Is Connectifier the next LinkedIn for recruiters?

Using powerful search algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, Connectifier claims it is proving to be an effective tool for recruiters and hiring managers.

Connectifier was founded by two ex-Google engineers, and is a recruiter-side tool that’s designed to combine advanced search capabilities, AI, big data analytics and machine learning to better assist recruiters looking for IT talent.

“The problem we saw with sites like LinkedIn and Monster.com and others is — they’re really siloed. Candidates can submit resumes and information about themselves, but many times that’s out of date and not relevant. With Connectifier, the Web search capabilities can crawl around and aggregate up-to-the-minute data on potential candidates, even passive ones, and create our own profiles,” says John Jersin, Connectifier’s CEO and co-founder.

‘Better than LinkedIn’

It’s similar to, but more effective than LinkedIn’s new AI-based matching system, Jersin says. These systems, he says, depend on data to successfully match candidates with available roles, so, the more data the better. While Connectifier and LinkedIn currently have approximately the same number of people in their databases — 380 million — Connectifier has around 30 percent more data points per person, and hopes to have 100 percent more by the end of calendar year 2015, the company states.

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All candidate data is indexed from public sources in much the same way a search engine like Google would, including elements like hobbies, interests, professional and personal relationships, and online social interaction information.

That makes it a much more effective way to determine a candidates fit, Jersin says. The company says that its technology is delivering recruiters between two and four times the number of potential candidates than LinkedIn, based on number of messages sent to candidates.

“This is a huge problem in recruiting, and there hasn’t been a lot of innovation in the space over the last few years. Yes, users can post resumes, portfolios and such, and can even opt in to ‘passive’ recruiting sites, but that’s still not exactly ‘passive.’ That information quickly becomes outdated, or it’s not an inclusive view of a candidate. We are breaking out of that siloed approach to find out how people are interacting professionally, who they’re engaging with, if they’re answering questions in their communities or posting code on GitHub, so we can establish a more holistic view of them,” Jersin says.

As the number of candidates actively searching for in-demand IT roles diminishes, Connectifier’s technology is key to identifying passive candidates and filling the interview pipeline for Tobias Rich, vice president of operations at Talener, an IT recruiting and staffing firm that focuses on hyper-local markets in cities like Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and Boston.

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“For us, it’s all about getting candidates out for interviews. We’re not looking for placements, necessarily, but for how to get more candidates into the pipeline to interview. Connectifier is our go-to tool now,” Rich says.

Rich says Talener used to rely on LinkedIn to source candidates, but found that Connectifier gives a more holistic view of candidates based on the kind of public data that’s important to ensuring a solid fit.

“We were using LinkedIn, especially the InMail feature, but that quickly became saturated and then a lot of candidates stopped checking their mail altogether. And as recruiters, the communication part is critical. The phone is still king for us, the ability to reach out by phone to talk to people, even in a digital world, and Connectifier pulls data like phone numbers and email addresses so we can more directly connect with a potential candidate. Connectifier aggregates from places like GitHub, StackOverflow and Twitter that we use to vet candidates — sure, we could go out and look for that individually, but it’s much more efficient and timely to have it all in one place,” he says.

Connectifier claims its usage is growing — fast

Founded in 2013, Connectifier launched publicly in Q2 2015, but even in quiet mode racked up some impressive sales and growth numbers. Sales grew from zero to approximately $10 million in the last 18 months, and the company claims its technology is used by more than 40 percent of the Fortune 100. The company reports a 487 percent year-over-year growth from Q1 2014 to Q1 2015 and has increased its customer base from 107 unique customers to 482 as of October 2015, Jersin says.