Recruiting Startup of the Year Nominee: Wonderkind

Dutch startup Wonderkind has created an innovative job advertising technology that reaches both active and passive job seekers on media channels they use daily, like social media, websites and apps. This helps corporates and staffing agencies to create and execute the perfect recruitment marketing campaign, thus attract high-quality and happy talent.  

Meet the companies vying for the title of Recruiting Startup Of The Year (RSOTY) at Hiring Success 18, in San Francisco, March 12-14. Your vote determines which six are flying to California to pitch their ideas to 1000+ Talent Acquisition leaders and puts them in the running for the grand prize.

One of these six will be selected by a group of C-Suite experts and industry analysts for the ultimate prize of a Gold Sponsorship to Hiring Success 19, worth $10,000, which includes a branded booth and dedicated demo-room for potential customers to interact with their product.

Before bringing his innovative wares from the Lowlands to the Bay Area for Hiring Success 18, CEO Lars Wetemans lets us in on the thought process behind his wonder-product.

What’s your company’s elevator pitch?

Eighty-one percent of all job seekers are passive, so why do we only target active job seekers in advertising? Wonderkind has built world’s first automated technology that advertises jobs anywhere on the internet. In apps like Tinder, Google or on social media. We reach 90+% of all internet users with the right ad, on the right channel at the right time.

What gave you the idea for your startup?

Before Wonderkind, my partner and I both had a social media agency. Nowadays, people spend an insane number of hours on their mobile and especially on social media. We found it strange that no one was recruiting where talent is actually active, especially because those channels have really advanced targeting options. We can target ads on demographics, geolocation, online behavior and interests. Sourcing is time-consuming and repetitive. What we do is automated sourcing through targeted advertising anywhere on the internet. Goodbye post & pray!

How do you envision your idea changing the talent acquisition landscape?

I am very confident that targeting, A/B testing and advertising on non-job platforms (like apps, social or any other site) is a logical next step in job advertising, and will set the new standard. Besides that, I believe that job advertising alone will not suffice when you want to attract passive talent. You need to tell them first about your company values (employer branding) before you can talk about the jobs at that company. We think a full-funnel approach is the only way forward when you want to win the war for talent. Automation is another necessity for scaling your recruiting efforts. Automated sourcing through programmatic and targeted job advertising is, therefore, the future.

What does ‘hiring success’ mean to you?

Have a complete insight into the ROI of your recruitment strategy. From the first touch point, a candidate has with you as an employer, to how a hire is performing at your organization years later. You need to know exactly when, where and how to reach top hires.

What’s the role of technology in hiring?

It’s the combination of tech and human skills that leads to magic.