Facebook is in a hiring freeze, crypto is crashing and Uber says it’s going to "treat hiring as a privilege" as a way to cut costs. What, us worry? Hell no. Deel, Rippling and iCIMS are raising money, enjoying some rare, unicorn air and in the news this week. Aspiring unicorns are raising cash too, and the boys play a little buy-or-sell with Manara, Certn and HireLogic. Lucky for them, Chad is enjoying his new digs in sun-filled Portugal, so Buy ratings are aplenty in contrast to Cheese's middle-American bitterness. What the boys can agree on, however, is recent commercials from Mod pizza and Upwork. What's more? This week's shoutouts are particularly entertaining, so don't skip the intro, kids.
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 (22s):
Oh yeah. Facebook is in a hiring freeze. Crypto is crashing and Uber says it's going to treat hiring as a privilege, as a way to cut costs. And speaking of privileges, you're listening to the Chad and Cheese podcast. This is your co-host Joel "party's over said the girl" Cheeseman.
Chad (42s):
This is Chad "good vibrations" Sowash.
Joel (44s):
And on this week's episode, Rippling says it's kind of a big deal. Symphony Talent finds a new Mastro and a fun game of buy or sell everybody. Let's do this.
Chad (57s):
I'm giving it good vibrations.
Joel (1m 3s):
This is going to be the most friendly, happy Chad ever. When we're playing by or sell. So be ready for the buy ratings everybody Chad's in a good mood. And why are you in such a good mood Chad?
Chad (1m 16s):
After buying a condo here in Cabanas, Portugal? We've been searching for a while. We actually, I guess it shouldn't say a while, we actually started the house search after we found out where we wanted to land in December. So that's a pretty quick turnaround, we signed the deal today and we got the keys and who that's a big weight off my chest.
Joel (1m 39s):
Very nice, very nice. As your co-host and friend and hearing about this, I, for one am relieved that the long, strange trip has finally ended and that I now have a vacation home whenever needed and Portugal.
Chad (1m 55s):
You do.
Joel (1m 56s):
By the way, all Americans, you heard him say how easy it was. So everybody go to Portugal. Have a good time.
Chad (2m 3s):
No, no, no. Did I say that I meant Slovakia? Yeah. Silvacia yes.
Joel (2m 9s):
The health care, great food ocean living. Go to Portugal everybody go to Portugal.
Chad (2m 14s):
I can't wait to cut this out.
Joel (2m 19s):
The hour long show is 32 minutes. Should we get to shout outs then?
Chad (2m 26s):
Shout out, shout outs.
Joel (2m 28s):
So I got Qualifi. friends here in Indianapolis.
Chad (2m 34s):
Qualifi?
Joel (2m 34s):
Darian yes. Qualifi koala. The Firing Squad survivor has added Phil Daniels as a member of its board of directors and Doug Berg as a strategic advisor. Daniels currently serves on the board of Spring Buck, a healthcare company, and is also president of JDA worldwide, a full service marketing agency and friend of the show, Doug Berg, a little known fact our first sponsor, is the guy behind techies.com Jobs to Web and Zap Info who sold to Indeed where Doug is still an advisor. Qualifi making shit happen. Shout out to Darrian and team.
Chad (3m 11s):
Very nice, very nice. Also a little bit more news industry news from a shout out standpoint, shout out to Symphony Talent. There's some writing on the wall kid. So Kermit Randa. That's right. You heard it right. Kermit Randa is the new C E O at Symphony Talent. While current CEO Rupesh Niar steps into the Chief Product Officer position. So if you know anything about the PE firm that owns Symphony Talent, it's Symphony Technology Group. STG. Well, I say that they've had a pretty checkered past in recruitment and tech.
Chad (3m 52s):
This has not been a cakewalk for them. About 10 plus years ago, they had a disparate brands, including Findly Bernard Hodus and a bunch of others with little to no vision. And then STG cracked the whip, they brought in Rupesh to pull everything together under one single brand. And to try to do the same with tech. Well, apparently that phase has completed because they brought in a guy like Kermit, yes Kermit. That is a purely a growth guy. I mean, that's his background. So what does this actually mean for Symphony Talent kids? Well, I feel like there's going to be a lot of trimming the fat that's happening.
Chad (4m 35s):
If there is any to cut it all and doing nothing but driving revenues and prepping for sale. This PE firm has had these organizations for a while, and they finally got them together. So it looks like that's what's happening. We've also just received word that head of strategy, Debbie Tuel will be leaving after eight years, which once again is another indicator.
Joel (5m 4s):
So Kermit is one of those names that he must've gotten before Sesame Street was a thing or the Muppet's were a thing. It's like people named Adolf before 1939. Like it clearly shows his age. Cause if he's younger than e 60, and his name is Kermit I feel for him, I feel for him. Well, one of your favorite restaurants, Chad. Chick-fil-A is in one of my shout-outs.
Chad (5m 27s):
It's it's Jesus' chicken.
Joel (5m 29s):
Oh, that's in my summary, Chad don't steal my thunder. So while $17 an hour salaries for food service workers today doesn't seem totally crazy. Four years ago, it was downright revolutionary to pay a living wage. However, a Chick-fil-A franchisee went for it. The result, a retention rate of around 76%. Owner operator, Eric Mason summed it up best when he told Entrepreneur Magazine quote, "it's surprising how we won the war on turnover. I know a lot of other franchisees hiring 10, 15 people a month, we might only hire three, four or five people in a quarter.
Joel (6m 9s):
Our average employee tenure was over four years" end quote, shout out to Jesus' chicken, Eric Mason, and the living wage.
Chad (6m 17s):
Imagine that paying people something that they can live on, you get, it might help with retention. Who knows?
Joel (6m 23s):
If they're giving out free chicken sandwiches that may have something to do with the rettention. I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
Chad (6m 30s):
Oh, going from chicken to job search a shout out to Doug Monroe and Adzuna. They won. And it continues service agreement with the government of the United Kingdom on their Find a Job platform. It's pretty much a white labeled version of Adzuna tech. I mean, it's good for cash credibility. They actually beat Monster out I think just a few, few years ago on this deal. And I've got to say that working with government, especially in this space is never easy. I have the experience and scars to prove it. So shout out to Adzuna good. Good work guys.
Joel (7m 9s):
Oh yeah. Adzuna show sponsor showing once again, that gold just rains down on companies that touch the Chad and Cheese podcast. My next shout out goes to Ian Goodfellow, who the fuck is in Goodfellow? Ian is director of machine learning at Apple and he recently resigned because of Apple's hybrid back to work policy that called for three days in and two days out, Chad, the man was in a boiling pot of water and he jumped out word, is it Apple? They're just working their way to that five day workweek and Mr. Goodfellow saw the writing on the wall and said I'm out.
Chad (7m 49s):
Yeah, well, so did other Apple employees, there was an open letter from Apple employees and quote, "how can we expect to convince the best people to come work with us if we reject anyone who needs the smallest bit of flexibility? How can we expect them to do their best work, but don't trust them to know how to do so?" from the employees. Again, Mr. Goodfellow, there's more than just him, who is his bucking, this boiling the frog. So, and hopefully we'll see more of it.
Joel (8m 22s):
We just had Kermit and frog talk in the same shout-out segment, I think that is a first. Well kids f you haven't signed up for free shit, what the hell are you doing? You got to head to Chad cheese.com, click the link, give us your information. We're talking free shirts from Emissary. We're talking free beer from our friends at Pillar and we're talking free whiskey from the folks at Textkernel, head to Chadcheese.com today, registering is totally free and you can't win unless you register everybody.
Chad (8m 51s):
Too easy.
Joel (8m 51s):
Free shit from Chad and Cheese. And let's talk about some birthdays, Chad, because we missed last week while we were nursing, that that hangover from Belgian. We've got a few birthdays celebrating this week or recently Jeremy Langham's celebrating birthday. Matt Kaiser, Dave Lefkoe of former Jobster fame and bacon salt.
Chad (9m 15s):
Bacon salt.
Joel (9m 16s):
Remember that? Ward Chrisman. Ed Newman. Oh, Jennifer "don't call me Jenny" from the block rut. We asked Annie Jarvis. Amy Buchko. If you haven't heard the interview with her, go back in the archives.
Chad (9m 30s):
Big names.
Joel (9m 31s):
Huge names, huge fans of Chad and Cheese. Glen hill. Garvis Sharma. Jerry Frank and Peter Sheree all celebrating another trip around the sun. Happy Birthday kids.
Chad (9m 46s):
All right, well, we just came from an event. We had a blast and if you didn't get FOMO from listening to the shows, I don't, you didn't listen to the show, man. It was great to be back live. We had an amazing time in Belgium, but guess what kids? Unleash's coming and remember Vegas. Remember when we used to go to Vegas when there was no COVIID?
Joel (10m 9s):
Come on now. I remember Vegas.
Chad (10m 11s):
Get ready. Cause May 25th and 26 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Chad and Cheese's actually going to be on stage with, believe it or not EEOC commissioner Keith Sonderling. That's right. We're going to be talking about, should you trust hiring with AI? And I also have a last minute addition that I'm not going to talk. It's going to be a surprise. This is a good one. She's going to be amazing on stage with us. And again, Commissioner Sonderling.
Joel (10m 43s):
And we are destined to get the director of the EEOC fired for this commitment. Anyway,
Chad (10m 53s):
Possibility.
Joel (10m 56s):
Excited to see Keith in Vegas.
Chad (10m 59s):
Topics.
Joel (10m 59s):
Topics. All right, kids, the unicorn, decacorn, Octahorn, whatever the hell we're calling it today is is the parade is still going strong. All right, let's talk about Remote hiring company Deel. That's D E E L they've raised $50 million at a, you ready for this Chad?
Chad (11m 19s):
No.
Joel (11m 19s):
At a $12 billion valuation. This is according to an Axios report signing anonymous sources. The raise means that DEEL has more than double its valuation since it's $425 million raise back in October, when it was deemed to be worth $5.5 billion. The company has said to be planning to use its new capital toward hiring product enhancement and M and A. Chad this is a three-year-old company, kind of a big deal. Wouldn't you say?
Chad (11m 51s):
So bad. So you just said they raised $425 million last October. So is this just to keep their like virtual fridges stocked or something? I mean, I don't get it. So why another raise already after the Monster raise and why only $50 million? None of this makes sense. Then you take a look at the $12 billion valuation, really $12 billion? What kind of ARR are they pulling in? It was $50 million last December with a pretty amazing revenue growth trajectory. I mean, that's one of the reasons why they hit unicorn before, like at five times unit court rate because of their growth trajectory, but what the actual fuck kind of trajectory, doubles, evaluation like this and this to me, we've been talking about bloated valuations.
Chad (12m 46s):
We've been talking about so much money that's out there and we've been waiting for the sky to fall. Oh my fucking God, this is not falling. Okay.
Joel (12m 54s):
Are you calling writing on the wall, Chad? Well, maybe?
Chad (12m 58s):
It's gotta happen. It's gotta happen. I don't see it happening with DEEL to be quite Frank, but it's definitely gonna happen, but I just can't see these types of these valuations. I just, it doesn't make any sense to me. I don't understand, how do they equate this? Look, they ARR look at that. I get their total addressable market. I get the opportunity, but that opportunity doesn't mean real value. Okay. Yeah. Anyway Fuck.
Joel (13m 30s):
Yeah. Yeah. They've also doubled clients. I think in the year's time since October 21, really for me like just plug in whatever I said about Remote and Oyster in past shows. I mean like right time. Right place. People just throwing money at this shit, you know, believe it, believe the hype I guess. This also it does seem to be a strong business DEEL reportedly sees more than 20% month over month growth and they're operating a very low burn rate. That's according to TechCrunch in 2021 sources share that DEEL burned right under $10 million. That number is expected to increase some this year as the company continues to scale but with so much cash raise, it appears that DEEL's margins are in the 82 to 85% range.
Joel (14m 14s):
If you're looking for the Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper of the remote work solutions, I'm going to put it Remote as Coke. I'm going to put DEEL as Pepsi and Oyster is that tasty Dr. Pepper that no restaurant serves, but you tend to get it every now and then at the Kroger, or maybe not you at Kroger cause you're still boycotting Kroger, but I tend to sometimes grab a Dr. Pepper. But Remote and DEEL seem to be in the cat bird seat to own the work from home, remote work marketplace.
Chad (14m 45s):
Yeah. I'm spending more time at the Spar nowadays than the Kroger.
Joel (14m 49s):
The Spar is accurate. Is that food store at Portugal?
Chad (14m 52s):
Yes.
Joel (14m 53s):
Fun. All right, Chad. Well, let's go from one big deal to another one. Get it? All right. Let's talk about Rippling. We talked about previously from one mega unicorn to another. San Fran based Rippling has raised $250 million valuing the company at $11.25 billion. Listeners might remember they reached a $6.5 billion valuation back on October. Founder Parker Conrad who drove Zenefits into the ground years ago, proves people love a good comeback story. Over the next 12 months, Conrad says Rippling plans to launch seven new products, an aggressive expansion plan for sure.
Joel (15m 43s):
Chad, your thoughts on Rippling?
Chad (15m 45s):
Nearly $700 million in funding. Connor became a poster boy for Silicon Valley's billion dollar startups when he raised 500 million to give Zenefits evaluation of $4.5 billion before getting kicked to the curb about six years ago. Does any of that sound familiar by the way? $500 million, 4.5. Yeah. I mean, Jesus. So Parker raises money better than most and yet I don't feel investors have learned their lesson. I mean, fool me once before me twice? It's like Jason Goldberg with Jobster and then Hem or whatever the hell they called his last crash company.
Joel (16m 22s):
Fab, baby fab.
Chad (16m 23s):
Fab. Yeah. He also had Hem too. So I mean, yeah. Yeah. So to me the most important set of cogs in any system is the leadership team and I personally wouldn't trust Parker as far as I could throw him. Great idea. Awesome tech, but untrustworthy leader. I would pass again. You know, if you don't trust the captain of the Titanic, the biggest, best ship to ever float and sink, then you know, you don't, you can't be a part of something like this. It's hard for me to see something like this so close. I know it's been six years, but still so close after Zenefits.
Joel (17m 3s):
Yeah. And with the new raise Rippling is worth two and a half times what Zenefits was worth at its peak.
Chad (17m 12s):
Loaded valuations kids.
Joel (17m 13s):
Yeah. Well, while Rippling started out selling to small and mid-sized businesses in the past six months, it has begun to bump up against HR and finance giant Workday in selling to large enterprises. I do think there is a large anti Workday story here with the rise of Rippling. I don't hear a lot of good things about Workday for people that use it. This might be driving a lot of people over to Rippling. According to an internal PowerPoint, Rippling says it has 80 companies they think that they have the potential to displace. So what everything about Parker Conrad, the disdain for Workday is possibly much than the disgust that people have for him.
Joel (17m 54s):
And by the way, people have pretty short memories in this space. By the way, if you want to know more about Mr. Parker Conrad and his past company,
Chad (18m 7s):
Google,
Joel (18m 7s):
Just Google, Zenefits sex in stairwells, and you're welcome. And you're welcome. We'll do another company that we know pretty well and talk quite a bit about iCIMS announced this week that TA associates, a private equity farm will invest in the company alongside existing investor Vista. Vista and TA will maintain equal economic ownership in iCIMS and we'll partner together to further accelerate global growth and product development expansion. Additional financial terms were not disclosed, but people familiar with the matter said the latest financing value the company at about $3 billion, including debt that's according to Reuters.
Joel (18m 52s):
Chad, why raise money if your iCIMS?
Chad (18m 54s):
This feels like a slow moving kind of cleaning of the house and preparation for IPO money, you know, kind of relationship. Buy down some debt, do a little cleaning up with a balance sheet. I mean, I don't see this as much more than that, to be honest. Again, slow moving, be smart, take a look at again, the ZipRecruiter's of the world or some of these organizations who have gone IPO. Doesn't feel like a great time to do it. So take your time, do it right and you know, do everything that you can do to get your house in order. In the meantime, that's what it feels like to me.
Joel (19m 31s):
It feels weird to me, Chad, it feels weird to me.
Chad (19m 36s):
It feels weird.
Joel (19m 38s):
The bullish case, I guess, is what you said and also maybe if you agree that that tech companies are hurting a little bit with Roku, PayPal, Lyft down 70, 60, 70, 80%, that a lot of companies are going to be for sale in the next 12 months. And why not raise some money, get your powder dry, go gobble up some more CandidateIDs, you know, while you're waiting for that IPO market to heat back up. However, I will quote Bill and Ted when I say "something is amiss at the Circle K" just feels off. They had filed for initial IPO in August of last year.
Joel (20m 20s):
However, the IPO market has virtually come to a standstill this year.
Chad (20m 24s):
Yeah.
Joel (20m 24s):
Forcing them to abandon their listing plans. They just acquired CandidateID, which we both applauded, but I think there are cracks in the pavement. One Glassdoor reviewer said this week, quote, "when Collin stepped down, it was no longer the same company" end quote. And that common is surrounded by a lot of similar disenchantment from internal voices. Mostly bad vibes or what I'm feeling around iCIMS as I read this story, Chad, I don't want to go on a limb and say hiring a marketing software guy was a bad idea, but things just seem a little bit out of sorts with one of our favorite ATS providers. I'm going to keep my eye on this one.
Chad (21m 7s):
Yeah. Wait, you can't expect an organization, which again was built by Colin and a leadership team to stay the same. I mean, you just can't and it was handed off because of obviously Vista and their want and need to grow the business and go IPO. Right? So to have the expectation that it's going to feel the same and be the same and grow into this big monolith of a tech company? I don't think those are, those are real expectations. That's one of the reasons why we move and we go to different jobs. If that's what you're looking for, there are plenty of startups out there. I understand that, but guess what if you've been on board since way back then I guaran-fucking-tee you, it doesn't feel the same.
Chad (21m 48s):
Go find another startup. That's the only thing I can say, man. I wouldn't expect it to feel the same.
Joel (21m 55s):
I just, unless we're inside, we just don't know. It just seems strange to go IPO on a timing basis. I understand part of that, but if you're a really good company with strong growth and prospects, like going IPO shouldn't necessarily be a timing issue. I also think that the pressure that they're getting from the Remotes, the DEELs, the Oysters, a lot of the other companies that are getting a lot of money and funding are putting pressure on the business. So anyway, I think all ATSs, are feeling a little bit pressured by all the new platforms that are supporting remote work and getting a lot of the oxygen from the funds and the venture firms out there.
Joel (22m 36s):
So, anyway, it's interesting.
Chad (22m 38s):
I see then tortoise and the rabbit on this one.
Joel (22m 39s):
Yeah. I mean, you know, we don't talk about it much on this show, but I mean, layoffs are in the news quite frequently, these days. Obviously, historically, when people lay off and don't hire that affects our industry quite a bit. So I just writing on the wall, Canary in the coal mine, whatever analogy you want to use it feel the whole industry feels a little bit weird right now going into summer.
Chad (23m 4s):
Yeah. There's going to be some type of a bottom that drops out. Hopefully not too big of a bottom, but it's got to happen. It has to happen. And we don't want to see it. We don't want to see people lose their jobs. It's a cycle. It's a cycle of the market.
Joel (23m 18s):
Chad does not want to see a big bottom kids. And with that, we will pay a few bills and come back and play some buy or sell
Chad (23m 30s):
Fat bottom girls you make the rocking world go around.
Joel (23m 32s):
I'm not touching any of this bottom dude, none of this bottom. All right, let's play a little buy or sell, you know how we talk about three companies that got funding and we either buy or sell that bitch. I'll read a summary. Chad will grade it. And then I will go after Chad. Let's talk about Certn, C E R T N. Yes. Canada based Certn, a company that provides AI powered background screening solutions to enterprises this week announced it has raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding. Total raised is now $84 million. The company conducts real time, comprehensive background checks and ongoing risk monitoring for employees, contractors, and tenants around the world.
Joel (24m 18s):
Chad, how certain are you about buying this company or are you ready to sell it?
Chad (24m 22s):
So everybody knows I'm pretty much in a buying mood today. I don't know if you listened to the first part of this?
Joel (24m 29s):
So if you sell life insurance give good Chad a call this weekend, he's ready to sign.
Chad (24m 34s):
So everybody loves Canada first and foremost, but I went to the websites and just to, to start to dig into some of the messaging and taking a look at possibly some of the product, those types of things in messaging, right on the website, quote "built for the best candidate and recruiter experience, reduce your time by hire 80% and give results and get results in minutes," end quotes, clean and simple, which really got my attention. Now. I said, okay, let's check out the big dog. So I went to Sterling background checks, and this is the first thing that Sterling says. "Sterling background and identity solutions help you find a foundation of trust and safety for your employees, customers, and partners around the world."
Chad (25m 23s):
End quote. Certn seems to understand exactly what a company needs, where the industry leader Sterling sounds like a corporate word bomb. So right out of the gate, I loved the simplicity. Background checks are slow and messy, but if a new challenger brand, which boasts, client reviews of experiencing 144 times faster service than that of their previous provider, well damn, I got to pay attention! Simplicity plus speed, quicker background checks and a better recruiter and candidate experience. I say, Hey, Checkr, get that checkbook ready and write Certn a check.
Chad (26m 6s):
This is a big buy for me.
Joel (26m 8s):
All right. If we're talking about an acquisition target, I like Certn, but to me, they've just raised too much goddamn money at this point. The number of buyers, even if
Chad (26m 17s):
For a background checker company? Good God, those guys are fucking printing, they're printing money.
Joel (26m 22s):
Let's assume this is a close to a billion dollar valuation, we can agree on that. Right? $800 billion, probably. So if Checkrs valued at $7 billion and Sterling is $4 billion. I mean, that's a huge, huge bite to take for a startup. So, so I am not buying Checkr's Sterling, writing a check in this scenario, you, you can buy that all you want. I'm not buying it. That means they need to be eyeing an IPO liquidation event, or selling to some crazy ass tenant background check. They do that shit or some sort of a mass anyway, probably eyeing an IPO and I think they're a fringe player at best.
Joel (27m 5s):
At this point, Sterling is Coke. Checkr is Pepsi and the best Certn can shoot for is Dr. Pepper. This makes Certn to me, less than a certainty. So my friend, this is a big sell for me. Big sell. Sorry, Canada. Sorry, Canada. All right.
Chad (27m 21s):
You're the bacckground check guy. I'll go with you.
Joel (27m 23s):
I'll go with me on that. Yeah. I was in the business for like six months I paid attention for too. Anyway, HireLogic.
Chad (27m 32s):
Okay.
Joel (27m 33s):
The company announced a $4 million seed funding round this week based in beautiful Reston, Virginia, which I've never been to, but I'm sure it's beautiful. HireLogic's platform aims to create a structured hiring process with features that include guided video interviews, online assessments of candidate based on a client's company culture, as well as skills and a dashboard that allows users to view candidates by assessed ratings and scores. Sounds impressive. Chad would buying this company be logical or is it an emotional mistake? HireLogic buy or sell?
Chad (28m 6s):
Oh, I gotta say it's a two words that people can spell. That's good right out of the gate. I agreed with just about everything HireLogic is pitching here. We need better processes baked into our technology, especially around interviewing, because again, interviewing sucks, not just for recruiters and managers, but for the fucking candidates, right? So this is an area we need to get better. We love this. HireLogic is looking to actually use the funds to continue expansion of the platforms, capabilities, including machine learning and listen up, integration to video conferencing platforms and applicant tracking systems and establish go-to-market activities based on product led growth.
Chad (28m 54s):
I love that kind of focus, right? Not to mention the leadership has industry roots and there's plenty of room for challenger brands in this space. No question. I'm sure core talent platforms will be targeting platforms and leadership teams like this for an acquisition. We talked to iCIMS about what they look for in a startup? Leadership teams was one of them was really their main priority along with obviously the tech, but leadership teams. For me, this is a buy for me
Joel (29m 27s):
And what's in that water in Portugal? It's got you happy as hell. All right.
Chad (29m 31s):
Oh, that's good.
Joel (29m 31s):
All right, Chad, this one feels too much like a knife in a gunfight to me. They want to be a platform, but only have 4 million in funding so far are their pricing is really low. I don't know if you checked out the pricing page, which means to me, there'll be stuck in SMB land for the foreseeable future, which is a seven layered hell omelet. I don't see a deep understanding of our space within the leadership team. Therefore, this one, in my opinion is a big sell.
sfx (30m 5s):
Oh Hell no.
Joel (30m 6s):
All right, let's go to Manara. Maybe it's Manara? I don't know. It's a platform that aims to train and place tech talent from the Middle East and Northern Africa. They announced that $3 million funding round TechCrunch reported students do not pay a fee up front, but we'll pay 10% of the salary in their first two years of employment via Manara. The company says it has placed workers at tech firms in Europe, in the U S including Meta and Google. Chad, don't call it marinara. Are you a buyer sell on Manara?
Chad (30m 41s):
You're making me hungry. Okay. So first off two female founders! Love it. Love it, love it. Not to mention more of the female founders are getting, they're not getting enough awareness, but they're getting more. So, so this is good especially doubling up. A quote, "86% of its trained engineers receive job offers within five months of graduating while others get up to a 300% pay hike after the training" end quote. You said that there's students don't don't pay tuition although they do kind of like on the back of that, they pay 10% of their salary for the first two years.
Chad (31m 25s):
I would rather the company pay the freight, but we're getting closer kids. We're getting closer. So we're almost there. This is simple Europe needs tech talent and they are building talent pipelines for those needs because hiring companies are either too damn lazy or too damn stupid to build it themselves. I've been saying for years, that staffing firms should be leading these types of talent initiatives, but until they do Manara, it's a buy. I want these ladies on the show. I want them on the show ASAP.
Joel (31m 56s):
All right, man, I saved the best for last for me. Yes, Africa and south America to me are prime to be the birthing ground for tech talent. Thanks to remote work. Thanks to technology. Thanks to globalism. The number two though, this is what I find interesting. So, so I've used Upwork and Fiverr for a long time. And a big challenge using Upwork is individual freelancers aren't all that reliable. They kind of flake. They kind of leave. They kind of answer you back or not. And agencies where they work, churn candidates like nobody's business. So there's a real issue with retention and reliability.
Joel (32m 36s):
What Manera is looking to solve is this retention and it's through their educational process. So I think a lot of employers are going to love this model and jump on board because they're basically saying, we'll teach you how to do this shit. And then you're you, we own your ass for, for two years at least while you work within our system. That's a great thing for employers who need people and what reliability that these folks are gonna stay around. And they're working through Manara, to make sure that the skills are right, the customer service's there. So in other words, the freelancers can focus on doing the development work and Manara can work on the service, the selling, the handholding and the care and feeding.
Joel (33m 18s):
So I love this. I think similar to Andela, who we've talked about out of India. I think this to me is a strong, strong buy.
Chad (33m 28s):
There we go.
Joel (33m 29s):
3 buys from Chad, two sell and one, buy from me. That's a damn good buy or sell. Keep drinking that water Chad and we will be right back to talk more food and advertising.
Chad (33m 41s):
Pizza.
Joel (33m 42s):
All right, Chad, no OnlyFans this week, no strippers or porn stars. There's just not in the news. It's just too dark around the world.
Chad (33m 50s):
Pizza though. We're talking pizza dude.
Joel (33m 54s):
Talking pizza and moms. What could go better together? So a couple of commercials caught our attention this week. First was Mod, which I'd explained is kind of a Chipotle for pizza. You get in line and tell him your toppings, they throw it in the oven and then serve it up nice and hot, right? They have an employment branding ad running in the, in the states entitled all pizzas welcome. Most interestingly, the ad features an employee with an ankle monitoring device, obviously highlighting someone on house arrest. One online critics said, quote, "the marketing here is that their pizza is good because they employ dangerous criminals"
Joel (34m 36s):
in quotes. I think we probably both disagree, but then you also have Upwork whose ad campaign challenges corporate America to hire back moms. Launched on Mother's Day weekend the campaign raises awareness about the value working mothers bring to the labor force. The campaign includes a 60 second video featuring real moms, having moments with their families during the height of the pandemic, each highlighting translatable skills to the professional world. I frankly teared up a little bit watching the ad. Chad, what were your thoughts? Pizza and moms Whats you got?
Chad (35m 12s):
Pizza was pretty awesome. I did read some of those posts in the forum. It was in Texas and they don't even have a Mod Pizza in Texas so they can fuck off. But overall, I mean, this is about inclusivity, right? This is about including everybody, whether you've made mistakes, you've not made mistakes. You still have to feed your family. Right? And not to mention they had an individual with this disability. They had, you know, different, different races, different genders. I mean, it was inclusive. And I actually put it out in a couple of Facebook groups. I won't mention who actually wrote this, but I thought this was brilliant. "Brands are figuring it out.
Chad (35m 52s):
One company, one brand," and it needs to speak to customers, potential customers, current talent, perspective, talent, all. And they're going for the fringe. Brands win in the fringe. Well, fricking done. I agree. And we've talked about this with cult brands. You're going to piss some people off. That's great. They're not your customer. Fuck them. Right? Go after the people that you want to go after. You can't, you cannot own the entire market. So guess what? Pick your lane and own that lane. Mod Pizza's, owning the lane. On the mom's thing, man. It's interesting because it's like, Hey, it's not like the moms don't want to come back to work. Okay, come on Upwork.
Chad (36m 32s):
It's not that they don't want to come back to work is because companies like Apple are doing stupid shit and they're boiling the frog. Women do want to come back to work. That has nothing to do with that. They need the flexibility and the benefits from companies to be able to work with them. Right? It's about being more human and the flexibility of what we had and hopefully we will continue to have during the COVID time proved that we can be incredibly productive, even more productive and spend that time with our family that we all deserve.
Joel (37m 10s):
Well, a little side note, Chad, all pizzas welcome is not just a slogan. It's a way of life for, for me. So I found that particularly, particularly
Chad (37m 19s):
The lane baby.
Joel (37m 20s):
Right there, man. There's to me, I had to do a double-take when I saw the ankle monitor on the ad. I just thought, fuck yeah, they were that ballsy to do that. Keep in mind, these are consumers that watch this stuff too. So to me that was just fantastic that they took the risk to do that and I certainly applaud whatever marketing team. By the way, if anyone out out there is from Mod, please, please hit us up. We'd love to talk more about this ad campaign and how you guys came up with it. Women accounted for 63% of job losses between '20 and '22. According to U S department of labor. 1.6 million mothers left the workforce in 2020.
Joel (38m 2s):
And to me, so the Upwork ad really spoke, I think, to them to get back out there, to maybe use the Upwork platform and still have, I think the value of Upwork is like, look, you make your own hours. You know, the flexibility of it, I think they were speaking to mothers, just say, Hey, come to Upwork. We're here for you. We're here to provide the flexibility that you need as a mother, yada, yada. I mean, yeah, we don't have healthcare and some other shit, but Hey, Hey, you know, they play to their strengths. And we know from past interviews, 70 million Americans have a criminal record, go check out 70 million jobs for more information on that.
Joel (38m 43s):
And if not all have trouble finding employment after incarceration. Look, there's a talent crunch in this country. So it doesn't surprise me that employers are taking some risks and putting, you know, employees with ankle monitors in their ads to get more former criminals in their workforce. And I applaud it. And I think to see this stuff on commercials on major networks deserves a huge applause. And I would love to see more employers take this tone in there.
Chad (39m 14s):
That's inclusivity, baby.
Joel (39m 16s):
Inclusivity. Well, dude, I'm let you get back to the Portuguese party that we interrupted to record this show. You're back next week and then we are in Vegas after that. So the party does not stop.
Chad (39m 30s):
That's right.
Joel (39m 31s):
And you come back to the states and with that, another one in the can.
Chad and Cheese (39m 38s):
We out.
OUTRO (40m 24s):
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. 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.