02 June, 2017

Coming from a business and information technology background, Kieran is no stranger to setting up successful businesses, while also having the courage to change course and challenge himself with new ventures.

As co-founder of  Ottera and Digital Skills Foundation, he knows only too well the importance of setting up a business at the right time and testing the market early on. Desmond came up with the idea of Referral.Works in March 2016 after meeting with a friend in Dublin who was bemoaning the fact that he was out of work.

At the same time, Kieran had turned down contract work which he thought his friend would be perfect for, so a deal was struck to make the referral which proved successful. It was from here that the concept of making the referral & recruitment process easier, more rewarding and transparent took shape and became the foundation for Referral.Works.  

So how does Referral.Works work?!

Referral.Works is a recruitment platform that can save companies €8,000 on average per hire, by incentivizing referrers to refer relevant people from their network for jobs. Referring and recruiting is made easy with the innovative patent pending technology, that ensures recruiters only get relevant and strong candidates while helping referrers to discover and refer jobs and people.

Referrers can earn from €50 for interviews to €1,200 on average per successful hire, making it lucrative for all involved.   This entire concept is totally unique as Referral.Works goes beyond plain referrals and keyword matching, looking at the relevance and the relationships of the people involved.

The innovative patent pending technology makes it easy for employers to source and pre-assess candidates, while incentivizing relevant people (referrers) to engage and refer great talent.   This process reduces the time spent by recruiters screening CV’s and irrelevant people by pre-assessing candidates before they get sent to the recruiter.

Therefore, Referral.Works gets recruiters the best people, who start working 10 days earlier and cost €8,000 on average less than with traditional methods. Referral.Works is the perfect solution for recruiters and HR Managers in Technology, Pharmaceutical and other skilled job sectors.  

Your experience of the New Frontiers Programme?

New Frontiers is a great programme if you want to build an investor ready business plan and seek funding. The people you meet, the training and facilities are great. Everyone is supportive and helpful. I especially enjoyed working and sharing the journey with the other fantastic businesses in the Rubicon. Having a group of peers to bounce ideas off and great support from is one of the best parts.  

Best advice you have ever received?

“Cash is King (Sales are key!)” “Build something your customers will pay for.”  

Your advice to young entrepreneurs?

Build a team of great people around you who support your weaker points.  

What advice you would give yourself if starting all over again?

Validate early, iterate quickly.