13 March, 2015

JOBDOH are turning the tables on recruitment. Their platform transforms the casual labour market, seamlessly connecting available jobs with quality temporary labour. This startup is raising eyebrows internationally, with good reason.

We interview JOBDOH’s co-founder and Director of Business Development Xania Wong to get an update:

Describe JOBDOH?

JOBDOH is a location based booking platform for quality casual workers. All JOBDOH users are pre-screened, analysed and optimized to profile ideal employement for the users as well as the needs of the employers.

JOBDOH’s purpose is to “create trusted opportunities to enrich lives anytime, anywhere.” In addition to being a marketplace for quick turnaround part-time jobs, the platform can enable dreams to come true. Some of our JOBDOH case studies show workers seeing employment in order to take their pets to the veterinarian, to learn the ropes within the hospitality industry or to continue contributing to the society following retirement. Our location based function allows those with travel time and cost constraints to find work most convenient to them.

For employers, we reduce the hassle in recruiting casual workers by pre-screening and profiling potential candidates.

Who is your typical customer?

Since JOBDOH is a marketplace, we serve two groups of clients. On the employer side, we specialize in the hospitality and the exhibition industries working with hotels, mid-range to premium restaurants/ private kitchens as well as events management companies. On the workers side, the platform tends to draw in mainly students. We also work with NGO’s and government organizations to attract members of the underserved communities such as stay-at-home mums and the healthy elderly. Collaboration with NGOs will likely strengthen following our recent win at the Chinese University Hong Kong’s Social Enterprise Competition.

We’ve started with Hong Kong as a pilot city, but we are very interested in neighboring countries due to the market demands.

Tell us about your involvement in competitions outside of Hong Kong?

In addition to blueprint and Cyberport, we also became the first non-Australian finalist in the OzApp Awards held in Perth last month. From over 210 applicants across Asia Pacific, JOBDOH was honored to represent Hong Kong in the top five.

More global exposure for JOBDOH was gained with our unexpected selection by Seedcamp, Europe’s top incubator program based in London. In the past Seedcamp have invested in names such as Transferwise and are connected with investors including Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Aston Kutcher. Our time in London went beyond establishing networks with high calibre fellow entrepreneurs and investors. The team lbenefitted tremendously from the advice we received on building and running a marketplace, since marketplaces are generally more prevalent and mature in Europe.

Why was JOBDOH chosen by Seedcamp, in your mind?

First and foremost, we have a dedicated and diverse team with a “can do” attitude. The team (Xania, Eric and Mary) met at Google’s Empowering Young Entrepreneur program last year. I came from banking, management consulting and multiple start-up experience; Eric has nine years of full stack development experience while Mary has architectural and branding experience in both Hong Kong and China.

With Eastern roots and Western perspectives, the team set out to solve a local and regional problem with a fresh eye. Since winning the program and visiting Silicon Valley, the team’s horizon has been continuously broadened through wining various awards and entering accelerator programs similar to blueprint’s. Doing so has introduced us to a world of mentors, entrepreneurs and investors, from whom we learn a great deal.

JOBDOH is tapping into a growing trend; responding to the rise in desire for more flexible work arrangements. This is a global trend and our proximity to the world’s largest labour market, China, has its advantages. There are over 60 million up-and-coming casual workers in China alone. JOBDOH is ambitious and nimble, our concept was formed in June 2014 and took just five months to go from concept to a private beta product serving limited key clients. Based on user feedback, we are continuously improving the platform functionality to deliver the best UX/UI experience.

What’s next for JOBDOH?

JOBDOH view ourselves as not just a marketplace but an eventual solution for flexible hiring and employemnt. We are dedicated to providing a seamless way to achieve work and life goals for all users.

Aside from achieving operational optimization, we intend to expand to the rest of the region, making JOBDOH a “made in Hong Kong” success story.