My Startup Journey: Andriy Baskakov, NUWORK

TELL YOUR STORY

Meet the Ukrainian startup NUWORK, participant of the Kyiv Tech Hub 2019 conference and one2one meetings with Polish #VC funds organized by the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project.

NUWORK is a recruiting automation service. The system automatically collects candidate applications from all channels (job search sites, social networks, messengers, and even offline signs with a QR code) in the HR specialist’s account and ranks them depending on qualification.

The column “My Startup Journey” is a joint project between the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project, Ukrainian Startup Fund, and Tech Ukraine.

To start with, could you briefly tell us your personal story?

The core of NUWORK’s team consists of specialists from the HR field. Before creating a software solution, Mykola and I gained our experience by helping local and international companies from F&B, Hospitality, Retail, Financial and Manufacturing sectors fulfill their recruitment needs. The expertise gained during this journey played an important role in product formation because we knew which features were lacking in existing HR tools and what are the priorities when choosing recruitment software. In 2018, we met Dmytro Kozlov, the head of the Digital HR Association, and showed our first versions of the product, he immediately joined our team.

Tell us about your startup for those who hear about it for the first time.

NUWORK is a web application that helps hire employees for entry-level vacancies in the retail, logistics, and transportation field. The platform conducts initial interviews through a variety of online forms and channels to deliver prequalified and ranked candidates to the recruiters’ accounts. NUWORK shows outstanding results for companies with 50+ entry-level candidate requirements monthly.

How did you come up with a name for your startup?

We took the words New and Work at a casual brainstorming session, joined them, and decided to rewrite the first word to make the name shorter. NUWORK is all about the new approaches in recruitment that we were promoting since 2019 to clients that CVs are not important and candidate journey has to be frictionless.

What were your biggest fears when you started?

Zero experience in software development in the past. We did not understand where to start, how to code, how to manage the process of software development, how to form a tech team, how to use a lean approach etc.

What makes NUWORK unique?

NUWORK is the first and only recruitment software developed in Ukraine that tackles mass recruitment challenges for companies, delivering a seamless candidate journey to the applicants on one end and structuring the applications for the recruiter on the other end.

What type of users has your platform been created for?

Our software works great with companies that have 50+ entry-level job positions monthly and 10+ outlets within a country or a city.

What has been one of your biggest failures, and what did you learn from this experience?

NUWORK team wasn’t prepared for the COVID. As a result, we had to start from a 0 point since July 2020. However, in December 2020 we managed to reach an operational break-even point and move towards generating more revenue than in the pre-Covid phase. There is a need for diversification of clients and candidates to be ready for any scenario, this is why we are currently adapting our product for IT entry-level opportunities and ex-pat jobs.

Are you monetizing your solution yet? What does it look like?

Yes, the main business model is a monthly subscription fee. Each company has a different size and different needs. Thanks to the flexibility of our software, we can adapt to any internal business process in an HR department.

What companies NUWORK is working with for now?

The client portfolio includes such companies as Jooble, Shell, MHP, Rozetka, Nova Poshta, JTI, Metro C&C, Prostor, Fozzy Group, Ernst & Young, Bakertilly and others.

Are you planning to scale? What markets are you considering for expansion?

Currently, NUWORK plans to increase its presence in Europe. In particular, actively communicating with regional funds and potential partners in Poland. We see our strategy of expansion through the creation of partnerships and affiliate partnerships with local companies.

Earlier, you took part in Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge activities such as the mentorship program and Kyiv Tech Hub 2019 conference and received funding from the Ukrainian Startup Fund. What has changed since then?

We became more mature and managed to reach all the goals that we stated in the Ukrainian Startup Fund application. The Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge was great in terms of practice, theory and networking. To this day, we keep up the warm relations with people we met at the PUSB.

How are you finding working with the Ukrainian Startup Fund and Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project?

Great experience. Very glad that such initiatives exist. Ukraine is finally becoming a country with great startup growth support. Now is the best time to start.

What’s next for NUWORK?

Further development, growth, mutually beneficial partnerships with direct employees and employment agencies in Poland.

Do you have any advice for first-time founders?

“If you never try, you’ll never know.” This rule always follows us when we make decisions related to the strategy, team and software.