My Job Studio looks to optimize the recruiting and selection processes in companies from a month to one day.
Co-Founder, Laura Angel
Name: My Job Studio
Location: Mexico/Colombia/Chile
Website: My Job Studio
Product/Service Offering: Recruitment
Co-founder Interviewed: Laura Angel
Other Key Management Team Members: Miguel Torres
This article is part of our Women Entrepreneurs Spotlight Series featuring female entrepreneurs and their companies. We hope these founders’ interviews will inspire and motivate you as you undertake your own entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a little about yourself with a focus on what motivates you?
The main motivation for My Job Studio was to help unemployed professionals in Latin America, while also assisting companies struggling with unmotivated employees or those who don’t have the productivity level they’d wished for.
As a former Public Policy student, I am aware of the impact of losing “talents” in the region and how it impacts the development in the region. Coming from my country, I’ve found that some of my extremely talented friends are wasting their knowledge as time goes by. For us, that is a competitive advantage of our region that is being wasted.
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When did you establish your company and where did the idea originate?
We established the company in Mexico, but the idea was originated back in Montreal, Canada. There, like in Colombia, I met several professionals doing master programs and paying for their studies with jobs that are not related with their interests or fields of studies.
What need or needs does your company seek to fill for its customers?
My Job Studio looks to optimize the recruiting and selection processes in companies from a month (standard time) to one day without putting the quality of the talents at risk.
What is the one thing that sets your company apart from its competitors?
The load of work that we save companies means money. Instead of filtering or hand picking from a database (like our main competitors), our clients get the top 5 candidates to interview in just a simple search. My Job Studio gives the talent you want at the minute you need it.
Understanding Your Competitive Environment
What was the biggest challenge you faced while getting your company up and running, and how did you overcome it?
There have been many challenges, but the biggest one has been finding an adequate business model able to fulfill our two main goals: impact the unemployment rate in Latin America, and be disruptive within the Human Resources industry worldwide.
Therefore, to keep us in balance, we are receiving feedback from HR think tanks in Chile and mentoring from social change makers. My Job Studio analyzes that data and matches it to keep the focus on what really matters.
Are there resources you have utilized that other founders might find compelling or useful?
The mentor’s network provided by Start-Up Chile. Other founders may underestimate the power of experience even if they are non tech related. I contacted 15 mentors form the list Start-Up Chile provided us and have been in contact with them. Their insights, advice and experience is by far what has given us value.
What steps have you taken to secure funding for your company and what, if anything, would you do differently if you had to start over?
We want to guarantee that our company is going to remain scalable, through safe customer acquisition in the markets that we chose. We have simplified the development of our platform so it doesn’t depend on too many programmers. On the part of the talents, we are creating partnerships with strong educational programs to attract motivated talents. We are working on soft landing jobs so they can feel attached and motivated by the company and its objectives rather than the position.
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Have there been any questions you have had as an entrepreneur of a fledgling startup that you had a particularly hard time finding the answers to?
Co-Founder, Laura Angel
Yes. There is a startup in Latin America that started in Colombia, and now they are going global. They’ve been doing these boot camps to teach young people how to code, but we want to know about their expansion process. They were targeting low income young people, but yet asking them to pay a reasonable amount for their onsite program. How did they overcome that barrier? And what challenges did they face when expanding to other countries? How has the product evolved after two incubators?
What challenges, if any, are you grappling with?
Our main challenge is the platform itself. We have companies wanting to work with us from other countries and, in order to do so, we need to improve our geographical reach.
What is the most helpful tip or “hack” you’ve ever learned, stumbled across, or been given?
Our first mentor in Chile told us “It’s very noble to help your community with your actions, but it’s even better if you can help them with money and a stable business.”
Since then, we have changed our business model and made it more profitable, technological and efficient.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your company?
- Beyond offering a service to companies and a Talent Acquisition solution, we are committed to reducing youth unemployment by creating data analysis and sharing it with NGO’s and organizations working on the problem.
- We have presented My Job Studio to the World Bank in Washington and to the Mexican and Colombian government.
Advice to women entrepreneurs…
I volunteer for an organization, pro – women in Latin America. In my experience, women are rock-stars when they’re combined. The mind power of a woman is enlightening but when organized towards a common goal, Oh! that’s unstoppable. That’s our essence. We are proactive, productive and natural… So I believe the best advice I could ever give to another woman is to keep simple and remain natural. The best asset of a woman, is being a woman herself but when applied to business, we are able to offer disruptive solutions from basic concepts. There are no limits.
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Are you familiar with other Women led startups? If so, we would like to hear from you. Tell us about them, sharing your comments below!
Liz Bennett
Liz is the Assistant Director of the ETSU Innovation Lab, adjunct faculty for the College of Business and Technology at ETSU, Kelley School of Business MBA graduate and former intern at Plug & Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley. A lifelong learner, she is interested in all aspects of entrepreneurship and enjoys helping startups explore the possibilities. She currently sits on the TurboFunder Product / Market Advisory Board.
