Viva Las Vegas! The boys are in Sin City this week at the HR Tech Conference, so there’s a lot to unpack. First, it’s shoutouts galore - featuring HireEZ, ThisWay, FactoryFix, Dice and many more - as the world gets back to in-person events. Then it’s time to dissect news of the week, highlighting Reejig and Joonko raising money while Paychex gives new meaning to the word innovation … NOT! Now, keep it quiet while we nurse these hangovers!
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:
INTRO (1s):
Hide your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HR’s most dangerous podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry, right where it hurts! Complete with breaking news, brash opinion and loads of snark, buckle up boys and girls, it's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast.
Joel (27s):
Oh yeah, we are live from the HR Tech conference in beautiful Las Vegas, past the free pens, notebooks and water bottles. Hey, kiddies you're listening to the Chad and Cheese podcast. This is your co-host Joel "Irish moonshine" Cheeseman.
Chad (42s):
And this is Chad "baby needs a new pair of shoes" Sowash.
Joel (46s):
And on this week's show shoutouts galore, rejig re-ups and June Co Gogos. Let's do this. Holy hangover.
Chad (56s):
Dude, before we get into the Vegas moments, I've gotta get a little, little lovey here on you. Okay.
Joel (1m 2s):
Gonna get emotional.
Chad (1m 2s):
I'm gonna get emotional.
Joel (1m 3s):
On you. Do I need some Kleenex for this?
Chad (1m 5s):
You might. You might, you might. I'd like to congratulate our friend of the show. Julia Levy for tying the knot with her bow Derek this week.
Joel (1m 15s):
Very nice.
Chad (1m 15s):
Yes! That's right. We've shared not just the podcast, Mike, but also a stage with Julia Levy now. Yeah. We're gonna have to ask Derek for permission from now on.
Joel (1m 25s):
So is this when we announced the Chad and Cheese wedding services for all the love birds out there? Probably not a good business idea.
Chad (1m 32s):
Probably not. That's not a good idea.
Joel (1m 33s):
That's not a good idea.
Chad (1m 35s):
Tinder for Chad and cheese listeners.
Joel (1m 38s):
Grinder for recruiting. Didn't we come up with that one this week?
Chad (1m 40s):
I think we did.
Joel (1m 41s):
We did?
Chad (1m 42s):
All right. Party, party, party, baby. Let's talk about it.
Joel (1m 44s):
So we're in Vegas, HR tech conference.
Chad (1m 47s):
Yes.
Joel (1m 47s):
We are both in day three.
Chad (1m 49s):
I'm hurting.
Joel (1m 50s):
I think we all know that day three is about the end.
Chad (1m 53s):
Yes.
Joel (1m 53s):
Of your Vegas trip.
Chad (1m 55s):
That's my burn rate here in Vegas!
Joel (1m 58s):
We had a banger last night.
Chad (2m 2s):
Excuse me?!
Joel (2m 3s):
Total. A total just shindig.
Chad (2m 4s):
Yes.
Joel (2m 4s):
We did two events drank way too much.
Chad (2m 8s):
Amazing.
Joel (2m 8s):
Our livers sounded like a sump pump.
Chad (2m 11s):
Whoooooo.
Joel (2m 12s):
Around three, 3:00 AM last night.
Chad (2m 13s):
It felt like one.
Joel (2m 14s):
But we are here for you listeners doing this show from Chad's hotel room.
Chad (2m 18s):
Oh my God.
Joel (2m 19s):
Of all places.
Chad (2m 20s):
We love you. Yes.
Joel (2m 23s):
Looking at this Sphinx's ass from the Luxer, off the strip in Vegas.
Chad (2m 26s):
Only The best. Only the best for Chad Sowash or Julie Sowash that's what I should
Joel (2m 30s):
Say. Ooh, that's kind of kinky. That's kind of kinky. So it's an abbreviated show.
Chad (2m 35s):
Yes. But first shout out, goes to Angela Hood, Michael Justin and the This Way Global crew.
Joel (2m 43s):
Yep.
Chad (2m 43s):
For a live podcast recording in front of an audience. That's right in a suite atop the Mandalay Bay. That's right kids. We were all the way. Just pretty much all the way up top. We recorded an awesome deep dive into Angela's female founders story while doing a bourbon tasting and Angela doesn't like bourbon. So it was fun to watch the faces made.
Joel (3m 4s):
Could have fool me. Could have fool me.
Chad (3m 6s):
Well, she was shooting 'em because she didn't wanna sit there and sip 'em that's why.
Joel (3m 11s):
Yeah. Yeah. We had four bottles, 30 minutes. The conversation got progressively more entertaining as we drank bottles.
Chad (3m 19s):
Yes.
Joel (3m 19s):
Great, great view from the 61st floor.
Chad (3m 22s):
Yes.
Joel (3m 22s):
There, we got to see the Raiders new facility if you're a football fan. Pretty amazing. As well as mountains and sun and everything that you expect from the desert. I'm gonna go shout out to our first night. HireEasy. No one, no one quite engages the community like HireEasy. Well, that
Chad (3m 41s):
Was your first night, but yeah, carry on. Yeah.
Joel (3m 46s):
Yeah. So a group of, I guess, thought leaders, influencers, et cetera, got together with HireEasy. Went out for a really nice surf and turf dinner, shared stories.
Chad (3m 60s):
Amazing.
Joel (3m 60s):
Expertise.
Chad (4m 0s):
Great stuff.
Joel (4m 1s):
They're doing some really great stuff out there.
Chad (4m 3s):
Yes.
Joel (4m 3s):
HireEasy knows how to do it. Got their own limo. I don't know. It was like a GMC truck limo thing.
Chad (4m 9s):
Oh, it's huge.
Joel (4m 9s):
It was very impressive. And then they went up in the Ferris wheel right after we called in a night. But the party people went into the Ferris wheel and had a great time. So as Shannon and the HireEasy crew, well done, shout out to you.
Chad (4m 26s):
Yes. It is a marathon, not a sprint, kids. Then last night also my Huber Yale and the Tatio crew, shout out to them for making the Chad and Cheese HR rebel party at the Sky Fall lounge at the top of the Delano happened. Geez. We were only supposed to have 40 people, but we had well over a hundred. We made our way from the top of the Mandalay bay
Joel (4m 49s):
You may have been saying double.
Chad (4m 51s):
No, I could have, by that time, at that time, I, we were at the top of the Mandalay Bay. We had to come all the way down the Mandalay Bay. We had to go over to the Delano and go all the way up to the top of the Delano. So it was, it was a good time. I'm humbled by the amount of people that actually showed up just to get drunk with us.
Joel (5m 11s):
Yeah. Old friends, new faces. It was fantastic. And, part of that experience, Chad, you remember, we did the bourbon tasting with our friends at Pandologic.
Chad (5m 22s):
Oh yeah.
Joel (5m 22s):
During the pandemic. Well, one of those that we sampled was basically moonshine. The white dog. Oh God. Buffalo trace. Distill. Well, apparently
Chad (5m 33s):
Alex Murphy,
Joel (5m 35s):
Apparently the Irish have their own own version of white dog. Shout out to Alex Murphy for graciously giving both of us a bottle of, I guess, lightning in a bottlem devil spit. Oh God, I know what you would call that stuff, but crazy. It may have, it came close to killing me last night. Thanks to Alex Murphy. Who obviously wants me dead at this point.
Chad (5m 58s):
Yes. Yes. But you know who doesn't want you dead and was looking lovingly into your eyes? Was Aaron Stewart that man. Yes. He graced
Joel (6m 5s):
I don't want to get on his bad side. That's for sure.
Chad (6m 8s):
He is. He's a big man, but he's a gentle, he's a gentle, gentleman.
Joel (6m 14s):
He's super jolly. Jolly jovial, man. Yes he is.
Chad (6m 18s):
Yes. And you, I gotta get some feedback here from you real quick.
Joel (6m 21s):
Yep.
Chad (6m 22s):
We met the guys from Factory fix finally, which is really cool.
Joel (6m 27s):
Yeah.
Chad (6m 28s):
You just saw the Factory Fix fantasy football update.
Joel (6m 30s):
I did.
Chad (6m 31s):
What'd you think?
Joel (6m 32s):
I did. So, so my first impression was that they were gonna go for kind of a Wayne's World, you know, top 10 list. You know what the leaderboard looks like. I wasn't really expecting sort of an 80 style beach party, bingo. Half shirt, hairy belly buttons.
Chad (6m 54s):
Okay. You turn anybody off
Joel (6m 55s):
And equal parts. Horrifying and fascinating. I guess from the Factory Fix kids.
Chad (6m 60s):
It was fucking hilarious. Yes.
Joel (7m 1s):
Hilarious for sure.
Chad (7m 2s):
Yes.
Joel (7m 2s):
If this whole Factory Fix thing doesn't work out, I think comedy is in their future. If they so choose.
Chad (7m 8s):
Yes, I, there, there might actually be, I don't know, maybe a miniseries or a movie behind this. Yes. I think it's good. I think it's good.
Joel (7m 18s):
Yep. Textkernel.
Chad (7m 18s):
Oh!
Joel (7m 18s):
This one's sort of random, but on our last leg last night.
Chad (7m 23s):
Oh my God.
Joel (7m 24s):
We got a surprise. A round of drinks purchased for us.
Chad (7m 27s):
Chris you're fucking killing me, dude. I was done. I was done. And then they bring another drink and they set it down. And I look at the waiter as I'm going to kill him. And he is like, this is from the table over there. And there's Chris.
Joel (7m 43s):
And they're all waving.
Chad (7m 44s):
Oh my God.
Joel (7m 46s):
Textkernel. Thanks. Thanks guys. We appreciate it. Shout out Textkernel.
Chad (7m 51s):
That was amazing. Well, let's go ahead and jump into events really quick and then we'll go back into all this. Wonderful.
Joel (7m 59s):
Is this our shout out intermission?
Chad (8m 1s):
Yeah. Just for a minute. Gotta talk about events. Next we have Inspire HR in Nashville. That's right.
Joel (8m 9s):
The hot chicken detox is what we need. Little hot chicken. Unconditional
Chad (8m 12s):
Gonna be, we're gonna be on stage. We're gonna be eating hot chicken. You're gonna be eating hot chicken. Oh yeah.
Joel (8m 17s):
Patty B's better be alert.
Chad (8m 20s):
We're gonna be a part of the bar takeover. That's happening on Broadway. Yeah. Oh man. And if you've ever been to a bar in Nashville, you know, just how much talent singing talent is in Nashville. It is fucking crazy. There'll be 2, 3, 4 levels. And each level they have a band. Each level and they change out like every hour. It is amazing.
Joel (8m 46s):
Are you bringing your boots and your 10 gallon hat to Nashville?
Chad (8m 51s):
I don't have any of those. Although Julie does. Yeah. Don't don't say much about it. Cuz she usually leaves Nashville with a new pair of boots and those go obviously at least 500 bucks
Joel (9m 1s):
Obviously.
Chad (9m 1s):
Yeah, I don't do it.
Joel (9m 4s):
Obviously. And then after Nashville, where are we headed?
Chad (9m 7s):
Unleash Paris. Oh my God. I,
Joel (9m 7s):
May I interest you on a Bordeaux? Right.
Chad (9m 9s):
Now. Oh my God dude. Yes. So we're working with our friends over at Vonq and Unleashed to pull together a rooftop pre-conference party already taking shape, overlooking the Paris skyline. We're not far from the convention center plus Joel and I are working on a little, a little thing to share with you guys with our friends over at Veritone. Yeah. It's actually a Chad and Cheese global podcast product. And you might be asking Chad aren't podcasts global anyway?
Joel (9m 41s):
It's true.
Chad (9m 41s):
Yeah. No, that makes sense. But when you hear what the Chad and Cheese are dropping on your kids,
Joel (9m 45s):
This is what they call a tease in the industry.
Chad (9m 51s):
You're going to say Bon Soir.
Joel (9m 53s):
My question is what Vonq have free penicillin at the event in case anyone gets the vonq while they're at the Vonq events?`
Chad (10m 0s):
If we can. And we weren't able to actually pull off the t-shirts to actually get here in time. But I would love at least emails or some type of marketing that say Catch the Vonq in Paris, with Chad and Cheese.
Joel (10m 13s):
Yeah. I threw out condoms, but no one liked that idea at all.
Chad (10m 19s):
They don't wear condoms in Paris, man. It's Paris.
Joel (10m 21s):
So yeah, I guess that's all of our travel through the rest of the year, right? Yes.
Chad (10m 24s):
Don't forget. Go to Chadcheese.com, click on events in the upper right hand corner. You can register for all of these events. That's right. Kids. And we have a 20% off discount group on ChadCheese con for Paris. Do it. I mean, if you have not been there.
Joel (10m 40s):
There, you code little coupon code.
Chad (10m 42s):
All you have to do is click it and it just automatically happens.
Joel (10m 47s):
Oh shit. We are high tech dude.
Chad (10m 48s):
It's called technology, baby.
Joel (10m 50s):
God damn. That's how we do it. Who's sponsoring our travels, Chad?
Chad (10m 53s):
Well, I've got a new hat.
Joel (10m 55s):
There you go.
Chad (10m 56s):
Got a new hat, a New Shaker Recruitment Marketing hat. My last one, the oil has been changed so many times I think it's about ready to fall apart. So I've got a new hat.
Joel (11m 6s):
Just in time. The new, the lettering pops on the new hat.
Chad (11m 9s):
Oh yeah, no, I like the new hat.
Joel (11m 11s):
They know marketing. They know marketing that.
Chad (11m 14s):
Yes.
Joel (11m 14s):
The light lettering on the dark background is nice A nice pop.
Chad (11m 18s):
Big pop of the Shaker. Thanks.
Joel (11m 20s):
Shaker's gonna see Kegan here at the show. Oh, sweetheart.
Chad (11m 22s):
Having a drink with Joe junior is good time. Yep. Good time.
Joel (11m 25s):
Always.
Chad (11m 26s):
Good time.
Joel (11m 26s):
Always. Did we have a drink with Joe Shaker here?
Chad (11m 28s):
Yeah. Well I did. Okay. Oh, you weren't here yet. That's right. Okay.
Joel (11m 30s):
I was gonna say I was really out of it if I don't remember a drink with Joe Shaker. I got two fairly normal shoutouts.
Chad (11m 38s):
Okay.
Joel (11m 39s):
If we can? Then we'll get to like the booths and all the good stuff that everyone cares about.
Chad (11m 46s):
OK.
Joel (11m 46s):
So quick shout out to Cisco. The mega corporation has committed $5 million in grants in technical services to fuel entrepreneurship.
Chad (11m 55s):
Nice.
Joel (11m 55s):
At historically black colleges and universities. You'll remember our talk with Cindy Gallup?
Chad (12m 0s):
Oh yes.
Joel (12m 1s):
Where she was very ardent about funding, entrepreneurship in the diverse community. And I think, although this isn't the hundred million that Netflix gave to the colleges, $5 million is nothing to sneeze at.
Chad (12m 11s):
Substantial.
Joel (12m 12s):
Shout out, shout out to Cisco and a shout out to Dice. I know that we don't do this very often. We spend way too much time on ZipRecruiter, but Dice stock continues to crush it. I don't know if you have any Dice stock, Chad. I do not.
Chad (12m 27s):
I do not.
Joel (12m 28s):
Full disclosure. I don't have any, but it continues to do so well. In fact, if you had purchased DHI stock, that's the ticker DHX five years ago, you'd be up 173% in that stock. Not too shabby. And this week they raised revenue guidance for the full year of 2022. I think 173% return over five years, deserves a shout out. We give them a hard time. Art Zeal is a good time to make fun of, but they are crushing it while ZipRecruiter and others lag behind.
Chad (13m 3s):
What's the price on stock, cuz going up 173% of two bucks, that doesn't get me going much.
Joel (13m 8s):
You're gonna rain on this parade. Aren't you? You're just gonna shit on this shout out.
Chad (13m 11s):
I'm just asking.
Joel (13m 11s):
I mean, if we're going back five years, I would not be able to tell you that. I'm gonna say it was probably at between three and four.
Chad (13m 20s):
Okay.
Joel (13m 20s):
Five years ago and now it's at, you know, 173% above that.
Chad (13m 24s):
Okay.
Joel (13m 24s):
But still nothing to shout out. It's better than Facebook stock the past year just so you know.
Chad (13m 29s):
Coming out of the junk stock basement. That's awesome.
Joel (13m 32s):
The pink slip shoutout
Chad (13m 34s):
Are we gonna do birthdays?
Joel (13m 36s):
We're gonna pass on birthdays. However we wanna talk about our sponsor.
Chad (13m 43s):
Well, yeah, because again, you came in a day late.
Joel (13m 47s):
Yep.
Chad (13m 48s):
And Plum had this awesome dinner. You missed the sushi. Thanks to Caitlin and the crew.
Joel (13m 54s):
Smells like tuna tastes like chicken Chad.
Chad (13m 56s):
Shout out to Plum.
Joel (13m 58s):
Shout out to Plum who I face in fantasy football this weekend. Which maybe we wanna talk about the leaderboard?
Chad (14m 2s):
No, have 'em go to the video.
Joel (14m 5s):
But I've got nicknames for everybody.
Chad (14m 7s):
Oh good God.
Joel (14m 8s):
Oh God. I love the nicknames. Alright. So week one of fantasy football is in the books. Our friends at Fantasy Fix. Our FactoryFix fantasy fix. That'd be good too. Our sponsoring fantasy football. So I think Chad doesn't wanna talk about this because he's number one in the leaderboard where as he was in that same position last year and ended up in the celler. So
Chad (14m 33s):
I quit going out on high.
Joel (14m 37s):
Dejavu. Sowash is in number in the number one spot. Joseph "wonder boy" Wilke. Number two, Christie "don't call me moon" Kelly is number three. Christopher "I'm 40. I'm a Manion" is in number four. Jason "punt on third" Putnam. Dan "don't call me Willie" Shoemaker. Joel "suck-it baker" Cheeseman is in the number seven spot. Matt Henry Hill number eight. James "Gman" Gillum, Dennis "Tupperware" Tupper, Mike "Schmidt" Schaefer, and number 12 in the gutter Serge "bigger balls" Boudreau from Calgary, Canada. How in the hell he got into our NFL fantasy football league? Is probably cuz we can have someone in the cellar that we know will be in this cellar, but thanks to FactoryFix for sponsoring fantasy football and in indulging our addictions.
Chad (15m 26s):
I love it.
Joel (15m 27s):
Yes.
Chad (15m 27s):
I love it. Well, let's go ahead and let's, let's talk a little bit about the floor and we won't get too crazy about it.
Joel (15m 35s):
This is what everyone wants to know though. What our worst.
Chad (15m 38s):
Let's talk about our first, our worst.
Joel (15m 39s):
Okay.
Chad (15m 40s):
And then our, and then our favorite. And then I also have an honorable mention, but then we can jump into just kinda like some takeaways.
Joel (15m 53s):
Okay. I'll go best first. Okay. I would give my best award to HiBob or just Bob. I'm not really sure what the hell they're branding that thing as, but it's Hibob.com. Although it's just Bob in the booth, what they did that was really genius was instead of one gigantic booth, they have multiple booths peppered around the show floor. So if you're walking around, you sort of do this weird didn't I see that back there? And it's sort of a Twilight zone experience.
Chad (16m 25s):
Twighlight Zonesfx.
Joel (16m 26s):
We're also doing is amazingly popular photographs for LinkedIn profiles or social media profiles.
Chad (16m 31s):
Yeah.
Joel (16m 31s):
There's a line long line for this.
Chad (16m 33s):
There was. Who knew?
Joel (16m 34s):
So I'm gonna go with HiBob for the multiple booth locations.
Chad (16m 37s):
Very nice.
Joel (16m 37s):
Kinda like a Starbucks strategy, I guess to that.
Chad (16m 41s):
I like that.
Joel (16m 42s):
And then the photos I think have been really successful for them, so.
Chad (16m 50s):
Okay.
Joel (16m 51s):
HiBob.
Chad (16m 52s):
HiBob. Okay. I'm gonna hit my, my worst first.
Joel (16m 56s):
The worst.
Chad (16m 59s):
And this is gonna surprise everybody was DEEL the company
Joel (17m 3s):
double E.
Chad (17m 4s):
Yeah. D E E L Deel has about $630 I believe million.
Joel (17m 7s):
All the money.
Chad (17m 8s):
Million in funding. And they had a 10 by 10 booth. Now. Now I like companies that are frugal and that are smart, but they could have at least done a 20 by 20. I mean they were over by all the.
Joel (17m 19s):
At least tried.
Chad (17m 21s):
Yeah. They didn't even look like they tried.
Joel (17m 22s):
Yeah. Or at least look like you're really not trying on purpose.
Chad (17m 26s):
Yes.
Joel (17m 27s):
Like when crowded had a toilet in their booth, at least that was saying, we don't really give a shit. So yeah. Deel. Spend a little money next time and look like you've you're a real business. And in light of that, I'll double up on the has a lot of money and didn't spend any of it category. I'm gonna go with Amazon. Oh. As my worst booth. Now why is Amazon?
Chad (17m 53s):
I don't know.
Joel (17m 54s):
At HR tech.
Chad (17m 56s):
That's a good question. Huh?
Joel (17m 59s):
I don't know. AWS. Maybe, maybe distribution employ knows, right? No clue. No, no. They were there. Their booth message and I'm paraphrasing was enhance your employee engagement with books.
Chad (18m 9s):
They were selling books.
Joel (18m 11s):
Amazon, no books were in the booth, but it was like go to Amazon and buy your employees some books. So Amazon backed up the Brink's truck to have a 10 by 10 booth that said, have your employees read more books? Because there's nothing like employee engagement, like reading some books.
Chad (18m 29s):
The book club. They could have done a book club
Joel (18m 33s):
Boo on Amazon. Come on.
Chad (18m 36s):
Well, I get to do my favorite last. And this is gonna shock everybody because it has gone from worst to first. That's right. Kids. Everybody knows how I hated despised the Paradox booth.
Joel (18m 48s):
Yep.
Chad (18m 48s):
Because it was all walls. You couldn't see what was going inside. It didn't feel like inviting. Right? Well guess what kids?
Joel (18m 56s):
Little cold to look cold for you?
Chad (18m 58s):
It was very cold. Yeah. Well now they have windows that they put in.
Joel (19m 1s):
High tech.
Chad (19m 1s):
It looks like an, an Apple store.
Joel (19m 4s):
Ooh.
Chad (19m 4s):
You can see what's going on inside there. It was incredibly busy. I mean, there were a lot of people in there. Yeah. It drew me in. So instead of last time where it, it pretty much was like, yeah, you don't want to go in here. Yep. This time was like, you gotta come in here. And it was great showcased. I mean had big screen TV showed obviously a lot of Olivia. Yeah. It showed their new Ash. Tradify character. Right. The Ash non-gender you might remember not
Joel (19m 35s):
Ash cuz we're in that kind of state.
Chad (19m 38s):
It could have been, but anyway, big shout out to Paradox. I know everybody can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah, no, they kicked ass. I loved that fucking booth and an honorable mention kids. HireEasy did a throwback.
Joel (19m 53s):
Yeah.
Chad (19m 54s):
And you might feel this after I say it, it was like this Smashfly booth of old.
Joel (20m 1s):
Okay.
Chad (20m 1s):
But today and smash fly, if you remember had the really homey cozy, come on in, check it out. Type of thing.
Joel (20m 8s):
Pipe put on a smoking jackets
Chad (20m 10s):
Was yeah. A little, little Fern over here. You know this kind of thing. HireEasy's doing that. Shannon and the crew. They did a great job.
Joel (20m 23s):
HireEasy keeps bringing the wins on multiple fronts. So I'm gonna up your honorable mention. I'm gonna give the Ferrari award this year to Eightfold. What's the Ferrari recognition you might ask. Well, let's say it's maybe compensating for something because the eightfold booth island not booth islands, I'm gonna go 60 by 60 on this thing. I'm guessing it was so big that it spawned a baby booth right next to it because it just didn't have enough room on the island. They had.
Chad (20m 54s):
Yes.
Joel (20m 55s):
So where a Deel did not spend money and they had it. Eightfold really did write a check for HR tech. I hope it pays off, but I'm giving them my Ferrari award at HR Tech/
Chad (21m 8s):
the Overcom compensation, the
Joel (21m 8s):
Overcompensation. Yes. We don't know what they're hiding. We don't know what they're compensating for. I'll just let our listeners work that out on their own.
Chad (21m 17s):
I think what they're doing is they're out doing the ADPs, the SAPs and all the companies who could buy them cuz not many companies could buy them and saying, look at us.
Joel (21m 28s):
So it was a cry for help.
Chad (21m 31s):
Yes. Yes please. It was a please buy us sign.
Joel (21m 35s):
They were peacocking. Please look at us. Write a check. We are for sale.
Chad (21m 39s):
Oh, okay. Do you have any more of this or we gonna jump into
Joel (21m 42s):
Topic topics.!
Chad (21m 44s):
Right, wait a minute. It's gotta do an advert first. I think let's
Joel (21m 51s):
Pay some bils. Let's
Chad (21m 53s):
Pay some bills. All right. Now we got, we got some topics.
Joel (21m 59s):
Rejig. Okay. All right. Chad, the San Francisco, California based provider of enterprise grade workforce intelligence raised an undisclosed amount of funding. However, the release says they've raised a total of $38 million. Okay. And crunch base says they've raised $16.6 million. Okay. So based on my math, this round of funding was around 21 and a half million. Woo. I don't know if they thought that people would go and do the math with crunch base, but that's why we do the homework here on Chad and cheese. So the round was led by Salesforce Ventures. The company tends to use the funds to accelerate the growth of its global team and further develop its workforce intelligence technology.
Joel (22m 42s):
Chad, what are your thoughts on the Rejig funding?
Chad (22m 46s):
Well, first off you can't go wrong with upskilling and getting funding even in today's market is gonna happen with upskilling. Plus you see Salesforce getting into upskilling and training, right? Just makes sense to kind of move into that market. But with funding, this gives them some transparency into like some basic due diligence on the organizations for what kids that's right for a purchase. So I think, again, prediction, it's sexy. The platform upskilling is all the rage. I believe Salesforce wants to move toward this part of the market and Rejig as sexy as it is.
Chad (23m 25s):
They wanna buy that that bad boy. But, let me just say this. Yeah. Rejig is pretty damn cool, but it is no Guild. Guild in the education and upskilling business is the, what Joel would like to say, apex predator.
Joel (23m 40s):
There you go.
Chad (23m 41s):
They are it.
Joel (23m 42s):
There you go. So upskilling is all the rage. All the kids are doing it and it makes sense, right? Recruiting is hard and companies are hungry to mobilize their current workforce and just take people that have lesser jobs. Now train them, train them themselves, put them in jobs that are open instead of actually doing the recruitment work. And Rejig is playing that in that world and riding that wave so to speak. I think they rely a little bit too much right now on marketing. However, like plugging on their site that they're the world's first independently, audited ethical talent. AI. I wanna know what unethical AI is.
Joel (24m 22s):
Is there someone playing in that space and I'm not sure who the independent audit was, could have been someone's grandma for all we know. I don't think there's any independent AI program or business that I know of.
Chad (24m 31s):
If it is, it's probably like SHRM. I'm just taking cash.
Joel (24m 35s):
Have a little bit of question about that in the marketing. And they also have what they call a nudge engine. Now we talked about LinkedIn having a little nudge technology. So maybe everyone's gonna be nudging here pretty soon? But I don't know what a nudge engine is. I know what a search engine is. I know what a car engine is and an airplane engine, but a nudge engine. It's a little bit markety to me and I also hate the name. So there you go. Otherwise they're serving a strong wave and that's never a bad thing. I agree. They will probably get snapped up by somebody as the consolidation of our space takes hold. But overall, I think it's a good business to be in, but I think there there's a lot of smoke, a lot of marketing smoke and not a lot of fire with Rejig.
Chad (25m 20s):
Well, Salesforce gets a chance to look under the hood. That's see what that engine looks like. Kids. You know what name sucks. Even worse than Rejig?
Joel (25m 32s):
June Co?
Chad (25m 33s):
Maybe.
Joel (25m 33s):
Maybe. All right, let's get to Joon Co that's, spelled J O O N C O everybody. Diversity focused rec tech company. Joon Co has raised $25 million in a series B round, which brings its total to $38 and a half million dollars. They'll use the cash to fuel expansion in its New York City co-headquarters. They have a co-headquarters. That's interesting. Alongside it's existing office in Tel Aviv with the aim to expand headcount by 70% by the end of this year. Wow! Founded in 2016. JoonCo has posted 500% growth in sales for two consecutive years and says, clients typically see a 25% increase in underrepresented candidates in their hiring funnels and hire one in six of the candidates sourced through the platform.
Joel (26m 25s):
Clients, all of whom are US based include Adidas, PayPal, Amex, booking.com and Intuit, is Adidas US based who knew?
Chad (26m 34s):
I don't. I don't think so.
Joel (26m 36s):
Chad, what are your thoughts on JoonCo?
Chad (26m 38s):
So they only have 131,000 ish candidates in their database. Which I saw on, on the website, which seems to be quite low.
Joel (26m 44s):
It's a little light. That's a little light. That was a big number in '98.
Chad (26m 49s):
Also the site isn't really geared toward candidates. When you hit the homepage, it prompts you for a demo. You have to click the candidate's link in the header or scroll below the fold, right under the huge 131,754 candidate number. There's a small are you a candidate link. And then when you go there, you actually click on the link. I didn't see a place to actually register. Why? Well, in the FAQs area it says, how do I join JoonCo's talent pool? You know, there's a problem. When you have to have an FAQ to join a website. Here's what they say. If you're not a part of the talent pool, feel free to join our newsletter, to stay up to date on our content and community.
Chad (27m 32s):
That tells me nothing on how to join the fucking, like how to register or can you yeah. Yeah. What the fuck? So, anyway.
Joel (27m 39s):
It's very interesting.
Chad (27m 40s):
Anyway. No, which is another reason why they only have 131,000 ish people. I'm gonna continue. So from the Forbes article that I read JoonCo has seen remarkable growth over the past two years, 500% growth for two consecutive years, employers like Adidas. You already talked about that. Rely on automated sourcing platforms. So first and foremost, if you have no sales, then you make a few sales your percentages look amazing like 500% growth. For instance, $10,000 in sales, ye kind of sucks. But 500% of that is what, $50,000, which still sucks. The logos are impressive, but until we see real transparency, it, it doesn't really matter because it feels like a bunch of bullshit and check the box window dressing to me.
Chad (28m 26s):
And it's an automated sourcing email list. At least that's what I can see so far.
Joel (28m 32s):
Wasn't that Jobster.
Chad (28m 33s):
Hey, JoonCo, 1998 called and they want their tech back. This is ridiculous.
Joel (28m 37s):
Yeah. Texans have a phrase, all hat, no cattle. I don't know if you've heard that or not basically saying a lot of marketing and no substance, a lot of sizzle and no steak.
Chad (28m 46s):
Or, or maybe these guys are just Jack wagons.
Joel (28m 48s):
Jack wagons. That was a term that we learned from our Texas friends. Speaking of which, yes. I'm guessing our friends at ThisWay might have something to say about the Forbes article that called JoonCo the only automated sourcing platform focus solely on underrepresented candidates. I'm pretty sure this way does that. Yes, pretty well. Anyway, I'm not picking what June co is dropping up aside from some warm and fuzzy diversity language. The only other thing that they're pushing is some basic analytics and some employer brand tools, which include get this custom customer rejection letters. That's right.
Joel (29m 29s):
Kids. You can really say no to that candidate in the best way possible with JoonCo's custom letters. And also I have an issue with their website that says where silver medalists are matched with golden opportunities, followed by JoonCo connects, high quality, underrepresented talent with world class companies that care about diversity, equity and inclusion. So are they saying white men are the gold medalists and everyone else is a silver medalist. Ooh, I'm a little confused by where silver medalists are matched with golden opportunities if you're a diversity site, it's more of your lane. Does that make sense to you?
Chad (30m 5s):
Yeah. Now that, now that you say it, I read it and I was like, that's kind of stupid. Yeah. I mean, you wanna call your entire database silver medalists. That's not what everybody's going for. Correct. But putting it that way saying, well, all the white men are the, you know, the gold medalist. Yeah. That's not really a de I B messaging. No,
Joel (30m 23s):
I, I, I read it a few times and thought I'm kind of smart and that just doesn't quite jive with me. So if you're out there June, co-listing hit us up and explain who is the silver medalists in your marketing speak?
Chad (30m 41s):
Yes. Just the dynamics behind that.
Joel (30m 43s):
Let's take a break and maybe filter this out and get to some real mind blowing innovation.
Chad (30m 49s):
Here comes kids. This is innovation
Joel (30m 52s):
Companies. Try hard to get attention at HR tech, Chad. Yes, which means a flood of news releases have polluted my inbox and your inbox for the last few weeks. But none are as much a reach as this headline from our friends at publicly traded company, paychecks. Quote" Paychecks launches industry's first voice activated payroll solution at HR tech and expo" end quot. Let that sink in for a second.
Joel (31m 32s):
Voice activated payroll solution. The subhead of this news release was quote: "Paycheck's voice assist allows users to run handsfree payroll through Google assistant AI technology" end quote. It goes on to say paycheck's voice a enables payroll admins to run payroll through any Google assistant compatible device for a hands-free experience because you don't want your payroll admins to use their hands. The hands free experience is simplified and automated with the sound of a verified user's voice capabilities of the feature includes starting a pay period or acting on one already in progress, applying standard, pay, making adjustments, reviewing totals and submitting payroll for processing through a robust and resilient AI assistant with built in verifications for user authentication.
Joel (32m 28s):
Chad, we gave, make hire on Alexa a hard time, try to envision a payroll admin oh, voicing with Google running payroll. I'd want to be in the marketing meeting where they said, oh my God, HR tech is coming up. What can we, what can we develop in in 30 days? And then put out a press release on what we've done. This is the dumbest thing I've maybe ever heard of in our space. And that's saying something,
Chad (32m 52s):
I just, I just don't know what the practical application is. That's the thing is like, Hey, Google, give Betty a bonus. I mean, I don't, I don't understand what it's actually used on.
Joel (33m 3s):
Used for pay everyone.
Chad (33m 5s):
Like, Hey, Google, you know, don't pay Fred because he didn't fill out. I mean, I don't understand the practical,
Joel (33m 13s):
John gotta raise this Week. Vacation add 5% to his pay.
Chad (33m 16s):
I just, anyway, yes, this is, this is worse than MHI ever could have been.
Joel (33m 23s):
So they are here. Okay. I say, if after the show we go, we go get a taste of the voice activated payroll system. So, oh God, the release ends by saying Paycheck's is the first HCM solutions provider to offer voice activated payroll. And guess what, Chad, they're going to be the only one to offer voice activated payroll because it's so stupid.
Chad and Cheese (33m 51s):
We out. We out.
OUTRO (33m 53s):
Thank you for listening to, what's it called? The podcast with Chad, the Cheese. Brilliant. They talk about recruiting. They talk about technology, but most of all, they talk about nothing. Just a lot of Shout Outs of people, you don't even know and yet you're listening. It's incredible. And not one word about cheese, not one cheddar, blue, nacho, pepper jack, Swiss. So many cheeses and not one word. So weird. Any hoo be sure to subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Google play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts, that way you won't miss an episode.
OUTRO (34m 35s):
And while you're at it, visit www.chadcheese.com just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. Is so weird. We out.