Simply Hired is shutting down June 26 • Hacker News Board

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#21

Post by greglindahl » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:16 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #12

vthallam wrote: post #11

This was destined to happen i guess! SimplyHired has no USP, scrapers which can massively scrape jobs and SEO which gets users,that's about it. No clear direction and competing with Indeed, which has better tech must have been hard for them. Also, I wonder with $34 million in funding, why they didn't launch any products to cater the users/companies.

Yeah, but Indeed seems to be making plenty of money: $434m rev in 2014, $300m 1/2 year rev in 2015! I'm really curious what went wrong... http://press.indeed.com/press/indeed-2014-revenue-434-millio... http://press.indeed.com/press/indeed-half-year-2015-revenue-...

If they were overly-dependent on SEO... their Alexa rank sure seems to have fallen a lot since the middle of 2015.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#22

Post by eganist » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Hah, I didn't expect my implied criticism (elsewhere in this thread) of a Yahoo VP being hired as their CEO to be so damningly validated by personal experience.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#23

Post by matmann2001 » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #3

"part-acquisition" So in conclusion, someone bought up the scraps at rock-bottom prices just before a potential bankruptcy. Ouch. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. They brought on a former Yahoo VP as CEO four years ago. As the article and one of the comments therein pointed out: it seems they didn't have much in the way of new technological or algorithmic advantages to build on and didn't have much in the way of…

They were acquired ...by the bank.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#24

Post by vthallam » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:25 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #12

vthallam wrote: post #11

This was destined to happen i guess! SimplyHired has no USP, scrapers which can massively scrape jobs and SEO which gets users,that's about it. No clear direction and competing with Indeed, which has better tech must have been hard for them. Also, I wonder with $34 million in funding, why they didn't launch any products to cater the users/companies.

Yeah, but Indeed seems to be making plenty of money: $434m rev in 2014, $300m 1/2 year rev in 2015! I'm really curious what went wrong... http://press.indeed.com/press/indeed-2014-revenue-434-millio... http://press.indeed.com/press/indeed-half-year-2015-revenue-...

As i see, Indeed has better scrapers and SEO for a start. It established itself as a market leader in this business, also built simple products like letting companies directly post jobs, making it easy to apply from mobile(they acquired mobolt for this) and also working on Indeed Premium( a hired clone). With that kind of traffic, if simplyhired had launched any decent products to help recruiters, they would have easily been counting a lot of $$$$. A stale product is the reason for its death.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#25

Post by vthallam » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:26 PM UTC

AJ007 wrote: post #17

us0r wrote: post #5

I'd love to know the real story. I'm not a UI/UX expert but it seems pretty clear they didn't put too much into user experience. I'm asked for my email before even showing me a job. Then I go search for another keyword and I'm given results on the other side of the country. Clicking any of those results I have to go click again to "Read More" (basically see the job description).

We had to block their domain in display campaigns because it was sending a lot of bad traffic. Have not had to do that with any other "real" job/career site.

Curious on what is the website you are redirecting the traffic to? Is it a job board/ATS/a just company job board?

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#26

Post by throwaway59511 » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:32 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #22

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Hah, I didn't expect my implied criticism (elsewhere in this thread) of a Yahoo VP being hired as their CEO to be so damningly validated by personal experience.

I don't understand. What about Yahoo VPs would lead you to expect the experience I had?

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#27

Post by deprave » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:35 PM UTC

abhi3 wrote: post #2

Is it just me or are several more funded startups shutting down in 2016?

It's unlikely that the business climate has changed much for startups. I doubt the success/failure rates are identical to what they were one, five, or ten years ago.

What has changed is media coverage, skepticism, and average skill level of "users" and maybe the frequency with which things happen.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#28

Post by lukasm » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:47 PM UTC

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Why did you say you were fired for underperformance? Why didn't you say it was a bad fit? Usually, that's the root cause.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#29

Post by johnnyg » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:47 PM UTC

IMHO

VC is tightening, the job flow is slowing and those two trends were forecast to last longer than their funding sources were willing to stick it out.

Next up to bat are those whose client base is other 90%+ funded startups?

However, never up to bat are start ups producing cash or with the prospects of doing so. I don't think this is going to be a nuclear winter event, but that the gap between "making it" and "not making it" will grow wider. Those that are on the bubble are the bubble that'll burst, and sama will still win his bet. :)

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#30

Post by greglindahl » Tue, May 31, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

lukasm wrote: post #28

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Why did you say you were fired for underperformance? Why didn't you say it was a bad fit? Usually, that's the root cause.

A smart interviewer doesn't need that to be wordsmithed. I would follow up by asking some questions about what it was about the position or culture or company that didn't work out well.