Around 3 years ago I started Standout Jobs with two great guys – Fred Ngo and Austin Hill. We raised money, built a great product, hired an incredible team and worked to build a business. Today I’m pleased to announce that we’ve sold Standout Jobs.

I can’t name the acquirer at this point in time. I can tell you that I’m very excited to see what they do with Standout Jobs, because I fundamentally believe what we built and the vision we pushed will be standards in the recruitment industry for years to come. Companies that ignore their employer brands and don’t create a quality, interactive, candidate-centric hub on the Web for recruitment will lose.

It’s been an incredible journey. There are more people to thank than I have space for, but here we go just the same:

• My co-founders: I couldn’t have done it without Austin Hill and Fred Ngo. Great guys. True entrepreneurs.
• My team: We hired some of the best and brightest in Montreal. Many of those guys have gone on to do great things, and more is yet to come. It was by far the best team I’ve ever assembled (and yes, I’m thinking about the Avengers right now).
• My investors: We wouldn’t have survived without our investors. They committed very early on to us and our vision for recruitment and this company.
• The customers: Our customers were great – supportive, helpful, and eager to provide feedback.
• The recruitment industry: The entire industry welcomed Standout Jobs with open arms (OK, most of it!) I was able to connect with many of the thought leaders in the space and establish my own voice and network that was extremely valuable.

I’ve learned a LOT in this process. Most of which I’ll hopefully be able to share on this blog over the next little while. Most of the lessons were very hard ones. But I’m going to take some time to reflect properly, make copious notes, and figure out how to present 3 years of being smack in the middle of startup insanity.

Back to the acquisition — I’m in the midst of finalizing a short transition with the acquirer. That will be done soon. I’ve already started working on a couple new projects, but nothing I’m ready to announce just yet. So stay tuned!

Many years ago when I started blogging I wrote a lot about small business and blogging. How to blog well was all the rage back then, and I studied some of the greats, like Copyblogger and Liz Strauss. These days you see a lot more “how-to’s” for Twitter and social networking, but blogging still remains huge. And in my mind, absolutely critical for building authority and thought leadership.

In 2007 I started Standout Jobs and jumped headfirst into the HR/recruiting space. It’s been quite an experience.

Since that time I’ve been looking for ways to blend my knowledge and thoughts on blogging (+social media) and HR/recruiting. Recruiting is evolving at a faster pace than ever. And I don’t see that trend abating any time soon. If anything, things in HR/recruiting are going to get faster, crazier and much more interesting in years to come. But even as recruiters flock to Twitter as the next big thing in recruitment (and I do think it has HUGE potential), blogging remains one of the best ways to attract, engage and convert the right job seekers into candidates and hires.

With that in mind, I’m very pleased to publish A Definitive Guide to Corporate HR Blogging.

It was written with the great help of Susan Burns at Talent Synchronicity.

The Guide is a very how-to, practical walkthrough of blogging for corporate HR and corporate recruiters. There’s no shortage of great resources on blogging available online, but there’s a dearth of consolidated information when it comes to corporate HR blogging. And that’s a gap I hope we’ve filled.

The Guide is almost split in half — the first half making a case for blogging and helping you bring that case and value proposition to your organization. The second half focuses in on how to blog effectively, but with a corporate HR blogging spin/center.

We’ve compiled resources and expertise from across the Web – from HR bloggers, corporate bloggers, small business gurus and more. Thank yous need to go out to Intel, Amy Beth Hale, Ben Gotkin, RSM, Becky McCray, Laurie Ruettiman, Dan Schawbel, Jim Kukral, Willy Franzen, Barbara Adachi, Deloitte and others who provided their input, tips, etc.

Blogging is as relevant today as it’s always been, and it can serve as the cornerstone of a successful social media recruiting initiative. Hopefully this Guide brings you one step closer to success in that regard.

Get the Guide Now >>

I’m very pleased to announce that Standout Jobs has launched a new version of its product, a new website and our business model. There’s a whole ton of new stuff in fact, and this is just the beginning of many changes to come.

After launching Standout Jobs in late January 2008 we’ve spent the last 9 months or so working with 220+ beta customers, collecting feedback, testing, getting testimonials and case studies and learning. Shortly after launching we began work on the next version. In this day and age a software product’s lifecycle is pretty short, especially after first launching; we knew the first version wouldn’t last. So once it stabilized and we started bringing on customers and getting feedback, we put our heads down and got to work.

Along with the new product comes a bunch of other changes as well:

• Product name change. We launched the product as Reception, but have decided to put that name aside for now. The core reason was because it’s hard for a startup to build two brands – one for its company and one for its product. We felt that Standout Jobs was the stronger of the two brands, and we wanted that to resonate more with customers, partners, etc. But we still needed to describe the product, and as such we’ve named it our Recruitment Communication Platform. Aside from trying to build two brands, there were other reasons to give the product a more descriptive name in terms of explaining it, providing us with flexibility on how we define the product, and more.
• New website. For awhile we’ve known there were issues with our website. For starters, there was too much emphasis on the job seeker side – listing companies and available jobs. That still exists, but we’re really a software company focused on providing products and services to employers. So we wanted that messaging to be clear. At the same time we wanted to refresh the brand a bit and focus more on our core values. The challenge with the website was to maintain its edginess but also display a level of professionalism, sophistication and seriousness. We’re not hiding the fact that we’re a plucky startup trying to shake up the HR industry, but at the same time we want customers to feel comfortable with our brand, message and the solidity of our company. We also wanted to provide more valuable content about topics of interest such as employer branding.
• Business model implemented. Back in January we decided to offer the product for free. We wanted to bring on as many beta customers as possible, make some noise in the HR community, get a foothold in the marketplace and go from there. We accomplished all of that. But free doesn’t last forever, and we always knew we were going to implement a subscription-based business model, it was only a question of time. Truth be told, we debated the business model for quite some time after launching, but eventually decided on a subscription model and appropriate pricing. Our product is now free for a 45-day trial, after which you’ll have to subscribe on a monthly or yearly basis.
• Channel partner strategy. For the last few months we’ve been working on a channel partner strategy. We’ve learned a lot about the HR industry and how we can fit in effectively and grow. Bringing on top-notch partners is one way we’re going to build a successful business, and I’m very excited that we have 6 partners to-date that are ready to go. You can debate the pros and cons of a channel partner strategy forever, and in some industries, with some products it might not make sense at all, but for us it’s critical to gaining early traction, building up revenue and solidifying our place as a key member of the HR industry.
• Shifting focus. We still have a ton of development work to do. We have a product roadmap that’s going to keep us busy for many, many months … but nevertheless the focus of the company starts to shift with the release of the new version. With a business model, strategic partners and a new product it’s time to start shifting from a development-centric effort to a sales & marketing-centric effort. The company is evolving, and I think this is a natural and obvious progression for us to take. It also means ratcheting up our customer service efforts. If you want to convert free trial customers into paying customers, you need to have this mental and focused shift towards sales, marketing and customer service.

Up until today, we’ve been playing in the minor leagues. Today, we move up to the pros. There’s less leeway for making mistakes. There’s a clear push towards building revenue, growing our customer base and rocketing forward. The pace will speed up, not slow down. Today, Standout Jobs is truly re-launching – but with a plan that we’ve been preparing and executing on for the past 9+ months. That plan has been evolving radically for some time, and will continue to do so, but we’re laser-focused on a number of critical things we have to accomplish over the next few months, and there’s no time like the present.

I would invite you to visit Standout Jobs and let us know what you think! Each of my points above warrants its own blog post; hopefully I can find the time to expound on them further, because a lot of thinking, planning, trial & error, guesswork, etc. went into making those decisions. Hopefully our efforts can help others that are just starting up, or preparing for a major shift in their businesses.

Standout Jobs is looking for a kick-ass account manager / customer service lead.

The job description is here: http://jobs.standoutjobs.com/jobs/2143-account-manager-and-customer-service-lead

This is a full-time job in Montreal.

Grabbing a bit of information from the job posting itself –

What will you be doing at Standout Jobs as an Account Manager and Customer Service Lead?

Simple: You’ll be helping customers maximize the value they get out of our product, and nurturing long-term relationships.

That will include:

1. Designing and implementing career sites for customers
2. Training customers on using our product
3. Developing training and demo materials
4. Developing a customer support and account management strategy
5. Managing a team of customer support staff
6. Answering phones
7. Helping customers with forgotten passwords (i.e. the minutae of things!)
8. Securing renewals (so there is a sales component to this!)

If this sounds interesting to you, or to someone you know, please check out the full job posting.

Just a quick note that I’ll be live on Saturday, August 16th @ 9pm EDT on the Aaron Brazell show talking about how to find a job, tips on job seeking, social media and the job market, the economy and more. It should be fun!

You can join the show live (and participate) by clicking here: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/22406.

You can also subscribe via iTunes.

Aaron Brazell is a well-known social media guru, and most recently was the Director of Technology at b5media. But he won’t be hosting the show on Saturday – so he’s found a very suitable replacement, Mr. Jimmy Gardner.

The show itself (if you look through the archives) is an eclectic mix of social media, politics, current events and more. There have been quite a few interesting and diverse guests, hopefully I can hold my own!

We’ll see you on Saturday!

Update

I did the show on Saturday night and had a great time. Thank you to those who spent time in the live chat room and asked questions. The show is now live and you can listen to it here.

During the 1-hour show I talk to Jimmy Gardner about Standout Jobs, what employers need to do to attract top talent, what job seekers need to do in assessing opportunities, the economy and much more. Half of the discussion surrounds startups and entrepreneurship in general, and the struggles of smaller communities (like Montreal and D.C.) to build up great startup ecosystems.

Marc-Andre Cournoyer was the first employee we ever hired at Standout Jobs. Since then he’s done a lot of cool things (for us) and on his own, including the fastest Ruby web server, Thin.

Now Marc-Andre has been invited to speak at MeshU – a 1-day conference on development, design and business. Marc’s doing a workshop on using Thin and Rack to solve performance issues and have fun.

Other speakers at MeshU include: Leah Culver (Pownce), Daniel Burka (Digg), John Resig (Mozilla), Avi Bryant (DabbleDB) and more.

MeshU will be held in Toronto on May 20th. It coincides with the Mesh conference.

If you’re interested in development and/or design you should check it out. Marc-Andre is a great speaker (as are the other speakers), and it looks like it’ll be a jam-packed day.

I’ve been way too quiet here lately which is a combination of going to ERE Expo, getting sick and being insanely busy. But I did want to make this quick announcement as an update to what’s going on with Standout Jobs.

Standout Jobs has been selected by CIX (Canadian Innovation Exchange) as one of Canada’s Hottest 20 Startups.

You can read my official announcement on the Standout Jobs blog.

CIX is an event being held on April 29th-30th in Toronto – where a mix of VCs, angel investors and entrepreneurs from across Canada (and North America) get together and network. Standout Jobs will be presenting there to the audience — it’s an 8-minute pitch (with a couple minutes for questions.)

So now I’m knee-deep in PowerPoint and having the time of my life! (*chuckle*) This presentation will be a bit different than others I’ve put on and should be interesting.

I’m looking forward to going to Toronto, connecting with tons of people and having some fun. If you’re in Toronto and want to connect, just get in touch!

On Thursday, March 20th @ 12pm EDT I’m hosting the second Social Media Recruiting Radio Show with Chris Russell.

The goal of the 1-hour show is to talk about social media recruiting — what it is, how you can use social media for recruiting, the benefits, pitfalls, success stories and more.

For Thursday’s show we’ve got a guest — Dennis Smith from WirelessJobs.com and we’ll be talking about the use of blogging for recruiting.

We run the show on BlogTalkRadio which is very cool. There are phone numbers to call-in and ask questions, or you can sit back, relax and enjoy. It’s a great opportunity to dip a toe into social media recruiting and see what you might be able to do – very easily – to improve your recruiting efforts.

The first show ran a couple weeks ago — here it is for you to enjoy:

Quick recap:

• What: Social Media Recruiting Radio Show
• When: March 20th @ 12pm EDT
• Why: Cause it’s cool

Are you interested in social media recruiting? Do you want to understand how to leverage social media & social networks to reach a higher quality, targeted candidate? Are you curious about how to leverage marketing and sales principles to hire top-talent?

If so, come listen to me and colleague, Chris Russell speak on Thursday, March 6th @ 12pm EST on BlogTalk Radio. It will be our inaugural Social Media Recruiting Show.

You can just listen in, or participate by asking questions.

The show will go for an hour. We’ll start by each talking about a couple different items of interest, and then hopefully, we’ll have enough people calling in with questions. It should be fun, and I encourage you to come listen in and get a feel for social media recruiting.

The latest addition to the Standout Jobs team was Alain Wong, who joined us late last year for the big push to DEMO 08. I knew Alain was a world-class dancer, but I didn’t realize he was a hardcore biker as well. Turns out he isn’t…but he will be biking from Vancouver to Tijuana, Mexico for a great cause.

Alain is joining the folks at Agents of Change for the 3,000km bike trip to raise money for the AOC’s micro-credit fund.

In his own words:

“There are two goals to this 3000 km, 7 week ride. I’m raising $3000 for the AOC micro-credit fund, and I’m promoting micro-credit as a tool to fight poverty and empower women. All the money you donate will go directly to people in need, without overhead. So support me by donating today.”

You might not know Alain Wong, but you should consider a donation anyway. You can donate directly here. Every penny counts (don’t donate just a penny, that’s silly. Dig deep people!)

Standout Jobs is matching the first $1,000 donated.

The concept behind micro-credits is great. If you don’t know anything about it, I would strongly encourage you to do some research. Visit Kiva.org for example.

Alain needs $3,000. We’ll make sure he gets there. And you can help. Please donate to the cause.

(On a side note, these are the types of employees you want at startups — multi-talented and passionate.)

Photo from emmanuelle girard.