Clinch- New Dublin based feature packed hiring software

by Startacus Admin

Having endured a particularly harsh recession during the recent global economic crisis, the Republic of Ireland is once again demonstrating an economic growth which far and away exceeds that of most Western nations, and tentatively suggests a return to levels of prosperity which just a few short years ago, looked almost certain never to return.

The figures are nothing short of remarkable, with growth in the Irish economy standing at 7.7% in the 12 months to September 2014, and an even higher rate expected between now and the same time next year!

Despite such impressive figures, unemployment rates were somewhat slow to react initially, but now show a very promising downward trend, typical of a fast growing economy, once again confident in its ability to create and sustain new job opportunities.

It's not surprising then, to find folks inspired by the growth in employment and determined to bring a fresh new level of innovation to the recruitment industry.

Enter 'Clinch' a feature packed new hiring software that allows employers to engage job seekers, promote vacancies, connect with candidates and manage applications.

They are are a former Startacus 'Startup of the Week' so it seems only appropriate that during our Dublin startup month, we take the opportunity to have a chat with the team behind the new software and pick their brains (so to speak) about their journey, recruitment and of course the city of Dublin.

Hi there Maura, in as simple terms as possible can you tell us about Clinch - what it is and what makes it different from existing recruitment solutions?

Clinch is the next generation talent acquisition platform. In simple terms, it’s hiring software that allows companies to create and share their employer brand through dynamic, embeddable careers, about us, and team pages, then engage with and manage the candidates that content generates.

While traditional recruitment software has the ‘Applicant Tracking System’ as its basis, focusing on managing candidates once they’ve applied for a job, our emphasis is on helping companies attract and engage better quality candidates in the first instance, and THEN moving them through the hiring pipeline.

How do you hope it will have a positive influence on the recruitment process?

Hiring is difficult, particularly in competitive industries like the technology sector. Companies tend to wait until they have an open position and then use a variety of tools to advertise it – word of mouth within their own community, social media and jobs sites. It’s time consuming, and when, as a last resort,companies bring in third party recruiters, it’s expensive, too.

At Clinch, we believe in the benefits of starting the hiring conversation earlier, building a talent pool by engaging candidates from day one with better, richer, careers, team, and about us pages and direct communication. This way, when a position does open up, companies can start their recruiting efforts by tapping into that group of individuals who’ve already registered an interest in the company as an employer. Hiring becomes faster, cheaper, and easier.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background / the background of the team and how you have got to this point?

The team got together in January of this year. Paddy Doyle and Damien Glancy, our two co-founders, had worked together in a previous startup. Experiences of the hiring process in that business and from other companies that they had worked in, brought them to the conclusion that there must be a better way to hire and interact with people. It’s well accepted that hiring can be expensive and time consuming, but in addition, hiring the wrong person can be extremely damaging for a business, especially a growing business.

Paddy and Damien felt that if companies were more open and transparent about their people, the projects they’re working on, their values, and their culture, they would be far better equipped to attract interest from like minded people. Then, when a job does become available, hiring becomes easier because conversations with potential candidates have already been started.

Clinch gives companies the platform and the tools to showcase all those things, and facilitates easy employer/candidate communication, too.

What has been the biggest obstacle that you have been faced with to date and how did you manage to overcome it?

As a startup you face obstacles every day, but the biggest obstacle for every startup has to be right at the outset - picking the right team to build the business. Working in a startup is not for everyone: you need to be flexible and understand that pretty much everything you’ve learned previously through working with a big established company is almost irrelevant in a startup. As founders, Paddy and Damien made sure the team was the right one so that we could move fast as a business. For them, the “right” team meant people whose personalities and sense of humour would mesh just as effectively as their professional skill sets!

In one year’s time, where do you hope that the business will be?

We’ve started the process of on-boarding clients in the US. As a business, in one year’s time, we’d like to have expanded significantly into that market and have opened an office there. We also plan on expanding our team over the coming months to allow us build on the momentum we’ve gotten over the last few months.

As you know it's our Dublin startup month and we are really keen to hear your thoughts on starting a business in the city. Can you tell us the three best things and three worst things that you have encountered?

The three best things about starting a business in Dublin? That’s easy: community, community, community. The tech scene in Dublin is relatively small but it’s growing fast. We all tend to know each other, or, at the very least, know someone who knows someone. There is huge support available; you only have to ask.

As for the worst things . . . Dublin isn’t much different to other major cities in which to start a business. The big stumbling block from an operational perspective is finding decent office space close to town.

Thanks for the chat Maura and best of luck to you and the team!

If you would like to know more about clinch then why not pop over to their website?

Don't forget it's not too late to share your Dublin startup journey with the world! Check out the kind of things we are looking for here, and drop us an email to iam@startacus.net for a chat!

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Published on: 21st October 2014