enterN Weekly Update Brought to you by Luke Skywhisker
enterN transforms hiring by eliminating the traditional resume and its biases. Our platform leverages anonymized, data-rich profiles based on user preferences to give insights to potential organizational fit, coupled with a swipe-enabled double-opt-in matching system to connect employers with genuinely interested jobseekers. Our current focus is early talent and career changers—areas where future potential outweighs a job seeker’s history—and creating a seamless user experience. In our alpha pilot, over 500 jobseekers created profiles, and 78% of those jobseekers were hired for an internship - paving the way for enterN to be selected as the official job fair partner at six universities for the 25-26 academic year.
Where We Need Help
We would love some warm introductions to Career Centers at Universities outside the region that may be interested in being a beta test location for the enterN MVP
I would love to learn some gamification tactics for our onboarding journey, especially ideas that encourage profile completion and return engagement for jobseekers
What We Did Right
We completed the UI/UX discovery and design phase, now it's on to building the database tables' structures
Filed a provisional patent to give some IP protection to enterN
Finalized the onboarding structure for job-seekers, including a quick tutorial on the slider interface and progress tracker led by mascot Luke Skywhisker
We finally have a solid selection for our cofounder, Drew Milbrath, who joined on March 28 as the Chief Product Officer!!
What We Learned
While using AI is great for speeding up some tasks, it is not always 100% accurate, especially in the technical domain.
Our finalized list of 45 statements was well received, with 88% of students feeling "very confident" that the tool captured who they were fully, and 81% of students feeling "very confident" that the length was 'Just Right'
A browser extension for reporting and reviewing ghosting in the hiring process is a great way to get the enterN name out to jobseekers while also potentially raising some early revenue before the platform is released
Product & Development
We have hit 10% of the back-end infrastructure complete, including the profile scoring logic and profile anonymization APIs
We have developed mockups for the Luke Skywhisker tutorial animations and have recruited a recent graduate of Bradley University who wants to create those in exchange for being able to reference them in her portfolio.
We have received the finished product, aligned our sliders for profile creation, and developed an algorithm that will sort the match feed for employers based on prioritized areas of preference.
Financing
We are amid an ask to friends and family, seeking to raise $15,000 that will give us a 12-month runway with our very lean operating model
Jeffrey is actively and aggressively seeking deals and grants to help fund the programs that enterN is using to develop the app:
$50,000 credit for AWS services
$20,000 credit for Git Hub Enterprise
$10,000 credit for Notion
$4,000 credit for AirTable
12 months of Miro B2B
12 months of credit to utilize MailChimp
12 months of credit to utilize Stripe
12 months of credit to utilize QuickBooks
enterN was selected to participate in AWS Activate, which provides another $100,000 in Builder Credits to use AWS services including robust AI solutions
We are deploying campaigns on select crowdfunding platforms with positive communities that understand the need for social impact and reduced bias in the hiring process.
Notable Press
enterN was invited to conduct an interview with a writer for the SHRM (Society of Human Resources Management) Quarterly publication to speak about innovative ways to engage Gen Z on hiring and hiring tools that impact bias in the process.
Kudos
Gotta give kudos to Adam for all the help with admin work on setting up systems like AWS and GitHub to ensure security and to minimize risks leaking internal information
Shoutout to Ashlie for helping get the Notion workspace looking super sharp!
Special thanks to Danielle with gBETA for making some incredible introductions for mentors and support of enterN
A Personal Note:
For nearly seven years, I have recognized that the hiring process just plain sucks. It’s an awful experience for jobseekers and it is not fun for employers, either. Being in the talent acquisition space, I couldn’t see any big-picture solutions to address this challenge. Then, in late 2024, I was struck by an idea that would not leave, and I wrote down everything. The idea quickly snowballed into something so vast and complex that it turned into a problem in and of itself. After trimming the fat and falling in love with the problem, the hiring process is laden with wasted effort because of mismatched applicants—enterN was born. I nearly solved the puzzle in October, so I wanted to validate the method and crash some job fairs. It turns out that the process still needed a lot of refining, but overall, the jobseekers and employers who leveraged it were captivated. Everyone is ready to make the resume a distant memory and find a different hiring method that leverages modern technologies and requirements. Enter in: enterN.
