This startup helps creative professionals find the right projects around them

In the crowded online hiring space, the distinctive features of each startup rarely get the opportunity to stand out. Pxljobs, with its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based freelancers’ functionality, seeks to make that possible now.

A postgraduate in art and multimedia, Ajith Kannan’s story was no different from most other creative professionals, who sometimes deviate from their pursuits and end up doing whatever comes their way due to lack of feasible options.

Ajith dreamt of a career in art direction in the advertising space, but had to settle for roles in IT companies in animation, web designing, UI/UX designing and coding. He now has 18 years of experience across organisations like Microland, Indya.com, Sun Microsystems, Web Shastra and Tavant Technologies.

During his corporate stint he noticed people like him weren't the only ones facing an issue. Employers too struggled to find talent, with UI/UX designers often ending up hiring graphic designers because they are unable to get the right person for the job.

Ajith came up with the idea for Pxljobs in 2015, and launched the startup in January 2016.

The platform allows candidates to showcase their work and get talking about their areas of interest, while recruiters can find the right candidates based on their specific requirements. Its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based freelancers’ functionality helps to engage freelance creative professionals and find projects around them.

“We also verify each creative candidate on various parameters, and a good profile gets a verified stamp. With this feature we are actually cutting down the workload of recruiters by 50 percent,” says Ajith.

The company verifies all the details provided by candidates on the platform, including education, experience, awards/recognitions, clients/brands worked with, and work duration in current and previous company.

 Bootstrapping

Ajith and wife Seena bootstrapped the company with an investment of Rs 1 crore. Ajith is a postgraduate from Amrita Institute, Kochi while Seena is postgraduate from Kannur University, Kerala.

Understanding each area within the creative space and building the application accordingly was a challenge initially. Ajith credits his extensive corporate experience with helping him set up Pxljobs in a way that has proved to be useful for candidates, recruiters and institutes.

Candidate can follow preferred recruiters and get alerted when the recruiter posts a job. They also provide unique URLs for candidates with custom page. The startup has more than 150 creative job categories. Says Ajith,

“These days recruiters are looking for quality creative professionals who are good and do quality creative work quickly. With this platform recruiters can hire the best candidate for their specific requirement. Our analytics-driven backend algorithm helps recruiters find the right candidate with minimal effort.”

The platform captures the duration visitors spend on each portfolio followed by the behavioural analytics, which analyses the behavior of visitors with the number of likes and views. The analytics data also notes the frequency of visits by candidates and the jobs they are interested in.

Counting numbers

Pxljobs claims to have more than 30,000 registered candidates, and more than 4,500 registered recruiters on its platform. A freelancer feature started recently has over 1,400 registrations.

The company makes its money from job posting, monthly custom plans, branding services and consulting services. The pricing ranges between Rs 2,500 and Rs 20,000.

Pxljobs aims to get 1,000 paid recruiters and institutions by the end of this year. It expects to have more than 10,000 paid users per month in three years and venture into HR consulting for specific creative talent space.

Bengaluru-based Pxljobs has 16 members with a representative office in Kochi. In the next few months, the company will add other countries like the US, UK, Canada and Singapore. They are currently looking to raise funds.

Hiring today is not only about sourcing, interviewing candidates, and getting the vacancy filled; it is about making the right match for the required job role and vice versa.

The online hiring space, which has lately seen a surge of entrants, is increasingly becoming the go-to platform for job seekers and recruiters alike. Mobility has also played a significant role in cutting down the turnaround time and driving high efficiency.

Some of the prominent names in the sector include Assanjobs, Babajobs, Hiree (got acquired by Quikr) and Belong.

Website: PXLjobs