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June 2008 Press Release
DEMO 2007 Launch Press Release
NOTCHUP: YOUR ONLINE CAREER AGENT
New Features Help Professionals Manage Their Professional Identity and Capitalize on Marketplace Opportunities
PALO ALTO, Calif. – June 30, 2008 – NotchUp, a service designed to help companies quickly and cost-effectively source top-tier candidates, today announced new features designed to help talented professionals easily manage their careers, protect their identity and evaluate new opportunities. Enhancements include integration across Facebook™ and OpenSocial™ networking platforms, and unique Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) allowing interested companies a way to access candidates through the NotchUp system, at the candidate’s discretion. NotchUp is a virtual career agent, a service focused on the passive candidate who is not actively looking for a new job but still benefits from professional resume and online profile management, identity privacy, and minimal time commitment to keep a pulse on the market.
“Athletes, actors, musicians, and writers pay agents top dollar to manage their careers and identity their next career opportunity. We are doing the same thing for business professionals by giving them an online service that will ensure talented candidates are aware of great opportunities while having their time and identities protected,” said Jim Ambras, NotchUp CEO and co-founder. “Happily employed professionals have a tool to keep their resume active and available to employers who are serious about offering them a better opportunity, and willing to pay them to consider it.”
With the NotchUp PIN system users can give themselves a unique number that, in combination with their member number, allows them to exert control over their online data, releasing it only for selected opportunities. NotchUp users have the ability to funnel incoming job inquiries through the site, furthering NotchUp’s intent to reward the talented professional for their value in the job market. When a user directs a cold call offer to access their profile through NotchUp, both parties are protected. The offering company will have a chance to review the user’s profile to determine if he or she is indeed a fit, and the user is able to review the opportunity and negotiate an interview price if it should be explored further.
With cross-platform integration, NotchUp simplifies the complexity faced by users juggling multiple social and professional online profiles:
• Cross-platform resume and profile updates: When a user updates their profile or resume in Facebook or OpenSocial, NotchUp will automatically incorporate the changes. NotchUp also added a resume importing feature to allow quick and easy upload of your resume in its current format.
• Centralized messaging services: Users can leverage the Facebook or OpenSocial messaging systems for NotchUp alerts.
• Networking Functionality: Users can invite friends to join NotchUp through Facebook or OpenSocial.
• Contact Management: Users can seamlessly import contacts from multiple address books.
NotchUp has ended the initial corporate trial phase. Since the site was launched, over 1,000 employers have expressed interest in leveraging NotchUp services. Companies now have access to candidates’ resumes and can begin making interview and job offers through NotchUp. NotchUpShield™ will continue to guarantee user privacy and security.
NotchUp is completely free for professionals, and corporate users have no commitments or monthly or annual fees. Companies only pay a fee upon successfully interviewing a candidate. NotchUp charges companies a transaction fee on every interview they facilitate.
About NotchUp
NotchUp helps companies quickly and cost-effectively source top-tier candidates without using recruiters or job boards. Professionals on NotchUp set an asking price - the price at which they’ll talk to prospective employers. Companies use NotchUp to find professionals with the skills and experience they are looking for, and pay those professionals their asking price to interview. NotchUp brokers the transaction between the company and the individual and provides several layers of protection for both parties.
NOTCHUP: MATCHING PROFESSIONAL NEED AND OPPORTUNITY
Talent Sourcing Service Officially Released at DEMO 08 Conference; Candidates Earn Money to Interview
PALO ALTO, Calif. and PALM DESERT, Calif. (DEMO 08) — January 28, 2008 — NotchUp, a service designed to help companies quickly and cost-effectively source top-tier candidates without using recruiters or job boards, today announced its general availability following a successful private beta development phase. NotchUp was built with one specific purpose: to disrupt the frustrating, costly, and time consuming process of identifying talented prospects. Professionals on NotchUp set an asking price, the price at which they’ll talk to prospective employers. Companies use NotchUp to find professionals with the skills and experience they need, and pay those professionals their asking price to interview. NotchUp brokers the transaction and protects both parties to ensure that companies and prospects are free to explore new opportunities.
“The Internet has yet to transform the talent sourcing industry. Job boards were a step in the right direction but they ultimately created more work for HR professionals, and recruiting firms have enjoyed a cartel-like monopoly on professional talent search. NotchUp will force companies and candidates to re-think how they find their next opportunity,” said Jim Ambras, NotchUp CEO and co-founder. “The holy grail for professional talent search is to identify the happy employee who is open to new opportunities, and the candidate who is seeking a specific professional challenge. NotchUp provides the missing link in this discovery process.”
Using NotchUp, HR professionals offer a meeting price to a candidate that has already been screened by NotchUp to fit the open opportunity. Once a price is set, typically in the range of $300-$600 per meeting, the two parties are connected to arrange a meeting time and location. Candidates must take the opportunity seriously in order to be paid. NotchUp collects and displays feedback on each candidate from previous interviews to ensure that users aren’t manipulating the system with no intention of seeking a new opportunity. If the meeting occurs successfully, the candidate receives his/her asking price. Candidates receive a cash offer from a company that is serious enough to pay for a meeting, in addition to expanding their professional network and qualifying their value in the marketplace without exposing themselves to a recruiting firm or job board.
To date, companies and prospects have been forced to use two primary services to identify new opportunities: recruiters and job boards. Recruiters charge companies as much as 30 per cent of a prospect’s salary to fill an opening. Conversely, job boards and online resume repositories require HR professionals to spend costly hours reviewing resumes. The executive recruiting market (both retained and contingency search) was a $13B market in 20071 while online job boards represented a $5.9B market in 20072. A new model is required if HR professionals hope to find prospects who are happily employed or those seeking new opportunities, especially in emerging, fast-paced, and volatile global markets.
NotchUp boasts several important features allowing its users to freely explore new opportunities while protecting companies and candidates using the service:
• Privacy – NotchUpShield privacy protection keeps professionals’ names and contact information confidential until the professional has accepted an offer to meet with a prospective employer. For extra privacy, professionals can block any company, including their current employer, from finding their NotchUp profile.
• Member Reputation Management – Candidate feedback and statistics are collected from each interview and presented to interested companies to protect their investment.
• Screening – Membership in NotchUp is by invitation or application only. NotchUp ensures a higher member quality than any other job site and provides a more focused set of candidates to prospective employers.
• Pay-for-performance – NotchUp has no sign up, monthly or annual fees. Companies have no long term commitments, and pay only after a candidate successfully completes an interview.
“Every industry benefits from a shake-up from time to time and the talent recruiting business is no exception,” said DEMO Executive Producer Chris Shipley. “DEMO values innovation that challenges the status quo and NotchUp fits perfectly with our objective. In this case, it asks people to re-examine the triggers for motivation and professional opportunity. This is an important twist on what currently exists creating a mutually beneficial experience for both employer and prospect.”
NotchUp is free for professionals, and companies pay no sign up, monthly or annual fees. Companies only pay a fee upon successfully interviewing a candidate. NotchUp charges companies a transaction fee on every interview they facilitate.
About the DEMO Conferences
Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, the semi-annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/.
About NotchUp
NotchUp helps companies quickly and cost-effectively source top-tier candidates without using recruiters or job boards. Professionals on NotchUp set an asking price - the price at which they’ll talk to prospective employers. Companies use NotchUp to find professionals with the skills and experience they are looking for, and pay those professionals their asking price to interview. NotchUp brokers the transaction between the company and the individual and provides several layers of protection for both parties.