It why is this important because our focus is on blue color blue color young professionals

[00:04:43] So basically everybody not using traditional channels anymore and wants to have it fast the side of the product story And then for the corporates we are almost integrated in all the ATS Which is quite good as we are the first one work by doing this

[00:04:57] Some of the large ones have even asked us to get integrated in order to serve the purpose. That's it Fair enough you had a bit of minute to go but we'll we'll take points off at the end of the show

[00:05:09] Marcus I always ask about the name so you have talk and job or talk in job or Like isn't that a little bit confusing and by the way Shprekin is talk in German

[00:05:20] So was like Shprekin in job or something not an option talk about the name the genesis of it and justify it for me Genesis okay our corporate is being called applies that at the time

[00:05:33] We are still very head orientated meant we wanted to have something for the unit new generation means a generation set And now we have seen as kind of an umbrella of whatever we are going to develop because the voice chat

[00:05:45] Application was kind of the first thing we wanted to do as we have basically we have seen that there is AI on the market We have seen that voice recognition is now that far that you could use it in business life

[00:05:57] And therefore we that was a kind of our vision seeing okay This is the first B2C product and AI not only like Alexa put the light on but where people could experience On their own because they were talking about themselves

[00:06:10] So that is the theory the fact is that AI isn't that far in recruiting the solution itself Towards the candidate needs to be a hundred percent safe as a point why we are now focusing on Time out the name not not the product just the

[00:06:27] So so a couple of questions like if I go to talk hyphen in hyphen job It's a blank page is that you and also there's apply apply Zed or z in America

[00:06:39] Dot-com like what is that? Is it confusing talk about that? I know that was more what I said in the beginning I mean applies that was the first the umbrella in the US. We have an in corporate company

[00:06:49] Which is called talking job. Yes in in terms of communication. It's kind of confusing with the hyphens Actually, we don't care now is a point. It looks pretty Many and then it looks cool

[00:07:01] It's it's a cool brand and it was coming from talk and go which had nothing to do with recruiting and after two weeks We were changing to target job because it was a brand that was saying something and it looked cool and full stop

[00:07:14] That was it. So basically we're always doing what what all right? So I'm gonna give you a chance to gloat here We first I think met at unleash where you won the work 2023 startup award talk about that talk about who else was in there

[00:07:28] What was sort of the defining factor that got you guys that award and what did you win? Well, basically why we want to work got there was because we had a product that was easy to understand Easy to communicate within a sentence or two sentences

[00:07:41] Well, that was basically that also because we had market traction for that time over 150 customers Because we had a real purpose and and the people were using it and we are highly scalable on an international basis

[00:07:54] So this is what I've asked after at the end and that was a point where we were kind of unbeatable and also because Caroline was presenting that was three minutes and she did it in 259

[00:08:04] Caroline is the marketing person for the listeners that don't know just in case you don't know So I just want to provide some clarity here So talk and job with the letter N and job comm does not resolve you guys don't own that. Is that correct?

[00:08:18] Yes, we own that one. We do own that one. Okay, so talk and Job comm takes you to apply Z. It doesn't take you to talk and job. It takes you to apply Z page

[00:08:29] Yeah, that is now because we're changing the home page and we're still a small startup still It's constantly in need of money. So we have some in-betweens So yes, we know that is kind of rotten

[00:08:42] Mm-hmm can't change it because some other priorities at the moment, but we know it doesn't it isn't perfect So, okay. I just want to get through that just from clarity standpoint So the QR code is that the only way to get into the application process?

[00:08:56] Do I have to scan a QR code and then go through the application process then or is there a different way to do that? Well, we are digital tool. That means we come into the into our application via a link a URL

[00:09:12] And the QR code is nothing else but a translated URL code The QR code is pretty good for retail companies or let's say multi-site Because then they could use as some something new for for the people to apply to

[00:09:27] Get the attention and that's why it's it's working. So brilliantly otherwise we are good for every single touch point you have with a Candidate because you can put an a link on that one and claim as well here

[00:09:40] There's this new a cool voice and and mobile phone by now in two minutes. So there's a lot about marketing Okay, so Options so if I'm going if I am online to see the job

[00:09:52] Do I have the option to apply just through the regular old process and then apply by voice? Is that how you generally do it? Yeah. Yeah because we don't want to take something away Actually, it's simply as we said for the people not using two traditional channels anymore

[00:10:08] And they want to have different stuff and that we have brilliant use cases like with the NHS for example Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. So where does the content live?

[00:10:16] Do you actually have a tech stack that has a CRM involved where you keep that data and then you transmit it into the applicant tracking? system through your integrations or does it just go directly from the

[00:10:28] Application into the applicant tracking system. It goes basically directly from the application to the ATS So we are into the ATS with an RP That means once people create a job in the same time a link a dedicated link to this job is going to be

[00:10:43] Created that one is being communicated by the companies either on or offline Wherever and then once somebody is applying fire that one it goes right to the dedicated candidate ID Okay

[00:10:54] So at that point do you because obviously this is going into their applicant tracking system, which is not voice enabled So the do you transcribe it and then push the transcribed information into the system number one

[00:11:07] Yeah, that's how you do. Okay. So number two what happens because these applicant tracking systems I've known I worked with them for 20 plus years. They break all the goddamn time. They're under maintenance They suck to be able to try to use from an API standpoint

[00:11:21] So when that happens if you're not actually housing the data to be able to project into it later It seems like you could prospectively lose candidate data because the applicant tracking system was having problems

[00:11:33] How do you how do you rectify that? Yeah, no, it's going to be it is hosted first on our system The cloud here in Germany on the telecom cloud and then by our API we do have the data transfer and then people

[00:11:48] I don't know how strict the data protection is in the US here. People want to delete the data Oh, yeah, like five days later. So I mean we're doing whatever a customer wants us to do gotcha

[00:11:58] so there could be a perspective lag but you have the data long enough and then once you see a Successful push of that data, you know Whatever that whatever the the storage time is you can just go ahead and delete it after that. Yeah

[00:12:10] Okay, and I was also I mean we were always going on speed simplicity and that was one of the points Let's have as as less information to pass. Yes This is like now we're gonna have the least problems for that that easy

[00:12:24] And I've never heard heard from now on that we had problems with the dread data transfer into the ATS I mean, and you know success factors We even had large companies who implemented success factors in the blue color sectors just for us because we made it possible

[00:12:40] Working with blue colors because we don't have these registration forms and all that put shit Mm-hmm. So you mentioned money and not entirely bootstrapped you guys have raised about a million bucks Is there a plan to raise more money? What did that money go for?

[00:12:55] I mean, it looks like you had a pretty good headcount increase two years or so ago But you haven't grown headcount much in the past year. What's the money going toward and are you gonna raise more?

[00:13:05] Yeah, how are we gonna get how are we going to raise more if you have an idea just tell me Looking to do it. It's just tougher then just to give you an idea

[00:13:14] I mean we're talking about the German market not the US market in terms of size But the first full year we had 1 million a are and 150 customers Multilational customers and they call coke all the big retailers

[00:13:27] We didn't get money and that was 12 people because that was a year and one and a half years ago when the market was simply Down and then we had all these customers and we needed them to care about them instead of putting more focus on

[00:13:39] On the sales side, which means you didn't have the growth anymore, which means you weren't interested Interesting for the VCS anymore. So what we're doing what we're doing now What we did in between is we do have a private sponsor

[00:13:51] First of all, thanks to him then we were taking loans or credit And and so in some convertible So this is how we were surviving the last one and a half years now heading for break-even by Q3 Q4 and that's basically it

[00:14:07] So that means last year or last seven eight months We were really optimizing all the processes really made a hundred percent Scalable and all we now need to do is to scale up and look for money

[00:14:19] First for Germany would look for like three million in order to take that market as you have said we have met in the US We were we were heading for the S and got UK

[00:14:31] It's like is because we had the largest customer there the NHS National Health Service with tremendous success But we still have our office in the in the USA But for that market this we have we need much more money

[00:14:44] Okay, so you are you are looking and if if anyone out there knows anyone let let Marcus know yeah, who's your competition? I mean you have you have conversational AI you have companies like vet Humanly who just bought you know acquired

[00:14:59] Teamable like who do you consider your competition? Is it just the people in the German market? Is it more global talk about the competition? Well as we define the market, we actually don't really have competition I mean like if we define it in fact

[00:15:14] Still we are in competition with everybody who is collecting candidates So the closest we could get is what's app applications if we're only focusing on the point? Attracting and getting the people in we are also very much focused

[00:15:28] And that's why we are successful on attracting the people and again. We are focused on blue color This is why at the moment we don't care that much about AI doesn't mean that we are not

[00:15:40] Developing stuff given the fact that we're focusing on easy jobs and something that works a hundred percent and doesn't give any stupid Questions in between that is fine So in order to install because you have also talked about Olivia or leaves from whom again paradox paradox

[00:15:58] This is a bot, but this is for for the maintenance I mean you already need to have the candidates But we are the step ahead getting the people in and this is where we are good at

[00:16:08] We are good at getting the customers. Do you feel like a paradox customer could also use your service? Yeah, because to me it doesn't but you think that you could use both services I mean, there's also the case we do have some

[00:16:21] ATS delivering or offering on their own some whatsapp and using and Companies or their clients using our solution. Okay, so you're very German focused right now You have a UK version of the site What's the rollout plan the go-to-market strategy for the rest of the world

[00:16:38] Are you gonna be in Europe for a while? When's America come on the radar last year? so that's why we have done the German accelerator because we were that much convinced of the US market and also

[00:16:50] In terms of the investors because they're much more growth oriented as the Europeans are more on tech Technology, but there we have simply seen with such a small team and such small money. It doesn't make that much sense

[00:17:01] I mean therefore we were focusing on getting to know the people like like you or Jerry Crispin or whoever whomever so this is definitely a market We want to do as soon as we get the money

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[00:17:55] We are happy to support your programmatic sourcing efforts for you integrating with your current providers So you can access information you need in one place advantage AI is brought to you by an experienced team of industry

[00:18:07] pioneers innovators and problem solvers who are excited to introduce a fresh new approach to programmatic job advertising to learn more or Schedule a product demonstration visit advantage AI in the meantime We're taking whatever is there if we do have large customers We're gonna roll out there

[00:18:23] But the focus is more on the larger companies and for sure Asia Asia Asian markets are made for us So Asia the US in Europe That's what I'm hearing thus far is there a central focus on how you roll out into those areas and go to market to

[00:18:38] Those areas as I said, I was doing internationalization in in retailing and what I've learned isn't that you need to have Local offices it doesn't make any sense to have for this kind of job because recruiting and all that is a very local business

[00:18:52] You need to have your own business down there You need to have a common understanding of what are we selling? But the understanding of the culture and all that one for sales marketing needs to be there We do have a scalable product is fine in all the languages

[00:19:06] So that means from there on whenever we would have money Put 15 people in there and just start in the business at the moment is getting the large companies or corporates in here that are

[00:19:18] International and that's what we're doing. And then with them we are going on international market So how are you actually pushing out? How are you executing your go-to-market? Are you going directly after? Brands or are you partnering with these applicant tracking systems in white labeling the technology?

[00:19:35] So the blueprint was actually done here in Germany after the pandemic crisis because what we did we were going for brands and we were Going for retail brands why because that the QR codes and put it all in their windows

[00:19:47] And from there on we had other companies CEOs whomever who have seen that and that is why we do have a b2c Strategy always in commie in terms of communication because like that if the future customer doesn't understand what it is for

[00:20:01] They understand the purpose and that's how we got a lot of inbound now We're doing because we are the first one in what why doing that we needed to go on trade shows

[00:20:10] So that was fine and then you get a little for the ATS and as I said, there is smart recruiters That's cornerstone. There is SAP who were looking for us. That means we did something right and

[00:20:21] After that you get all the acknowledgement. I mean all the awards we have done for easy and cheap marketing I've got some 16 of them. I mean, are they selling your product the the awards? No, I don't care about the awards

[00:20:32] I'm talking about smart recruiters success factors. Are they selling your product was the Austrian railway coming up saying we have seen your strategic partner of cornerstone Ah, that is the point and then with smart recruiters were planning some some actions

[00:20:47] And I mean as a piece success factors around the corner from Heidelberg So getting to know the people and then you had that was that was kind of an honor that we've been one of the four

[00:20:56] Cool vendors in the Gartner report something we couldn't even so and that's coming back to the large companies again Okay, that's more the point first awareness and then getting into the sales. This is how we started

[00:21:06] How big your sales team five pretty small five people? So you are looking at trying to target the US but Huge GDP obviously Germany has a big GDP as it is and then Asia pack which is a huge GDP

[00:21:20] But all three of those are much different from a culture standpoint And then obviously, you know how they interact so so that's interesting from a go-to-market standpoint Talk a little bit about your exit

[00:21:31] What are you looking to do because it feels like you are like a new age Kind of like almost like band-aid to a lot of these applicant tracking systems who have horrible

[00:21:41] Application processes that you would fit in very well with you spout out a lot of these core system names What's what's the actual exit look like for you guys actually there are a lot of scenarios and

[00:21:55] We're not doing is targeting on one because at the time we want to make that baby big Like my own vision is like in three years time if somebody enters a bar He just needs to ask where's the target job because he implies there's an easy recruiting tool

[00:22:10] Anyhow, sometimes the time is right because you're too small or the others are too big you need to sell So we have divided our corporate development in different steps first of what that one was really

[00:22:21] Getting the awareness getting integrated in the 80s what now happened so we are Established and we have risen raised the market and entry barriers for others So now we are upgrading our system towards I mean horizontally towards white color as soon as AI is

[00:22:39] Good enough for that one and they're actually I don't care if we have to develop it in our own or we get that should be the could be the opportunity for somebody who's well funded to buy us on that side or

[00:22:50] We're gonna buy it. I don't I don't care simply we need to have it because we already have the customer access That is the most important thing all the others focusing on technology I mean we might then be second-best Marcus walk me through just visually how this works

[00:23:06] So your bar example, where's your talking job? Okay, here's our QR code scan the QR code go to a landing page and then there are questions in text format Like tell me about your experience and then you click record the video comes up or is it not video?

[00:23:23] And then I I give my answer in audio format And then do you transcribe the audio and does that audio and text format go into an ATS or some sort of? Dashboard where I can search and and kind of like pre-screen or match to the job

[00:23:37] Like talk talk me through that process Okay People see there is a new way of applying either by QR code or link click on that one being right in our application

[00:23:48] So that means no landing page in between because that would disturb and there is no registration. There is no download Simply they see the other tar it's been a customized over to the company

[00:23:59] Then they click through the data protection and the language depends as I said to the pre-setting and on the phone So whenever when presenting a Spanish the entire interview would be in Spanish and customer would get the automatic translation

[00:24:12] so and then they are being asked the pre qualifying questions for The job profile typically we do have between 7 to 11 questions Because if we have not enough that goes on quality if we have too many

[00:24:26] We do have less less conversion on that one. And that is the educational part We need to talk to the companies that they really ask only the the most important question that they would ask for a pre qualification that means and after that until then it's all about

[00:24:43] employer branding really getting the people in and then we're asking for the contact details and that is done the The application which so the avatar says tell me about your previous experience I click record and then I've audio my answer into the phone

[00:24:59] It's not a video thing, right and then audio and then like I'm done click done And then that that answer goes into the database and then like what's the next question?

[00:25:06] The avatar asks exactly and then when you're done is that your okay. You got it. You talk or you're right So got no barriers on that side. All right Okay

[00:25:14] so that's interesting because one of my questions was in terms of sort of people with disabilities right if I have a Speech impediment. How do you plan for that? Obviously text only does plan for that in terms of disabilities

[00:25:26] Do you feel like you've covered all your bases on that or do you still feel like there's some hurdles with people who may have Issues with seeing talking etc. Her hard of hearing. Yeah part of hearing. Yeah

[00:25:35] Yeah in that case, I mean if they can't hear we are out of that business But if somebody is blind, I mean and he's able to use it It's his phone that should be no problem and all for the other disabilities as well

[00:25:49] I mean not only physical disabilities But sometimes you have people who simply cannot write for whatever reason and and then what we have heard here is at the unemployment Agency that people nowadays are afraid of of calling really

[00:26:04] Physically talking to people and they would be out of the process as well. Okay, this is what's been implied So that is an issue for sure and you'll you'll come up in terms of legislation in some countries I'm sure that'll make that more challenging

[00:26:17] But I want to ask about your your revenue you mentioned 1 million in the first year on with that euros or dollars Yeah, what's your current? What's your current ARR or MRR and you're almost profitable. You said yeah Yeah, the current ARR is at 1.3 euro that like 1415 in

[00:26:35] Us but the the real part and there you could see what we have done I mean due to the fact we had not enough people we we needed to turn the smaller companies

[00:26:43] So we had a turn up to 25% but still we managed to raise our NRR from 85 to 105 again That means although we had quite some turn for the people we decided to get off with a relevant companies

[00:26:56] We managed to upgrade them because why they start pretty small and then they roll it roll it out throughout the company Through different job profiles in other countries. So and that's what do you then need the people for so we're seeing LLMs

[00:27:11] Especially with voice they're coming very quickly right and the the way that tech is moving They're just a velocity of tech today is crazy, so there are going to be Go figure competitors are gonna be popping out of the woodwork

[00:27:26] Which means you need to do one or two things you're gonna become a feature or you're gonna create a platform So the question is what are you gonna do?

[00:27:35] Are you gonna stay as being the best feature in this in this space and hope that you get acquired or are you going to? Go down funnel and start creating a platform. That's what I'm saying that maybe I'm not choosing the right words

[00:27:49] But but currently we are working on that issue with some partners because we're trying to kind of establish some kind of virtual ATS means best of breed of of whatever is on the market Most likely startups because what it is or take it from retailing

[00:28:04] It's like a shop in a shop system because like this we can say take the sales power of each and every single company And also like the brands like our strength is really to enter the market and get into into into the systems

[00:28:16] And then you need to cover the entire entire recruiting process That means that we are cooperating with people doing Google ads social media that people doing homepages afterwards having later Communication with whatsapp for example all this to ease the entire process to have one variance for the candidate

[00:28:36] Candidate first really but then that also the customer has only one touch point and that we are integrated all into the ATS Means you have all the layers of different features which will then be integrated in each and every

[00:28:48] ATS so that was basically also what you were mentioning in the beginning Chad. This sounds really really expensive I don't know about you. This sounds really pricey Marcus What kind of pricing can a company expect using your service?

[00:29:00] I'm pretty transparent. We have pricing is based on the plant hires per year in the area We are used where they use us that means if somebody plans to hire a thousand people next year It's gonna be a thousand times 25 euros

[00:29:14] So quite easy quite easy the larger the less the larger the less and like that we are able to mirror the The size and the budget of companies and we kind of never have any issues in selling that way

[00:29:26] And it also I mean otherwise I would need some controlling who did you who did you hire? What's ever that always gives a bad mood and I need more people both both things. I don't want to have All right, we don't

[00:29:39] Marcus all right. That is the bell that means it's time to face the firing squad. Are you ready? Yeah, I don't know Well, I appreciate your honesty I'll go first Chad if that's alright with you have it

[00:29:53] I don't know what to make of this man coming into it. You had won the unleashed startup award Sort of like it made sense to me the audio thing But then I the you know competing with a lot of really well-funded, you know conversational AI

[00:30:08] I don't know where AI in general is going with with audio. You're very German I know you're talking about Asia and America But like if I go to the English part of your site, which is the the Union Jack, right?

[00:30:22] Which is very traditional but like the images I see are still in German so I think you have to figure out exactly where you're going and what like who you want to target because

[00:30:31] Believe it or not in America if you spell favorite with oh you and not just oh like it's a real turnoff for Americans, man It's a real bummer for Americans. So I don't know how it is in Asia, but that's gonna be a challenge

[00:30:43] You're targeting young people your site says quote young professionals and students are primarily a voice-driven generation I just don't know about that. They like to text they like to tap they like to use the thumbs I don't know if they're talking as much maybe in Germany

[00:30:57] They are so like I just I feel you know, you haven't raised a ton of money. You've been around for four years It hasn't quite happened yet Like you I don't wonder I want to raise money

[00:31:08] But we're too busy with the product and like it just to me It feels like you're going nowhere fast and maybe you'll turn that around Maybe you'll either raise money or get people head in the right direction

[00:31:19] But for me like I don't know if the audio thing is gonna happen I don't know if AI is gonna be a major hurdle for you. I think you have Competition that's much better funded. That's much more on the ball

[00:31:29] If you will think as a German even you understand that that term So for me, like I'm just I have a hard time seeing where it is Congratulations on the unleash award. Clearly there's some things going on here. You're making money, which is great

[00:31:42] But for me like I just there's just not enough there for me To embrace talk and or talking or talk and zip whatever whatever it is man I I just can't get over it. So for me, like I don't I just don't see it right now

[00:31:57] So you're gonna get the guns maybe Chad feels differently Chad. What do you think? Well, I think this does solve a very big problem in the Application process because it sucks

[00:32:07] I mean it is pure shit for a lot of people and there are many companies who if they pare down their application And they allow voice it just becomes much easier, right and we are becoming more more voice driven

[00:32:21] I think but at the end of the day you take a look at the brand is very disassociative You know apply Z or talk and job literally you can go to Caroline

[00:32:31] It'll take her ten minutes to redirect those to one site, right and then just have a unified version Whatever it is all of them to one site even the one that you own that resolves nowhere It goes to a black hole send that to talk and job, right?

[00:32:45] But again, it seems like an amazing band-aid for the problem that is at hand Here's the thing the idea you have a short amount of time before large language models are Leveraged with more candidate data and tech experience than you guys have right now

[00:33:01] You better find an ATS with a crappy apply process and I think you have and then in Create that don't create a platform. That was almost like a trapdoor for you Don't create a platform create the best feature that's out there the voice

[00:33:18] Application feature and sell that damn thing the go-to-market is incredibly erratic You don't have enough money to go after that many markets It's it's incredibly hard and especially going from Germany to the US and then the US back to Germany That is a very very hard market

[00:33:36] Now if you land and expand with some German companies and then push out into into the US that's something that's entirely different And the last but not least in saying you don't care about AI

[00:33:48] That to me is probably why you're not getting funding everybody out there who's getting funding or at least trying to get funding They are they they've got the AI banner and they are carrying it strong So you may not like it

[00:34:00] But again all the kids are doing it and the ones that are doing it and they're getting funding at the end Of the day I see I'm gonna have a lean heavily on you being German that these things are going to tighten up

[00:34:10] You're going to focus and you're going to not only raise a little bit more cash But you're gonna focus on creating the best audio application process that's out there so that you can exit and get the hell out

[00:34:22] You've got I think I believe again my opinion about 18 to 24 months to do that If you don't do it, you're gonna get you're gonna get waved by a tsunami of other companies who are gonna be doing this

[00:34:35] Which is why you're getting a golf flat for me. I think you got a chance my friend I think you got a chance. All right Marcus. How do you feel? 20 words or less 20 words or less

[00:34:46] Basically, that's what we're saying. We only can do the markets if we have the money first thing being the best This is the core business We are focusing on AI and all that one is being sold in the second part because we are solving this very problem

[00:35:01] That's why the NHS has over 70% of total applications with us as you point to your way over 20 That is Marcus Marcus cramp everybody Marcus for those that want to learn more about

[00:35:12] Talking job. What exactly is that URL that they should check out talking job comm there we go And besides you got now the two weeks where Marcus you're done. You're done. The show's over. It's over Chad That is another one in the can We out. We out

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