UK-based job board co. opens Portland office
Matt Hoffner works from Portland to break open the U.S. market for a UK-based job board software company. (Photo/David A. Rodgers)
A UK-based Internet job board company has opened its first North American office in Portland and hired Matt Hoffner, founder and former CEO of Westbrook-based JobsInTheUS.com, to lead the company's foray into the U.S. market. The company, Jobg8 (pronounced "Job Gate"), has developed backend software that will connect the tens of thousands of Internet job boards in this country and allow them to share job postings and qualified candidates. Hoffner says the Portland office has already generated a lot of business in its first two and a half months and estimates there could be as many as 65 employees in Portland within three years.
Hoffner is a veteran of the Internet job board industry having founded JobsintheUS.com in 1999, which operated job boards in several states. (He also was one of the original managers at Wright Express.) Hoffner sold JobsInTheUS.com in December 2005 to Journal Register Co. and stayed on as CEO until 2007. Hoffner, who says he always thought he wanted to be a high school physics teacher, tried teaching after graduating from the University of Southern Maine's ETEP program. But teaching wasn't all it was cracked up to be, he says. So when Robbie Cowling, founder and CEO of Jobg8, approached him about developing the U.S. market for his company, Hoffner didn't hesitate. Cowling and Hoffner struck up a relationship after Cowling unsuccessfully bid for JobsInTheUS.com when Hoffner was looking to sell his company.
The Internet job board industry in the United States has ballooned in the past decade. Right now there are 40,000 Internet job boards in the country -- from the major ones like Monster.com to the regional ones to the ultra-niche industry job boards. In 1999, when Hoffner founded JobsintheUS.com, he says there were less than 5,000.
Jobg8 allows Internet job boards -- from the largest general interest job boards to the smallest niche ones -- to connect and share job postings and qualified candidates. Hoffner explains it this way: Internet Job Board A wants to provide its corporate customers more qualified applicants for the jobs they post, so it can join the Jobg8 network and share its customers' job posting with any number of other job boards throughout the country. Internet Job Board A tells Jobg8 that it will pay $2 for every qualified job applicant their client receives through the Jobg8 network. At the same time, Internet Job Board B says it wants $1 for every qualified candidate it provides to job postings received through the Jobg8 network. Jobg8 collects $2 from Internet Job Board A for every qualified candidate it receives and pays out $1 for every job applicant Internet Job Board B provides, netting a profit of $1 in this example. "In that sense we're like a marketplace," Hoffner says. "We're like a fish market. But instead of fish, we're selling qualified candidates."
The Portland office has only been open for two and a half months, but Hoffner says 8,000 Internet job boards in the country have already signed on to the network. Last month, 6,200 applications from qualified candidates flowed through the network, he says. So far the major job boards like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com haven't signed on, but Hoffner says it's only a matter of time. "I feel really good about the progress we've made in two and a half months, but I think major job boards won't be on board until late 2009 or early 2010," he says, adding that the regional job board he founded in 1999, JobsintheUS.com, hasn't signed on yet either. "We'll build with the smaller job boards that aren't so picky."
Hoffner expects to have 12 employees by the end of 2009 and as many as 65 within three years. While the technology jobs are based in England, the Portland office will house sales, customer service and accounting staff. "We're excited about getting started," Hoffner says. "I've always found the quality of the workforce in Maine is heads and shoulders above other parts of country."
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