Meet Daniel Gorlovetsky, the man revolutionizing recruiting processes!
By Méryl Assayag — Tech It Forward.
We will never cease to be amazed by the journeys of the incredible entrepreneurs we meet. Today, Daniel Gorlovetsky shares with us how in search of new challenges, he created his company, Tigon Recruiter.
We would love to hear a short introduction about you and how you entered tech world.
I am what we call a PC kid. I’ve been around computers since I was 10 and turned it professionally when I turned 17. It started with web development and then I switched to mobiles when it started booming. My journey was a bit in reverse. I started off without any formal education. I did a professional course just to get me started and then I did a formal degree in computer science.
I’ve been trying on different hats and working in many roles understanding the challenges companies face where they start from and where they struggle.
I was the first employee at a company called Mobli. It was an interesting startup. We competed with Instagram before it became what it is today. We had dozens of millions of users across the globe. We were kind of booming back in the days.
I was also part of Double Verify, an ad tech startup. I was in charge of reopening their R&D center in Israel.
About a year ago, you founded your startup, Tigon Recruiter. Could you tell us more about it?
Tigon Recruiter helps companies hire faster, cheaper and more efficiently. Our platform automates your recruitment processes using sophisticated AI algorithms, so you can focus on growing your business. We have markets in the US, Europe, New Zealand, Brazil, and of course in Israel.
We find people that match the recruiters’ criteria based on 200 data sources.
How did you get the idea of Tigon recruiter?
In the last 7 years I was an R&D manager. My primary focus was on growing my team. I realized very quickly that it’s a big challenge. Throughout 2017 I didn’t do anything else but hire people. Frontal interviews, phone interviews, and onboarding. I spoke to a few friends and I realized that everybody struggles with hiring. The challenges keep on repeating. You need to filter the right person, do many interviews and work with different mediators.
It’s not uncommon for companies to pay millions of dollars for mediators to find the right talent for them. For small companies, with limited resources, it’s very painful and difficult to grow. Therefore, I decided that I wanted to explore more about why it takes so much time and so much capital.
I had several pieces of the puzzle. On one hand, I understood how it looks for a candidate who’s looking for a job and on the other hand, when I was trying to recruit, I experienced what the difficulties were from the hiring end as well. But the one piece I was missing is how it looks like as the middle-man.
I decided to fill in the missing piece and to open up an agency, HR Miracle. We had about 60 customers from small startups to enterprises like Google and Yahoo and about 1100 candidates. Slowly but surely we decided to see what is recurrent in the business and try to automate it. It was a cool experience. We learned a lot from it.
Then Covid hit. First, we understood that the first people that companies are going to dismiss are the recruitment agencies, the middle-men. Second, we decided to switch from being a services company to being a product company. Then we decided that instead of being the middle-man, we will sell the tools we used to grow our agency — directly to companies. This was the birth of Tigon Recruiter.
What is the best part of your job and what do you love most about it?
When you close a deal, when a good customer joins your portfolio, and when you have good feedback the feeling is great. Our business is to create employment for people. I personally do believe that we are doing something good in the world. And that’s one of the best parts.
One of the best aspects is that I create my own challenges. I have been helping other businesses to grow for a very long time. When you’re working for somebody, the challenges run out one day, and I was at a stage where I wanted more. But nobody gave it to me. As an entrepreneur, you control the pace you are running at. Improving as a person, that’s the whole thing about it.
What were the difficulties you had to face when you started developing your startup?
Finding the right co-founder was definitely my biggest challenge. I wanted someone that I could bond with but who is the opposite of me. Someone, that will conquer the challenges that I can’t. Yohai Shilon comes from a very different background. But we are finding the right vibe for us. I would describe our relationship as a very unconventional one but we are able to make it work.
Another challenge is that I’m the biggest critic of myself. Some weeks you wake up and you think that your business sucks, and some weeks you have this positive energetic vibe. It’s a bit cliché to say but it is a roller coaster. You are trying to create a business and to leave a mark and it’s not simple. If it was simple, everyone would do it. It takes a lot of mental strength. If you don’t like the downsides you won’t be able to enjoy the up-sides. You need to find your balance with the very uncertain journey.
How did the Coronavirus affect your startup’s growth?
My previous company was a recruitment agency. Because of the situation, companies stopped hiring. Out of the 60 customers the agency served, 59 just stopped hiring. Some said let’s talk about it in a few months while others just stopped answering.
As entrepreneurs, the biggest tool we have is randomness. This randomness factor used to happen quite a lot with meetings, accelerators and office spaces and Covid took it away from us. Today, if you want to meet with somebody, you have to schedule a week in advance over Zoom. There is no elevator pitch anymore.
One of the good things is that once you bypass major problems like a global pandemic, I think you become a better professional. If you can stay optimistic during these times then for sure you will make it in any other situation that may show up.
What do you wish for your company for 2021?
We had a tough year and even though we grew our business, we hope to grow it even faster and to close more customers. We want to find employees for our customers more efficiently and cheaply.
And of course Tigon wants to help people find jobs, especially during this time. As I said, I love challenges and I like when life is difficult so I hope for myself to have even more challenges.
Is there someone that belongs to the entrepreneurial world and inspires you?
I have indeed two people in mind. I will keep their names anonymous. The first one had a very difficult journey and still manages to persevere and succeed. On a personal level he’s a family man. So I learned from him on how to balance my business and my personal life as a whole.
The second person came from the B2B industry and wanted to get into the B2C. Everybody told him that he won’t succeed. And for every no that he heard, he just got more motivated to make it happen and he did. So he taught me the value of optimism and perseverance.
As a new CEO, do you have any advice to give to someone who wants to launch his own startup like you did?
To anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur, I would recommend starting by working for somebody else. When you start your journey, it’s the only way to understand where you are in comparison to the world. You also need to be prepared to work very hard, have stressful days and sleepless nights.
When you’re an entrepreneur, you never stop thinking about your business. Because if you don’t, nobody will.
Thank you very much Daniel for sharing your journey with us. We wish you and Tigon to have a year full of challenges and growth!
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