In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, our hosts Andrew Romeo and Anthony Sapountzis talk to Rick Maré, CEO and Co-Founder of SHAZAMME, and Nicole Clarke, Co-Founder of SHAZAMME about how they created the Canva of recruitment websites. The episode is about all things business and how a business can be grown and scaled.
Both Rick and Nicole have been working in recruitment website technology for over a decade and are very passionate about the industry. Once competitors in the same industry, Rick and Nicole build SHAZAMME to help clients build a better and stronger brand by leveraging cutting-edge technology. SHAZAMME seamlessly integrates cutting-edge recruitment, staffing, and career websites and makes it easy for clients to edit, manage, customize and grow their online brand. Rick, in fact, calls it the Rolls Royce solution!
- They understand the industry and that the clients fall under different silos and have their unique needs as opposed to a marketing agency that doesn’t understand the industry. Having understood that there are different silos for job seekers, employers, and recruitment agencies trying to recruit internally, their systems are geared towards catering to each silo.
- They work with the clients from the start and educate them on how to optimize their online branding
- They use cutting-edge technology and have made it easy for clients to customize it as per their needs
- They help build ecosystems for the industry and share with job board aggregators like LinkedIn
- They specialize in SEO, SEM, social advertising, landing pages, recruitment technology, rec-tech, websites, bullhorn integrations, job adder integrations, job boards, client portals, recruitment websites, career sites, recruitment technology, recruitment marketing, Vincere integrations, smart recruiter integrations, recruitment marketing consulting, staffing websites, and review technology.
- They offer fair prices
All in all, what Rick and Nicole want to focus on is how they offer services that no one else in the market is offering.
Talking more on their low code, no code platform, they emphasize how the world no longer needs to reinvent the wheel and take their own platform as a testimony to that. The partnered with two no code platforms and relied on the expertise of the team to deliver. That added to their understanding of the industry and the needs is what led to the creation of SHAZAMME. Rick then shares how vital it was to release their MVP as soon as possible and have the plan to scale.
Talking about the benefits of low code as opposed to hiring a specific development team, Rick highlights the following:
- Rapid development
- Rapid prototyping
- No need for big teams
- Cost is about 10% of what it would have otherwise cost
Having said that, SHAZAMME has a niche market and they both understand how to play that to their advantage as it comes with as many opportunities. It is a big enough market and they understand what the customers really need—they are making a difference and helping so many people in the industry. And that is what drives both Nichole and Rick to do what they do every single day.
Topics Covered
- How Shazamme came into being
- Catering to the needs of the recruitment industry
- Different silos of clients
- Offering services that no one else offers
- Challenges faced and lessons learned
- Evolution from the first MVP to now
- Benefits of operating in a niche market
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
- “We have been working in the recruitment website technology now for over 12 years. A real passion for the industry. And across the globe, we have been helping clients be more successful—from start-up recruitment agencies through to some of the world’s largest recruitment companies and everyone that sits in between that; and also dealing with corporates in career sites. And that has led to the passion of more modern tech and where we are today.” (0:50 – 1:17) – Nicole Clarke
- “It’s all about letting them build a better, stronger brand and to some degree, not to be reliant on anything external. So, it’s a bit like the e-commerce store of recruitment in that you build your own presence and your market it well and set it up well so that you don’t necessarily need to go and sell on Amazon, for example, in the e-commerce store scenario.” (3:17 – 3:43) – Rick Maré
- “Unless you understand the space, you just don’t get what you actually need to know and what you need to develop for your customers.” (4:32 – 3:38) – Rick Maré
- “I think there’s a real opportunity if you get this right and a lot of people don’t realize that, especially from a recruitment industry specifically. There are so many integrations and so many opportunities from a Search Engine Optimization perspective. But if you don’t get those right when you’re building your brand online, you’re never going to be able to compete in what is an extremely competitive market. So, it’s our job to provide our clients with cutting-edge tech that will make sure that they can be as successful as they want online.” (5:25 – 5:58) – Nicole Clarke
- “There actually is a recipe to success to being found online and we impart a lot of that. And it is very recruitment focused. And these are things that a normal marketing agency won’t understand or be able to apply because they don’t understand the industry where there are different silos of people the recruitment agencies are trying to attract.” (6:28 – 6:48) – Nicole Clarke
- “We set up silos and the way that we have developed the technology—which is all drag and drop and easy to edit—pretty much, as I said earlier, you know, like a Canva for recruitment websites.” (7:04 – 7:16) – Nicole Clarke
- “We’ve got probably a dozen clients that are really pushing the limit, that are really using every part of our platform to build different ecosystems: microsites, landing pages, stores—anything you can think of, they are really trying. So, that’s exciting for us to see. Most of the time, we don’t even know they are doing it because it’s all there on the platform. Whereas, before, because everything was proprietary, if they didn’t ask for as and we didn’t build it, they didn’t get it.” (9:58 – 10:31) – Rick Maré
- “We wanted Shazamme to be the Shopify of recruitment or the Canva of recruitment that you could go to. Everything is there online; easy to use, cost-effective, no hidden cost, etc.” (20:10 – 20:28) – Rick Maré
- “This is sort of a bit of an Apple approach again. You don’t want to listen to too many customers at the start because you get confused and you can’t deliver an MVP. So, we got to the MVP very quickly and we had known clients come on board and we obviously started to listen to them and incorporate a lot of the refinements. But, for the most, the architecture of what we developed is still 100% the same. We’ve just expanded it: more widgets, more refinements, more features than we had back then.” (24:17 – 24:58) – Rick Maré
- “If you read the articles from Microsoft and Oracle and all the people that know much more than we do, they’re saying 30-40% of all platforms will be No Code somewhere in the near distant future.” (28:11 – 28:26) – Rick Maré
Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)
- The Rolls Royce Solution for Recruitment (4:32 – 5:03)
- SHAZAMME and the Use of Cutting-Edge Tech (5:10 – 5:58)
- What Sets SHAZAMME apart from Competitors (6:00 – 11:11)
- Lessons Learned (15:09 – 20:08)
- Benefits of Low Code, No Code (27:50 – 28:59)
- MVP is crucial (29:01 – 32:45)
- Benefits of Operating in a Niche Market (32:51 – 36:26)
Useful Links
Connect with Andrew Romeo
Connect with Anthony Sapountzis
