In the SAATKORN HR Startup Series, I regularly present exciting young companies that are bringing a breath of fresh air to the HR world. Today, the focus is no longer just on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also on HR startups from France, the UK, and the US. Today’s featured company: vizzy!
I had the opportunity to speak to Chris Woodward-Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of vizzy (in the centre of the picture above) – a HR tech startup from the UK that reimagines the CV with dynamic profiles that let talent show who they really are so that businesses can hire for what really matters. – Let’s get started:
SAATKORN: Please introduce yourself to the SAATKORN readers!
Hi SAATKORN readers, I’m Chris the CEO and one of the founders of Vizzy. Vizzy has reimagined the CV with dynamic profiles that let talent show who they really are so that businesses can hire for what really matters. Launched in 2023, Vizzy delivers outstanding candidate experiences and is used by companies such as Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Burberry, WHSmith and Virgin to hire top, diverse talent that would have otherwise been missed.
A digital talent portfolio, formerly „CV“
SAATKORN: What’s the founding story behind your HR startup?
Vizzy was born from one of our founders, Joe, losing his job during the pandemic. He was suddenly faced with revisiting his CV and considering how he wanted to turn up in the job-hunting market.
He looked at the likes of Wix and Squarespace and other CV alternatives, all of which were difficult, clunky, and in some instances, expensive. This made us think, if this a barrier to entry for Joe, then it must be a significant barrier to entry for millions of young talent across the world.
So, we set our sights on creating a modern digital portfolio for the next generation of talent, which suited how they express themselves digitally and in a way that businesses wanted to consume. The result is a portfolio which is ‘like a CV had a baby with Pinterest’ backed up by powerful tools helping leading businesses hire top talent.
Put more opportunities in front of more people
SAATKORN: What’s your mission – which problem are you aiming to solve?
The overarching mission for Vizzy is to put more opportunities in front of more people. I guess the simplest way of looking at it is everybody has capability, everyone has potential, everyone has a story to tell, but they don’t currently have the platform on which to do that.
The CV certainly doesn’t do this, nor do singular vehicles like video CVs. So we’ve created a platform which is accessible and inclusive; available in over 60 languages with 20 accessibility features, so that as many people from as many backgrounds as possible have a level playing field from which to tell their story, and by which businesses can see so much more of who they are, and more importantly, what they can become.
SAATKORN: What is your HR startup’s business model?
Vizzy’s business model is very straightforward. It’s free for B2C users, so that there are no barriers to entry for having a decent professional profile. And then we charge subscriptions to businesses based on the products that they subscribe to (i.e. Standard, or upgrades like video, AI, Data Insights) and the scale of their use of the platform (i.e. how many roles).
vizzy is for you, if you get too many CVs
SAATKORN: How would you describe your ideal customer profile?
Our ICPs at the moment are companies who have challenges with the volume of applications that they receive. And in particular, those identifying that AI is exacerbating that problem, either with more applications or less variety in the applications.
Furthermore, businesses hiring in the early career space, where it’s often hard to distinguish the potential of those with seemingly limited or similar (work) experiences.
SAATKORN: In which countries do you offer your products or services?
Vizzy currently has clients using the platform for hiring in 20 countries. It is available in 60+ languages enabling us to service clients and candidates globally.
A new talent & business narrative
SAATKORN: What is your vision – where do you want to be three years from now?
Ideally, we would like to help millions of young people land a dream role that perhaps today feels out of reach to them.
And for businesses, we want to deliver positive outcomes for the bottom line by being part of the behavioural change, which ultimately delivers a more equitable and personality led hiring environment, where people are front and centre.
We’d like to be part of the narrative that fundamentally changes how talent and business interact.
SAATKORN: If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- The first wish would be that more people from more walks of life have access to a wider variety of opportunities.
- The second would be a hiring landscape which indexes more towards human potential, human resilience, human creativity and the personality that sits behind every applicant. AI has an important and undeniable role to play but the relationship economy will and must remain the most important part of business. Who is using the AI? Who are colleagues turning up to work with? Who keeps it human-centric? The importance of humans in future roles is where we should be focusing.
- Thirdly I wish more businesses were empowered to take the risks that they know they should in changing approached to talent acquisition and management. The appetite for change in the industry is some way off the level of change needed which means problems are being exacerbated.
SAATKORN: How and where can potential customers contact you?
Customers can click here to book a demo via our website or contact us via chris@vizzy or jess@vizzy.
SAATKORN: Chris, thank you very much – I wish you and your team all the best with and for vizzy!
vizzy FACTS & FIGURES
Founding year: 2020 (product launch 2023)
Number of employees: 10
Headquarters located in: London
Funding round: Seed
Website: Go HERE to explore all things vizzy!