Transcript
Callum Hull 0:00 Hello, and welcome to the first-ever podcast by us HR Digital Today. I'm joined by the Dipansh. He's gonna go for one of our CEO interviews. How're you doing? Dipansh Bhatt 0:07 I'm great, man. How are you doing? Callum Hull 0:10 I'm very well, thank you. So, the gist of the podcast will be I will be interviewing Dipansh and I will be asking him questions about himself, his role, his company and the motivations behind starting it. Tell us a little bit more about it then, what's your role? Who do you work for? Yeah, we'll start with that. We'll start with that. And then we’ll move on. Dipansh Bhatt 0:31 All right, great. So, you know, I've worked for VITA Verify. I'm the head of sales and to give you a little idea about what we do, at its core, Vita is an engine, right? They help source and screen candidates by highlighting priority candidates for quick action, right, especially in today's fast-paced, dynamic environment. And we're unmatched in our configurability and traceability, so recruiters know exactly why a candidate has been flagged up for them. So, we allow for matching based on how a JD is written. Essentially something like five years in talent acquisition, and three years in a management role, something nobody else can do the way we do. And the search goes far beyond keyword matching as well by mapping differences in nomenclature, abbreviations, and relevant and transferable skills, while at the same time still ensuring process integrity, right through the traceability. Right. So, each candidate is prioritised based on relevancy with the right contextualization for each mandate, right. It's one of the smartest if not the smartest matching tool on the market at the moment. And this engine plugs into two different use cases. Right. So, the first one, the sourcing tool, helps to expand the applicant pool for those low volume roles. And the screening tool helps to very quickly find the best fit and high performance for those high-volume positions. Alright, so there's an internal sourcing and silver medallists, repurposing tool that has very quickly become fan favourites as well. Callum Hull 2:04 Okay, sure. So yeah, you talked about the sourcing and screening there. High volumes tasks are something that I've seen loads of at the moment on LinkedIn, and the news and recruitment news and all this kind of stuff are how do we source such a high volume? And it sounds like that's, that's one of the problems that your company solves for the customers. But what if you had to pinpoint one problem? The main problem that you solve for your customers? What would it be? Dipansh Bhatt 2:29 Oh, well, definitely time, right. So, what we aim to do is give back the most expensive commodity to recruiters, right by kind of doing the admin work for them, and giving them back this time for more recruiter worthy work. Alright, so I mean, in the market, as I'm sure you're well aware, time to hire is the most expensive part of hiring, right? And it just goes beyond simple cost and dollar value. The quality of hiring suffers significantly from an unoptimized process. So that's, that's the main problem that we've set out to solve. Callum Hull 3:00 I'm sure there are plenty of recruiters who are listening to this up and down the country or across the world even that would love to have more time. So, they can focus on what matters, you know, talking to the candidates talking to the clients, making sure that relationships are perfect, so I can see how that's a perfect problem solution for a recruitment company. So obviously, you have customers. So, who was your who's your first customer? And what why do you think was the reason they came to you? Did they switch from someone else? Or is it they just wanted to try your piece of kit out? Dipansh Bhatt 3:30 So, our first customer was SMU, the Singapore Management University. And we were part of their innovation wing early on, and we grew the company out of their co-working space, right. So, they were doing, they were doing things manually before us. They switched over to our platform because they've seen the company grow from nothing to where we are now. And I think it's the level of trust that they had in us seeing us grow, to deliver the most important factor that I think that was the most important factor in closing that deal. Callum Hull 3:59 Okay, sure. Yeah, I mean, I mean, trust is huge. But you've managed to grow sort of alongside them, and then, and then getting them as your first customers is cool. So, it sounds like really good first customers to have. If you had to pinpoint say, one motivation behind the start in the business. Right. So obviously, you and your team so what was the motivation behind actually kickstart in the business and the So, main sort of starting point if there was one. Dipansh Bhatt 4:27 So, we saw a huge gap right between employers and employees in terms of fit, not just for each function that they were hiring for, but for cultural fit as well. Right. So, candidates and employers, tend to speak a different language, but they're speaking about the same thing. Right. And that's caused significant problems that come with scale. So, you know, of course, for small companies that are not growing rapidly, this isn't a problem but for everyone else, it's you know, a problem that was very necessary to be solved. Callum Hull 4:58 Okay, that's interesting. So obviously behind every business, you've got the motivation. But then there are also sacrifices to make the business work. So, what would you say has been the biggest sacrifice you've had to make to make this business successful? Dipansh Bhatt 5:14 Well, I'd say there are two huge sacrifices that the entire team has had to make, right. Of course, that's weekends and nights, you know, time with family and friends. But of course, working for no pay for a while when, when we were just getting started was also a big sacrifice all of us had to make. Callum Hull 5:29 Yeah, I can imagine so much time went into building your platform, I looked at your website, and you can tell that every single detail has been thought through. So nice, so perfectly. So, I can imagine there's been a few weekends, long weekends in the office. Just mentioning your website, then. So that's one of your sorts of marketing channels, what would you say has been your most successful marketing channel? Dipansh Bhatt 5:50 Oh, there has to be LinkedIn. Most our client’s contacts, came from LinkedIn, even warm introductions from users or people who liked what we were doing, and who had friends in the TA or HR functions. So, LinkedIn has to be it has to be. Callum Hull 6:05 Yeah, I mean, you can't go wrong with LinkedIn. Especially when you're trying to sell to recruiters. They're so active on LinkedIn. You see them all the time. So, I'm not surprised by that at all. What's your proudest moment? Working for Vita? Dipansh Bhatt 6:25 Oh, I mean, there’s been a number of them. But I think the first one that comes to mind is when our users started spreading the word about us. That leads to closing deals, right. So, it showed us that not only do we have the trust of our clients, but it kind of proved to us internally that what we're doing is genuinely adding value to our clients and our users. Callum Hull 6:48 Yeah, I mean, it's one thing like closing deals, but having your customers help you close deals has got to be amazing. Because that's, that's all that hard work is now like, proven. It's like, they, they love your products, and they want other people to love your products as well. So, yeah, that's got to be a proud moment. But with every proud moment comes a failure, you know, a disaster, a rough day at the office. So, if you had to pick off one of your favourites, we'll go for favourite business failures. You think you've learned the most from and you thought yeah, this is what needed to happen so we can take it on and make the right changes. Dipansh Bhatt 7:23 Well, that’s an interesting one. Callum. So, we previously sold an HR module that was looking at market trends in recruitment. We were speaking to a completely different target audience in executive search. By doing this, we slowly realised that there's more than meets the eye in recruitment, and the scope is massive, right. So, the MVP we used is currently being used in several big banks and companies around us today. But we kept refining the product, as you know, every start-up does. We got more user feedback, and learn from our mistakes, we, you know, concluded that recruitment can be so complex, that we will never stop learning and adding more useful features to the product as we go along. Of course, you know, speaking to our users, and then being deeply supportive, and giving us feedback was great for our growth as well. Callum Hull 8:12 Yeah, sure. I mean, failure is so important, especially for a start-up. So, you said like the product changes, you know, nearly every week at the start. So, you're just making changes based on feedback and making sure you've got the perfect product. Your products are brilliant for productivity, as you said, it reduces the time to hire and that's like productivity 101. But what's one productivity hack that you can't live without, within your role, something that you use daily that makes your day so much more productive? Dipansh Bhatt 8:39 Well, there's, there's a, there's an app I use, that kind of locks me out of social media after a couple of minutes, you know, thing. But on a more serious note, right? My, way of making sure that, you know, I'm productive, and I'm not losing our time is I keep a notebook where I mean, it seems a little bit like an old-fashioned way of doing things. But I use a notebook to kind of throw out all my ideas. From there, what I do is I'd review that notebook at the end of every day, and move things that I think are a priority. I do this to make sure that I'm on top of things. Callum Hull 9:14 Okay, cool. I'm very interested in your social media app. So basically, it cuts you off after a certain amount of time? Dipansh Bhatt 9:22 Yep. So, you know, after maybe what, 10 minutes on social media tells me to get off social media, there's work to do. I kind of motivate myself to go back to work that way. Callum Hull 9:35 Yeah, and that sounds amazing. I've recently deleted Tik Tok because I found myself just scrolling for hours and hours. So, I've deleted it for like three weeks now. And every day I might just download it. Just download it. Dipansh Bhatt 9:47 How has it been since you deleted it? Callum Hull 9:50 Oh, it's been better so much better. I sleep so much better honestly, I used to go to bed at a reasonable time and I just scroll and scroll watching ridiculous videos, but now it's better. So, we found out a little bit there about the company, the products, the customer, you know, the failures, the successes, I want to find out a bit more about you. So, we'll just round up this sort of podcast with some quickfire questions. So, what was your first-ever job? Dipansh Bhatt 10:16 Well, my first job was as a marketing executive at an art centre that was doing lessons for kids and workshops for adults. Callum Hull 10:23 Okay, cool. That sounds like a really fun job. What made you leave that job and do what you're doing now? Dipansh Bhatt 10:30 I think it was having something to call my own and being part of like, you know, the core team of a company was something that appealed to me. Callum Hull 10:38 Yeah, I mean, that’s very respectable, like to build something from scratch and make it into what it is today. It must be really rewarding. So, the second question is, well, who is someone you admire? someone, you look up to? You can be anyone famous or family or anything? Dipansh Bhatt 10:52 Oh, it has to be had to be my two founders. Right? Because the drive the determination, the way they solve problems? I think it's helped me become who I am today as well. Callum Hull 11:02 That's brilliant. Yeah. Good to have that kind of management, isn't it? So, quickfire, we've got your favourite book, your favourite film and your favourite music? Dipansh Bhatt 11:12 Wow. So favourite book, I'd say hasn't changed since I was a kid. So, I'm really big into mythology. And there was this book series by Julia Golding and it was a series about mythical creatures in today's society. So, you know, that's something that I loved and my favourite film. Ooh, that's a tough one. But I'd say Interstellar. Callum Hull 11:33 Interstellar?!?! Dipansh Bhatt 11:34 I loved that film Callum Hull 11:36 Yeah, I remember watching it when it came out and thinking this is crazy. blows my mind. Dipansh Bhatt 11:40 Exactly. Favourite Music? Yeah, I'd say rock. Someone like Linkin Park. Callum Hull 11:46 Oh, very nice. The last personal question is your favourite gadget? It can be for working or for personal? Just something you use every day. Dipansh Bhatt 11:57 Work or personal? day and night? It’s my phone. Callum Hull 12:05 So, final question. This is what we're going to end every CEO interview with. You've been fantastic guests. You've told us all about your products. It sounds like an amazing product and it sounds like you're building something, you've already built something, to be honest. It sounds like it's already there. So that’s fantastic. That's fantastic to hear. So, the final question for the podcasts will be where do you see your company in five years? Dipansh Bhatt 12:27 Oh, has it to be all over the world. Certainly, we're already seeing our use cases popping up all over the globe. But at the rate we're going I'd say nothing else is acceptable, right. Because we initially thought, you know, large MNCs would be the only target audience. But since then, we've seen a pool in growing start-ups SMEs, and of course MNCs as well. So, all over the globe, Callum Hull 12:50 All over the globe! Well, I wish you all the success and I'm sure you have no problem doing that. So, thank you so much for joining me today for the HR digital Today for this CEO interview. You've been a fantastic guest and I wish you all the best for the future. I’m sure we'll speak again soon further down the line when you're taken over the globe. Dipansh Bhatt 13:08 Likewise, thank you very much for having me. It's been great. Callum Hull 13:11 Thanks very much.