How #Hire18’s Recruiting Startup of the Year, Honeypot.io, is Revolutionizing Hiring

June 6, 2018

4 min read

What if employers were interviewed by the employee instead of the other way around?

This was the question that inspired founders Kaya Taner and Emma Tracey to develop Honeypot.io, an e-staffing company focused on software developers. That and the understanding that tech talent often struggle to find a team that fits or the right tech stack. Honeypot.io was born from this problem, their revolutionary question and the mission to get every developer the job that suits their talents and goals.

Companies Apply to Candidates

Honeypot.io, launched in 2016, is an invite-only community of 50,000+ highly curated tech professionals, including software developers, data scientists, UX designers, DevOps, QA testers and product owners. Before gaining admittance into Honeypot.io, each professional is vetted through reviews of their code and interviews with the team. In any other job board, this is where tech talent will begin connecting with employers who have open roles.

With Honeypot.io, roles are reversed.

Companies apply to the candidates they are most interested in and it is up to the professional to choose the employer to interview. The companies and their offers are presented side by side, providing the candidate the opportunity to easily compare opportunities. Additionally, Honeypot.io condenses the job hunting time frame into 3 week periods by making the professional’s profile visible for 3 weeks at a time. This focuses the engagement and speeds up the time to hire.

Tech Behind Tech Talent

The premise is simple albeit overlooked by most Talent Acquisition Technologies. That simplicity carries over to the tech itself. Each professional is given a central profile from which they can show their skills and experience. Honeypot.io automates the screening process and uses Artificial Intelligence to match companies and talent. These processes are supported by two algorithms:

GoodDeeds – An algorithm which evaluates candidates open source code to assess their entry into the Honeypot.io platform
MindMatch – An algorithm that uses AI to facilitate a fit analysis between the organization and individual

Not only does this ease the job search for the professional, it assures employers that the individuals they see have been assessed with their needs in mind. Honeypot.io, though built with the struggles of tech talent in mind, still considers the needs of the companies in need of the right professional. This is even seen in their competitive payment model, which is 15% on a pay-per-fill basis.

Does it Work?

Since inception, Honeypot.io has had a 2200% growth in revenue (that’s within 2 years) and are used by over 1,000 companies across Europe. They reached full profitability by 2017, which is a year after founding. Between this amazing growth and the innovative idea, it’s no surprise Honeypot.io won Recruiting Startup of the Year at Hiring Success 18, an annual conference held by SmartRecruiters.

The company is located in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, but their exponential growth suggests expansion is highly likely.

Honeypot.io and the Talent Acquisition Ecosystem

The platform originated from a problem observed in the Recruiting space, questioned traditional hiring processes and offered an innovative solution. Tracey and Taner used their expertise, engenuity and desire to help people find their dream job to inspire a completely different take. If you’re looking for a peek into the future of Talent Acquisition, this is certainly a foundational story.

On a technical note, Honeypot.io brings candidates to the forefront of hiring, balancing machine learning assisted assessments and tech-enabled engagement with individual-fueled matching. This e-staffing model is disrupting the traditional staffing agency world and we expect big things from Honeypot.io in the future.