Startup Story #12: Cutshort to your job

Nikunj Verma (left) with Anubhav Gupta and Vinit Khandelwal

Everyone has gone through the pressures of job-hunting, whether you are just out of college or have quit a job you have spent half your youth at. With platforms like LinkedIn and Naukri.com facilitating the process to get you out of your pyjamas and no employment stupor, here is a startup that makes it even more simpler.

Early in his career, Nikunj Verma, an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, was sure he wanted to work at the intersection of cutting edge technology and fast-moving business. Learning from personal experience and assessing the need of the hour prompted him to enter the world of startups with Cutshort. “When I returned from Boston in 2014, I was looking for challenging roles at Indian startups but found the process too cumbersome. I had good credentials and a decent network, but using them to find good opportunities was not easy. I dug a bit deeper into the problem and discovered a huge market gap in the market for top professionals. That’s how the idea of Cutshort took shape,” explains Verma.

With just a team of two when it started operations early 2015, Cutshort now has Amazon, Myntra, Snapdeal in its roster of clients. The secret to this is revealed by Verma, “Attracting big employers is largely a result of catching their eye. Our product solves a big problem they have – and that solves half the problem. The rest was achieved by our fresh approach to content marketing and messaging.” According to the team at Cutshort, here is where the problem lies while looking for a job: Upload your resume, find jobs, apply and wait for responses from employers who are overwhelmed with irrelevant applications.

 

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The process can be frustrating for many. In order to eliminate the many steps to finding the right job, Cutshort, as the name suggests, makes it simple in just two steps. You describe your need and get matched with the people to connect with. Your existing network helps in getting introduced or recommended to others. Verma breaks it down even further and says, “Our Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based algorithm and unique gamification techniques cut down the noise by 80 per cent. Also, along with our unique approach to combining your social connections to get noticed by the network, you get a powerful solution that makes it hassle free to find the right job.”

On being asked about how they are different from platforms such as Naukri.com, pat comes the reply: “Cutshort is very different from a job board like Naukri.com where one just downloads thousands of resumes or applies to hundreds of jobs. Job boards are messy, impersonal and lack matchmaking. LinkedIn is a professional social network. Like a giant room where your friends are shouting about different things like jobs, business, even petty math problems. Cutshort takes the idea of LinkedIn, but makes things more organized and purposeful. You are looking for jobs, Cutshort lets you match with just the right ones. You’re looking for trusted app development firms, awesome let’s find you some. It’s all direct and hassle-free.”

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The goal to make Cutshort a global leader in the professional networking space comes with its own set of challenges. “We decided a while ago to not run after funding. While it has given us freedom, it has also led us to many disadvantages in the areas of getting PR, big clients, hiring and so on. We have to continually fight the bias most people have – if you are not funded, you were not good enough. Currently, we are dealing with the challenge of scaling up the company while not losing quality of our community. Also what is hard is to become profitable without losing our strong growth rate,” shares Verma.

Setting up his venture in Pune did prove to be easy in terms of affordability but Verma thinks the Pune startup ecosystem is not “as bubbling as Bengaluru.” Attending startup events and meeting people did ease his apprehensions but he believes that “it’s your battle in the end. You need to stay positive and keep learning.” Indeed.

 

 

Zeenat Tinwala