Valentine's Day is close and love is in the air. What kind of love are we covering this week?
Paychex marries errrr... acquires Danish Applicant Tracking System, Emply
then love is spread with Buy or Sell including - 1) WizeHire 2) Ethena 3) Nexthink
Yup, hooking up, video dating, and slapping around some startups, all on this love-filled episode of your favorite podcast, sponsored as always by Sovren, JobAdx, and Jobvite.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:
INTRO (1s):
Hide your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HR’s most dangerous podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry, right where it hurts! Complete with breaking news, brash opinion and loads of snark, buckle up boys and girls, it's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast.
Joel (21s):
Oh yeah. Valentine's day is here, which means nothing but love and respect on this week's podcast. Welcome to the Chad and Cheese show everybody. I'm your cohost, Joe "Margaritaville" Cheesman.
Chad (37s):
Chad "Walgreens" Sowash. Okay.
Joel (39s):
On this week's show Paradox goes visual, Paychecks goes where no payroll service should ever go. And we have some thoughts on the Superbowl ads. Hey, is that Drake from State Farm?
SOVREN (52s):
You already know that Sovren makes the world's best resume CV parser, but did you know that Sovren also makes the world's best AI matching engine? Only Sovren's AI matching engine goes beyond the buzzwords. With Sovren you control how the engine thinks with every match the Sovren engine tells you what matched and exactly how each matching document was scored. And if you don't agree with the way it's scored the matches, you can simply move some sliders to tell it, to score the matches your way. No other engine on earth gives you that combination of insight and control. With Sovren, matching isn't some frustrating "black box, trust us, it's magic, one shot deal" like all the others. No, with Sovren, matching is completely understandable, completely controllable, and actually kind of fun. Sovren ~ software so human you'll want to take it to dinner.
Chad (1m 51s):
About matching the match up between Casey in Tampa Bay was for shit.
Joel (1m 59s):
I have one comment on that game. Unless you're like me and took a flyer on nine-to-one for the Bucks to win it all about six weeks ago. Other than that, it was a pretty shitty game.
Chad (2m 12s):
It was horrible to watch. I mean, it was horrible to watch. Although, although for you, I'm not going to cry because you're going to be in fucking Key West some time soon. Are you going to like dress up in a hazmat suit to get your ass down there? Cause I mean, you're not a young buck. We got to make sure. Make sure you're good.
Joel (2m 32s):
You're wondering why my middle name was "Margaritaville" this week. First shout out for me goes to my sister, my wonderful loving sister, Holly who's on marriage number two, tying the knot in Key West marrying some dude named Mike. I'm kidding. I know who he is. And it's a pretty small ceremony. I'm flying down Saturday, staying through Tuesday. Scared about my 81 year old father and 78 year old step-mother are attending.
Chad (3m 4s):
He better being a bubble.
Joel (3m 7s):
Yeah. Yeah. That's you know, but he's Texas. He's from Texas. He lives in Texas and he watches Fox religiously. So as far as he's concerned, there is no virus. He'll be fine. I'm glad that the double mask initiative is in play now. So I'm gonna definitely double mask it up. I've promised my wife that if I, if I stop at Shake Shack, I will eat in a janitorial closet somewhere near the bathroom. But yeah, I'm going to be as safe as possible. I'm not hating the fact that I'm leaving the house for the first time in a year. Yeah. A trip to New York Xity would probably be safer than one to Key West. So pray for Joel. Pray for Joel, everybody.
Chad (3m 47s):
Yes. We need Joel in a bubble for the next, just the long weekend. So you won't be gone that long.
Joel (3m 54s):
Bubble of linen pants because I'll be on a beach time. And you know, watching my sister tie the knot,
Chad (4m 1s):
Congrats to your sister, no matter what numbers she's on. That doesn't matter. Congrats to her. I love how you like to, to number these things. It's like, look at this it's number two. The first failure is already over.
Joel (4m 14s):
Cheeseman's tend to stop it two. So I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good about this one.
Chad (4m 21s):
Christine will kill you before that happens. And she has the forensics background to make sure that nobody knows that she did it.
Joel (4m 30s):
Come on, man. Valentine's day is coming and she's, it's all about this (background music plays love songs) in our house, man.
Chad (4m 35s):
I'll tell you who I show some love to not just, I mean, obviously I definitely want to show some love too to Julie, but Walgreens. They, they named Roz Brewer or Rosalynn Brewer, Chief Operating Officer from Starbucks as their new CEO. That means Roz Brewer actually the only black female as a CEO in the Fortune 500. So that's a good start. Let's get more of that shit rolling. Now also, can we get some shots in our arms? Walgreens. Roz, can you make that happen please?
Joel (5m 17s):
This shows a big shout out for women. I think. So I'm going to give a shout out quickly to Bumble talk. Speaking of second marriages, Bumble went IPO today and the, the founder they're female 31 years old. She's the youngest CEO female ever to take a company public. Yeah. Congrats to her. That's fantastic. Bumble Biz is sort of relevant. Although I guess no one gives a shit. It's all about dating.
Chad (5m 44s):
Not really relevant. And so continuing the female talk here, shout out to Zoe Xu, Jonathan Xu's daughter for hooking me up with some friendship bracelets that she made herself. She sold them and used the money to help local families in need over the holidays. Now that is bringing your kids up. Right? Good job. Xu family.
Joel (6m 9s):
I'm glad you finally have a friend. And friends of the show real quickly, Josh, when right of boom of Poon Tang, I mean, sorry, pontoon and Victoria, Conley of ADP. They modeled some sexy, sexy t-shirts this, this week, their sportin' Chad and Cheese again, sexy love theme of the week.
Chad (6m 35s):
Valentine's I mean that's to Philly t-shirt shout outs in the last two weeks, emissary.ai logos all over Philly. And by the way, if you're not using texts to recruit welcome to 2021 kids and visit emissary.ai.
Joel (6m 52s):
No doubt. No doubt, well, shout out to Dennis Tupper. We talked about him yesterday, but he got his beer last night. And boy is he excited? Dennis don't drink it all, we're going to have a little zoom tasting soon. At least save a couple cans for the call buddy.
Chad (7m 7s):
I had one last night with James Dean, and this is all brought to you by kids, don't forget, AdZuna. Doug Monroe actually has an interview out there we did the last week, I believe, or we talk about Google Jobs antitrust. So go listen to Doug. Then go to chadcheese.com/free and register for a t-shirt, beerdrop, and we also have this whiskey thing that we're going to continue to do, right?
Joel (7m 37s):
Yeah. Yeah. We got the Chad's choice and the Cheese's choice of whiskey. We're bringing back the Blockbuster tradition and Sovren is sponsoring this because they hate everyone's liver apparently. Every month we're going to pick a winner. They're going to get two bottles of your favorite whiskey as well as one of my favorite whiskeys. I don't know how you beat that deal again. Sign up at chadcheese.com/free to enter for a chance to win some brown water. It's awesome.
Chad (8m 5s):
It's two bottles of fucking whiskey for God's sakes. Good for you. I've got a rant. Are you done with your shout outs? Because I've got to take a little time. It's time for catharsis and counseling right now.
Joel (8m 17s):
If you feel a little punchy. I'm ready, baby.
Chad (8m 20s):
No. Okay. So the Kroger story from last week where they closed two locations in Southern California. Where they, they wouldn't pay the additional $4 per hour for the essential employees that they have. They're essential workers while I did just some quick research, cause I was still kind of pissed about it and saw that Kroger's CEO makes over $14 million a year. So I screenshot that and I tweeted it at Kroger and just pretty much said, Kroger won't pay added $4 per hour for essential employees, yet they will pay their CEO $14 million a year. Kroger replied, and of course they didn't address the CEOs $14 million salary because they don't want to talk about that shit.
Chad (9m 7s):
They talked more about profitability. So Kroger's talking about profits yet, pay a single person more than 3000 times that of an essential worker. Why do we call them essential workers? If they don't do what they do, does anything get done? But this old white dude sits in a fucking chair and yet he makes 14 million dollars. Anyway, people stocking the shelves, doing the work, greeting customers. This is really Kroger is the shining example of polishing a turd when it comes to inequality.
Joel (9m 43s):
So I got it. No dude, there's a Kroger like almost within walking distance of you. Are you boycotting Kroger there in Columbus?
Chad (9m 51s):
Yeah. I'm going to. And see this is the hard part, right? We've got like the, we used to have a Marsh. We used to have like the smaller groceries. Now, you know, we have Walmart and Kroger. So the days of having the grocery around the corner, which was like the family owned or what have you, those days are really gone from most of small town America. These are the hard choices that we have to make because we've got to get our groceries from somewhere.
Joel (10m 18s):
Look at you, man, putting your mouth where your wallet is. And Julie doesn't shop at Amazon anymore. Right? Julie, doesn't like to get out. She's like wherever I get wherever I get it from that's fine.
Chad (10m 30s):
Not to mention, she loves the Walmart pickup. So she will do everything online and just drive up. They throw it in the trunk and boom, you're gone. So she loves that too.
Joel (10m 42s):
Do you feel better after letting that off your chest a little bit.
Chad (10m 45s):
I do. I do. I think I'm ready. Are you ready for topics?
Joel (10m 47s):
I'm ready for the news, man. Acquisitions galore, this week! Let's get to this one first, this one's a little baffling Paychex released Lesser Group, the company that owns Paychex acquired Emply or Emply, I think it's Emply, right? Although it's Etsy. So maybe Emply anyway, Lesser Group bought Paychex in 2018, today, or this week they announced the acquisition of Emply Emply as a fast growth. This is from them, a full suite, HR SAS provider, including a, a solutions for HR management, recruiting, onboarding and learning management Emply is recognized as a rising leader with an HR solution space in Denmark. Part of the acquisition is growing into big markets like the U S and Germany.
Joel (11m 30s):
The company has customers in 30 countries worldwide. The so will accelerate growth throughout the country, quote from the CEO "payroll customers in our main markets, Demark and Germany, have expressed a need for advanced cloud-based HR solution." So apparently there's a huge clamoring for payroll customers to get an ATS.
Chad (11m 51s):
Paychex sees the writing on the wall. We have all these individuals who are unemployed. That's going to flip, recruiting's going to turn back on, once we start getting shots and everybody's arms. So they see where the market's going to go. I don't want to hear this whole, we hear from our customers. I think that's bullshit. They see where the market's going. So to me though, it might seem odd. And I think to our listeners too, it might seem odd that when there are so many applicant tracking systems in the US that they could have acquired, but they buy a system across the pond in Denmark. And we're talking about a platform that's already, multilanguage not to mention it doesn't have as much leverage against it with funding as most of the U S platform.
Chad (12m 42s):
So if you think about it, a company like Paychex goes out, looks for a platform that they can use in multiple countries because obviously they have clients in multiple countries. And what can they plug in quickly that isn't incredibly leveraged at say a hundred million dollars in funding from VC or what have you? Right. It seems smart. And it seems easy, right?
Joel (13m 5s):
We talk all the time about one platform to rule them all right, and have one one-stop shop, make it easy. But I can tell you that the folks buying payroll services are likely not that involved with the recruiting side, the business or the candidate management side of the business. So I get the customer over overflow or maybe being able to add customers, but it just seems like a round peg in a square hole to me, all those round pegs go through square holes, but not square holes through round holes. So it's on the size of the peg. So that's a little bit confusing. I just, to me, this feels like a forced platform play.
Joel (13m 46s):
Customers will probably be confused because the ones that are on an ATS, aren't going to switch over to this ATS. The people on this ATS are not likely to move over to Paychex. So I don't know the jury's out on this one, I'm no, I'm no payroll expert, but this one seems a little bit strange to me.
Chad (14m 6s):
Yeah, it is interesting, because they aren't the same decision makers. They're not the same individuals who adopt now. I do like the whole thought process. And again, I think this is one of the deals that works on paper. Overall, you're talking to two groups that really don't communicate or work together that much. There's a handoff and the system hands off through an API and you're done. So we already have enough companies who have to use Workday. They're forced to use Workday because it's their ERP, right? It's their downstream system. I don't know that Paychex or a payroll system can actually have that much force or leverage to make, you know, the ATS decision.
Joel (14m 52s):
Well, here's our second acquisition of the week that you might be more interested in. A recruiter.com acquires Scouted, a recruiter.com is a public company. I don't know if you knew this or not, but they are a pink sheet penny stock, roughly trading at $3.30. If you're interested, you can find them at our C R T to ticker symbol. They are an on-demand video enabled and artificial intelligence hiring platform. They tout themselves as the world's largest network of recruiters, which is probably news to LinkedIn, but they've, they've acquired. They've acquired a scouted.io venture backed tech startup focused on unlocking human potential by developing deep insights into candidates, using video screening and AI based scoring algorithms.
Joel (15m 38s):
Does it sound a little bit like Verbo, maybe? Scottish CEO and co-founder Jacquelyn Loeb. This is a female startup, both co-founders are females. I mentioned this was a female heavy heavy show at the beginning. She said, quote "with Scouted's automated video and data forward approach to candidate onboarding recruiter.com can provide a turnkey experience that allows clients to tap more rapidly and more accurately into richly diverse talent pools" terms were not disclosed founded in 2015. Scouted only had an undisclosed seed round. So this baby was bootstrapped since 2015.
Joel (16m 18s):
So good for them. This was probably a pretty nice payday.
Chad (16m 21s):
Recruiter.com paid for the acquisition primarily in restricted common stock. So you think so?
Joel (16m 28s):
Can I revise that statement?
Chad (16m 32s):
Yeah, I think this is a candidate data play. This is nothing like Verbo. This is a more of a backend assessment. I need candidate insights, Scouted pretty much, it seems like they get a ton of data from the candidates that actually use their system. That's awesome. But overall, the recruiter.com network in itself, I think this is an interesting data play overall. They want to be able to quickly match candidates to jobs, throw a recruiter on it, get a payday. I mean, th th there's there's some mechanics in here that actually makes sense.
Chad (17m 12s):
But overall, do I think this impacts our industry as much as you know, maybe LinkedIn adding a feature tomorrow?
Joel (17m 22s):
No, no, not at all. What surprised me was how much recruiter.com is pimping, you know, the quote unquote video enabled our AI hiring platform because forever they'd been a network of recruiters and they've been that for a really long time. So this to me is like, Hey, let's get into some tech shit. Let's throw out some AI stuff. And Scouted as is a nice little, probably technology, a small team to acquire, to bring on and plug that in hopefully to their largest network of recruiters in the world. Don't tell LinkedIn, they said that. Alrighty. So if are we bearish on both of those? It sounds like pretty much.
Chad (18m 1s):
Yeah, I'm not, it's not that I'm bearish on recruiter.com. I just don't know that this actually moves the industry at all. I think the Paychex one is, again, it's more funny when you look at it on paper versus practicality.
Joel (18m 17s):
Yeah. Yeah. A couple of pen pushers checked out the Paychex did before that went through. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll talk some more video with Paradox.
JOBADX (18m 25s):
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JOBADX (19m 5s):
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Chad (19m 28s):
Got another t-shirt announcement here. Kids actually literally just got a message from Jarvis Corral apparently we sent her a Chad and Cheese t-shirt yeah. And she's wearing it and enjoys listening to the podcast religiously to stay up to date. That's right. That's right. Jarvis, not just an Operating System, by the way.
Joel (19m 53s):
Looking good. Looking good Jarvis. Well, you know what else is looking good candidates in Olivia apparently. So this is one of our shreds. So listeners already know this, but Chadbots are go, Oh, sorry. Conversational AIs are going video kids! Paradox who we've talked about quite a bit on the show, we've interviewed a lot of their employees. So you, you knew at some point the text messaging thing was cute. The automated chat bot was cute, but you knew they were going to go video at some point. And they finally have officially, they're not the Mavericks in this. They're not the trailblazers. And I'm sure Chad will talk about that, but they've added video.
Joel (20m 34s):
Three primary selling points of this is that as employers can embed videos within messages. So if you got a nice little employment branding video, you want to throw in there to let a job seeker see that, you can do that and it plays within the messaging app. You can also record a short video responses. This is the candidate to standard pre-screen or have interview questions from there. So if you want to like, have an automated, 'Hey, videotape yourself this answer, and then we'll prescreen you through that.' And then lastly, they have hosted video and they've also integrated with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WebEx, Blue Jeans, and a few others that are integrated.
Joel (21m 18s):
I'm sure you're bullish on this right video beyond chat bots?
Chad (21m 23s):
Yeah. I know. I'm totally biased because I'm friends with Adam Godson and I think he's like one of the smartest people in the industry. I think it's between him and
Joel (21m 32s):
I consider you a friend to Adam, just so you know.
Chad (21m 35s):
Quincy Valencia, who's the queen of chat bots or conversational AI, whatever. Yeah. I think we take a look at this, right? And we're talking about inline video answering, which is different than actual, lightweight connectors for a video interviewing and the Hirevues of like, you know, they've been around for like what 10 years or so?
Joel (21m 55s):
Quite a while.
Chad (21m 56s):
Yeah. They still Hirevue's been around for a while, they built a platform from the ground up, and that was great 10 years ago, but today there's not a need for that. Right? We have Zoom. We have all these different platforms that companies are already using. It's a part of their routine today, right. And instead of forcing a recruiter or a hiring manager into a new technology or a platform that they don't even know, they have to get trained up on. They have to adopt, they have to use why not just use what their existing platforms are and create connectors between those two so that you don't have to go through all of that crazy friction.
Chad (22m 42s):
And that is what Paradox did. So I know, like it was one of the things that talk push did back, you know, a few years ago. And I think that companies like Paradox will continue to do things like this instead of trying to build platforms from the ground up. Because right now, if you think about it, what kind of technical debt is Hirevue going to have to go through to keep their shit up to date rather than being a connector type of platform, per se, that just brings together all the platforms you're already using and make those a much, just a much more seamless process.
Joel (23m 21s):
Yeah. I had a note here that says, does Hirevue go downstream. And when you think about the incumbents and when they see a new technology, you know, driven by things that didn't really exist when you started in this case, maybe mobile messaging, sort of the adoption of that, and also FaceTime and Zoom video. And you probably saw it coming, but how does it sort of integrate with our space and when Paradox and Maya and Zaur, and all the ones that we talk about launched Hirevue had to look at that and go, ah, damn it, it's just a matter of time before this starts to get into our space.
Joel (24m 2s):
And it really starts to cause us some significant headaches. So does, you know, to me, it's like the people who are using Paradox now know that it has video. So it's like, okay, do we need Hirevue? Do we need that contract? So the question I had was now it is Hirevue go downstream and create some sort of a mobile experience, a chat bot kind of thing.
Chad (24m 25s):
They bought AllyO.
Joel (24m 27s):
Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So that that's there, right? So they've, at least they've put up defenses against what's going on. So that'll be interesting to watch, you know, I think this commoditizes chat a little bit, maybe the move to sort of evolve into video. I don't know how much importance the texting, the text-based messaging will have as you know, 10 years from now versus video. And we talk a lot about like every company as a platform is going to have to all have all these things. Like we joke about Tengai, the robot, you know, Tengai eventually needs to be a chat bot at some point.
Joel (25m 7s):
Like there needs to be a full sort of array of experience, with these things. So, yeah, I, when I first read this, I was like, Oh, Hirevue is going to take a shit. And they probably are also think from a standpoint of talent, you know, Paradox has done a really good job over the last year of getting in people that know what they're doing. And I think a lot of that is starting to come to fruition and they keep adding quality people onto the staff. So a Paradox is one to look out for, for sure. I think this is just the beginning of the features that will impress.
Chad (25m 41s):
Well, I think what we're looking at now is we're looking at a lightweight startups that aren't trying to create something from the ground up in totality, right? So it's try to create their own quote unquote "ecosystem." Rather what they're doing is they're just, they're being the connector to make this whole process easier. I mean, we hear about you know, RPA and, and how just the process automation piece means so much. This is another example of that. And when you're looking at Hirevue, they were on the frontier, let's say of building these things. How do they pivot and try to fight against some of these faster, more lightweight types of brands and platforms.
Chad (26m 28s):
I mean, it's gonna be different and hard and, and trying to use AllyO to prop up legacy technology is not going to be easy neither.
Joel (26m 37s):
It disrupts everything, but it's fun to talk about on a podcast.
Chad (26m 40s):
Oh yeah.
Joel (26m 41s):
Almost as fun as buy or sell!
Chad (26m 44s):
Yes!
Joel (26m 44s):
You ready to play a little buy or sell?
Chad (26m 46s):
I am.
Joel (26m 47s):
Alright. First up on the chopping block is WizeHire, that's Wize with the Z kids, you can find out more at wizehire.com. So the Houston-based maker of a hiring solution for small businesses raised 7.5 million in a Series A announced this week prior to institutional funding WizeHire bootstrapped to over 7,000 paying customers and 4.7 million in recurring revenue throughout 2020. WizeHire's recruiting platform has been implemented across real estate, mortgage and insurance industries with what they say is growing traction in the hospitality vertical.
Joel (27m 28s):
One thing that probably launched them into another stratosphere was that they partnered with lenders for the paycheck protection program, or PPP to make relief, more accessible to local businesses. They also provide job description help, and they blast those postings all around the web for small businesses. Buy or sell Wizehire?
Chad (27m 51s):
Yeah, I think they've already demonstrated that they're a buy. To be able to make the right types of partnerships, to be able to go grow to 7,000 customers. I do think that the system, you got to remember SMBs are going from pencil and paper and Excel spreadsheets to now this new tech. So they don't know what they don't know. WizeHire has these hiring coaches that actually goes through, they have a chat that's there. So it's like a constant help in a crutch that's there the entire time. So I think that's good to a degree. I would love to see more of an RPA kind of a system set in place for them moving down the road.
Chad (28m 34s):
But I mean, overall, these are great platforms. And if you make the right partnerships, you can see explosive growth and these guys have already demonstrated they can do that. So it's a buy.
Joel (28m 44s):
Wow. So for me, it was a tough one, but I'm going to go sell on this one. I hate small businesses, small businesses, small businesses go out of businesses. Okay. Yeah. And you gotta, you gotta recycle this shit. You got a ton of churn. This business has people involved. So it's like heavy with the handholding of these businesses. You got a ton of competition from all the way from Craigslist to the gig platform. You know, the gig economy to the job cases of the world, you know, 7.5 is a drop in the bucket compared to what they're going to need to compete. It's a nice little story. It's a sweet, you know, a sweet deal so far.
Joel (29m 26s):
And the PPP thing was a good snag for them. Oh, Snag-a-job by the way. There are competitors as well. So it's a nice little story, but for me, it's a sell. Next up on the chopping block is Ethena not Athena Karp, who's one of our favorites on the show, but this one can be seen it goethena.com, the Brooklyn, New York based provider of sexual harassment prevention and corporate compliance training raised an additional 2 million in funding. The startup had it raised 2 million previously in June. Clients include Netflix, Zoom and ZenDesk. They provide bite sized, ongoing lessons for workers.
Joel (30m 8s):
They launched geez, February, 2020. So just a year old, they also have women co-founders, we always, you know, love that. I love this. They use comic book, light graphics to explain bad behavior, which people like me need keeping companies out of court with comic book graphics. Buy or sell Chad?
Chad (30m 28s):
So first off it's Ethena with an E as opposed to an a like the goddess of war.
Joel (30m 35s):
Ethena, Ethena...
Chad (30m 37s):
goethena.com. Here's here's the biggest key companies are spending billions with a B on DEI training. And now that Trump's dumb ass is out of office and his EO is null and void. DEI training is back on this platform feels like Netflix, TikTok and DEI training had a baby it's curated and updated content, short five minute videos and a nudge when you need to get your training on. So companies are spending billions and humans are always looking for a quote, unquote, "check the box, silver bullet" type of solution and Ethena gives them all of that in one package.
Chad (31m 20s):
This is a huge buy for me. It's an, it's an easy one for a company that to plug into.
Joel (31m 25s):
Totally so huge buy for me as well. I'll just sort of reiterate what you said. Like, you know, HR is, is made to keep companies out of trouble, out of court, right? We had a recent background check discussion, which was one of the best interviews in our short year so far.
Chad (31m 41s):
Kim Jones.
Joel (31m 42s):
You know, not only is it like a play to keep your company out of trouble, it's the right business at the right time. I love, love, love the way that they give bite-sized TikTok, generational style lessons for people, the comic book sort of animated series about like dating at work and having that animated is fricking brilliant. Love that. So, yeah, to me, this is a year old company. Second round already. This company is going to get gobbled up probably this year and the co-founders are going to be really wealthier than they are today. So big buy from me as well.
Joel (32m 23s):
Ethena.
Chad (32m 24s):
Any applicant tracking system that's out there today should acquire this fucking company, plug it into their existing platform. And it's instant cash.
Joel (32m 34s):
Speaking of instant cash. This brings us to our third and final buy or sell of the week. This is Next Thing. Did I say that right there? Guardian. Gotcha. Okay. So founded in 2004, geez we were just in our teens back then this, the Swiss Switzerland based Next Thing announced a $180 million D round, that's US dollars kids, by the way, this brings their total raise to $345 million. They announced a valuation of 1.1 billion, which gives them what kind of status Chad?
Chad (33m 10s):
Unicorn, bitches.
Joel (33m 12s):
Unicorn status. All right, Next Thing gives companies insight into employees, daily experiences with technology at the device level and gives a company the ability to collect and track employee sentiment and broadcast real-time communications. Next Thing then collects activities and metrics such as performance issues, unused software, policy breaches, browser requests, and hundreds of other metrics, and puts them in a nicely, a nice to read dashboard. Welcome to the big brother economy. Everybody by or sell, Chad?
Chad (33m 44s):
Employee experience is a thing now that we're like not in the office, which is weird because we all had an experience when we were in the office too. So it's, I mean, it's interesting how COVID has really changed everything, but it's important that, you know, we monitor and tap into signals without being all creepy and surveillancy. But I think, I think this, goes way too far because you're creating a platform where a platform really isn't needed. I mean, instead we need to lightweight connections for existing systems, which compile those signals and provides analytics. And this company is 700 people strong with $345 million in funding.
Chad (34m 28s):
So it feels like a 2010 solution in 2021. Plus again, it's creepy surveillance and I'm going to sell this fucking thing.
Joel (34m 38s):
All right, we're gonna be on the opposite end of this one, too, this is a big buy for me. In a work from home world companies are freaked out that their employees are doing God knows what, which I think takes monitoring up to another level. Companies are going to want to know what the hell everybody's doing, what software, I mean, this is super creepy shit, but this is the world we live in. Companies want to know what you're doing, especially when you're working from home. This company is in business, has been in business for a long time. They've got a ton of money. You mentioned a ton of employees like companies. Don't just do that without a demand out there for their services. So for me, that's a big applause. It's a big applause.
Chad (35m 18s):
Yeah. Or somebody big buy them very quickly
Joel (35m 22s):
Unicorn like a motherfucker boys. So let's take a quick break. We'll listen to our buddy a word from our buddies at Jobvite. And we'll talk about the Superbowl advertisements.
Jobvite
You know, Steve, it feels like we keep getting pushed to hire more and better candidates with no more budget. Right? I wish there was a way to get better results from what we're doing. Actually, I heard in episode of Chad and Cheese about this framework from Jobvite. Oh yeah. Evolve. It's a technology agnostic framework to help TA teams get better results from their recruiting efforts. And we don't even have to be a Jobvite by customer to use it. I bet we would get better results if we orchestrated all of our efforts. You mean like a centralized process and all of our channels working together? For sure, whether it's job boards, social, or even texting with candidates. Let's do that. jobvite.com/evolve. I'll send you the link. Cool. I'm going to finish watching this episode of Bridgerton. Still haven't seen Bridgerton.
Chad (36m 20s):
So meta.
Joel (36m 22s):
So I feel like this is the only part of the show I really wanted to talk about. So we're saving it for last Superbowl ads, thoughts.
Chad (36m 30s):
First question. How much money did Paramount pay? Because the Paramount Plus ads were all over the fucking place.
Joel (36m 37s):
So I gotta admit, I loved the one they said crack, like there's a crack in the rock or something. And Beavis, Butt-Head just laugh and go. She said, crack took me back to being a 12 year old, which doing this show also does.
Chad (36m 52s):
Of course.
Joel (36m 53s):
Yeah, dude, I don't, I mean the whole streaming fatigue thing, like I have ones, like my wife has bought some, I don't even know. We have like, I'll just be surfing around and you know, we've got streaming shit. I didn't like the Brittany streaming channel. Like what is that? I'm kidding. We don't have that. But anyway, I'm not going to get Paramount. I didn't, we didn't get Peacock. I think, I think we're at our limit. How about you guys?
Chad (37m 16s):
Yeah. I don't see anything out there that we really need not to mention a lot of what we have comes free. So, I mean, Julie just bought an iPad. So we have Apple Plus for who knows how long? I've already extinguished all of the good content that's on that platform because they don't come up with that much. That fast. They're not like a Netflix, right? They're not pumping out the content or HBO MAX is fucking kill them. It too. So I think those two platforms are really the ones that to try to beat at this point.
Joel (37m 48s):
So did you finally get to watch Greyhound?
Chad (37m 50s):
Yeah. Thank God. Great movie.
Joel (37m 52s):
Yeah. Great movie. Great movie.
Chad (37m 54s):
All right. Well, so we're not getting Paramount, so suck it.
Joel (37m 58s):
One of the, we got, okay, let's talk about Indeed.
Chad (38m 1s):
I don't think it's worth it.
Joel (38m 2s):
All right. So I have, I have three comments about the Indeed ad and they're all relevant because they weren't relevant before the super bowl. It was very evident that they brought a knife to a gunfight. The Superbowl at this point is if you don't have Springsteen, Drake, mega stars, cute babies or animal like talking animals or whatever, like you're just going to be lost in the shuffle. And the Indeed ad was lodged between a Jonas Brother ad and Drake from State Farm.
Chad (38m 33s):
That was hilarious. Yeah.
Joel (38m 34s):
So they were, I think were basically totally ignored. The other thing that was curious to me is that the ad was really focused to active job seekers.
Chad (38m 43s):
Yes.
Joel (38m 44s):
And the number one complaint we hear from Indeed users is that they have too many candidates, right? So to me, they just exacerbated the biggest problem that they already have by appealing to an active job seeker, someone who's unemployed. Right? So I get the warm and fuzzy, but it felt like that these guys really know who their audiences, of who's buying the product. And then the third thing, which is a little bit petty, but God damn it. How many words do you need to put in an ad? Like there's like 12 sentences, over 50 words, the words sort of combined with each other. Cause the same word stay. And then like words go in the middle. But I'm like, you know, if we know anything about the human race, less words is more, total, meh.
Joel (39m 26s):
I thought it was total forgettable. And it, it was a, it was a fail.
Chad (39m 30s):
Not worth the time. Well, it was worth the time though was sexy Alexa, the new Alexa design I thought was hilarious. They're touting this new Alexa design and they hardly even show the fucking design because the sales rep is talking about the new design and she wanders over to a window and she's sees on a bus, Michael B. Jordan who's in like a movie promotion on the side of a bus. She starts then fantasizing about Michael B. Jordan, Jordan as her Alexa. It is fucking hilarious. The ad does little to promote the new design itself.
Chad (40m 12s):
But overall it was funny. Itwas memorable. And I definitely got a chuckle out of it.
Joel (40m 19s):
So my favorite part of that ad is that is the husband.
Chad (40m 22s):
Oh yes, no, it is. It is hilarious. Lights on! lights off!
Joel (40m 26s):
And like the sexual innuendo when he's like, babe, it's, it's wet enough out here as it is. Cause the sprinkler is on. And then it's like, no, turn the lights on, turn the lights back on. For that shit. And that shit was definitely funny. What were some other ones that, that caught your attention?
Chad (40m 43s):
It wasn't me shaggy in Cheetos. I mean, that was hilarious. I mean, you know, Ashton Kutcher and his wife,
Joel (40m 51s):
Mila Kunis!
Chad (40m 52s):
Mila that's she was stealing Cheetos.
Joel (40m 55s):
I got that correctly.
Chad (40m 56s):
She was saying, was it wasn't me? So that was funny. And then the m&ms the funniest part about the acronyms people are giving M and M's to people that they're apologizing to. They're saying, I'm sorry. And they're giving them a bag of M and M's well, this lady gives another lady a bag of M and M's and says, I'm sorry, I called you Karen. The lady says, my name is Karen. She gives her another bag of them in the second bag and says, I'm sorry, your name is Karen.
Joel (41m 24s):
Yup. Yup. Enjoy that as well. I'll throw in the Drake from State Farm. I thought it was great. They brought back the cheese head guy from the Rogers commercial, which I thought was great. The Will Ferrell. I liked with Auquafina and yeah, we hate on Norway. That was great. And then the lemons, I really enjoyed where they were like the, or the lemons seltzer from Bud Light, I think. And it was like, Oh, the whole year has been a lemon. And then like lemons fall from the sky and destroy everything. Uber Eats was sort of a bit off, got a lot of criticism.
Chad (41m 56s):
Total gaf right there is what that was.
Joel (41m 58s):
Yeah. While we're getting 30% from these small businesses and killing them, please keep using Uber Eats.
Chad (42m 4s):
My, my big wins though were from two companies and they're both car companies and they didn't show any product whatsoever. So the first one was Ford finished strong, where they're asking Americans to finish this COVID thing strong also on people wearing masks, essential workers, sanitizing areas, medical workers, you know, patients, all those things. And they're just saying, Hey guys, and it is almost like this. Can we just focus, be disciplined and let's finish strong together because it's the best for all of us.
Joel (42m 39s):
And buy a Bronco while you're at it.
Chad (42m 41s):
That was a good one. Yeah, that was good. And that's it. And again, we're talking about really selling brand over product at that point. And then Toyota had one that was entitled Upstream. And that to me was the best ad of the Superbowl. The ad starts out with a woman swimming in the background, and then you hear a telephone call and the call is taken and says, you know, Hey, this is Mrs. Long, we have an adoption, you know, prospect of a little girl who's in Serbia with a condition in her legs will probably need to be amputated, which means her life won't be easy. And it's kind of like asking this question, do you still want this little girl?
Chad (43m 21s):
And then the mom says it might not be easy, but it'll be amazing. And I can't wait to meet her! And wow! This turns out to be the 13 time, Paralympic gold medalist, Jessica Long. And if you don't watch this as a parent and like get all choked up and I'm crying, I'm not crying. You're crying, then something's wrong with you?
Joel (43m 45s):
I promised myself I wouldn't cry. Oh my God. So, so getting stars can backfire. And you shared a story from the Jeep ad, which was, was fairly powerful in the middle. What happened there? We just got a little loose, I guess.
Chad (44m 1s):
Bruce much like a Tom Brady got a little, got a little, you know, liquored up.
Joel (44m 6s):
Well, avocado tequila. I think.
Chad (44m 9s):
Got a little liquored up the problem was the problem was Bruce got in a car and he drove and he got caught. So Bruce got a DUI and then Jeep yanked. Yeah. They yanked their commercial out of rotation, which is a lot of fucking money that is going to sit on the shelf.
Joel (44m 27s):
Oddly enough, the top rated in terms of engagement ad was the, the John Cena Mountain Dew where the lemons or the bottles come out of the car. And they're like, Hey, if you tweet the number of bottles that came out of the car, you can win a million dollars. So engagement on that was off the charts. That kind of surprised me. Cause I thought it sucked. And I would be remiss if I didn't add. I'm sure you saw the SNL before super bowl Sunday.
Chad (44m 54s):
Yeah.
Joel (44m 55s):
So they had the CBS pregame crew and then they had ads. So one of them was reminding of the Oreo ad. The we've been coming together. It was like a really emotional ad. And then it was like brought to you by Cheez-Its. They just throw it at Cheez-its. And then the second one was, was better. It was like, it was a Papa John's play on the QAnon thing. And they had like Papa John's Better pizza, Better ingredients, Papa John's whatever. And no sex trafficking in the basement. And then it was like, get your Qpon. It was a cute letter, Q like Q anon, and then pon at PapaJohns.com today. So I, those were fucking great too.
Chad (45m 35s):
In a creepy kind of way. Yes. Which SNL is very good at.
Joel (45m 38s):
Yes. Yes. And that's all the commentary I have for the Superbowl ads, anxiously waiting next year, Superbowl, or maybe there will be a hundred percent seated fans in the stadium. Let's hope. But until then, Chad,
Chad (45m 51s):
Then you be safe on your trip. I don't know how sexy it's going to be, but you be safe.
Joel (45m 58s):
Well, this is our out music for a Valentine's Day weekend. Are you doing anything fun with Julie?
Chad (46m 5s):
Yes. Nothing I can talk about.
Joel (46m 6s):
Oh yeah. And with that, another show in the books.
Chad (46m 13s):
We out.
Joel (46m 13s):
We out.
OUTRO (47m 11s):
Thank you for listening to, what's it called? The podcast with Chad, the Cheese. Brilliant. They talk about recruiting. They talk about technology, but most of all, they talk about nothing. Just a lot of Shout Outs of people, you don't even know and yet you're listening. It's incredible. And not one word about cheese, not one cheddar, blue, nacho, pepper jack, Swiss. So many cheeses and not one word. So weird. Any hoo be sure to subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Google play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts, that way you won't miss an episode. And while you're at it, visit www.chadcheese.com just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. Is so weird. We out.
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