MeetnMake: the startup giving real meaning to recruitment
On every person’s path, there are encounters that can prove valuable for the person’s personal achievements. This could summarise the itinerary of the two startuppers and cofounders of MeetnMake we are looking at today within the framework of our business portrait. We take a look.
A story of friendship
Before taking on a collaborative aspect, the nature of the relationship between Hanane Bey and Abdessamad El Mahrad — the two startuppers we are looking at today — was first and foremost emotional. This longstanding friendship was illustrated by their shared hobbies and love of extreme sports (Rafting, Mud Day, crossing the desert or 1,000 km by bike) that gradually strengthened the trust between the two partners. This bond of trust allowed them to create common ground on which they were able to put together their business project. It was thus from this common base that the project driven by these two entrepreneurs with different but complementary career paths and profiles emerged.
Hanane Bey was educated in art and linguistics that opened her mind and led to her learning to speak a number of languages (English, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Japanese). As she likes to say, her artistic soul is a little incongruous with the entrepreneurial landscape that consists mainly of “rational” and “pragmatic” individualities. Her desire to be an entrepreneur is therefore not deep-rooted in the search for a commercial response to a targeted economic need, but rather in questions about where her atypical profile fits into the job market.
These questions led to the first signs of the entrepreneurial project she has co-constructed with her partner with a very different professional path.
Very different indeed! Abdessamad El Mahrad has a scientific background, a diploma in IT engineering and a Masters in IT Systems Management. At the end of his course, what quickly drove him was the search to excel himself in order to be accomplished both personally and professionally.
This personal quest has structured his life as, on top of his entrepreneurial activity, he undertakes social experiments that take him outside his comfort zone (cf. The Abventures), all backed by his community (16,000 followers) that stimulates him in the accomplishment of his feats. Indeed his professional career is in line with the social experiments he carries out at the same time.
This leitmotiv therefore naturally led to him launching a startup with Hanane on the basis of their shared aspirations: MeetnMake.
Putting the applicant at the heart of the recruitment process
Born 2 years ago, Hanane Bey and Abdessamad El Mahrad’s project is rooted in the incompatibility between the applicant’s values and those stated by the company.
This observation led them to turn to entrepreneurship in order to offer professional opportunities that are better suited to the profiles of applicants who encounter this type of frustration that can be a hindrance for both employee fulfilment and the company’s long-term future.
To address this issue, the two partners wanted to put the applicant back at the centre of the recruitment process in order to create professional collaboration based on a win-win dynamic. It was thus based on this approach consisting in matching talents to the corporate culture that MeetnMake was officially launched on 27 March, 2017. This startup’s 9-person team covers diverse jobs such as Front developer, Data analyst or Designer.
Built around two areas — dedicated to both applicants and recruiters — MeetnMake contributes to the transparency of information relative to applicants’ experience and skills to enable it to find the most suitable work environments. A back office devoted to the applicant lets the latter provide information about their experience, skills, salary expectations, desired commuting time, values and additional information.
At the same time, a back office dedicated to the recruiter lets them input information (parity within the company, number of employees, awards won, etc.) as well as videos and pictures of the premises and teams. Lastly, a compatibility percentage is calculated using all this information to immediately see how compatible the applicant and company are.
Being a free service for job applicants lies at the heart of the philosophy promoted by MeetnMake. The idea is to have a better balance between recruiters and applicants. This way, a reversal of perspective takes place as it is the employer that must position themselves more as an active agent. And for good reason: the company is no longer positioned as an offeror but literally as a seeker on the job market.
Break the deadlock
Popular first and foremost amongst large corporations and SMEs, use of the startup’s services is charged in accordance with the size of the company (for further information, just send an email to hello@meetnmake.com).
The MeetnMake startup benefited from an innovation loan from Societe Generale via the Saint Denis regional head office. And this financial contribution could result in real long-term cooperation for both parties, insofar as MeetnMake could eventually consider offering its services to Societe Generale.
Lastly, to establish their credibility and attract more clients, the pair behind this ambitious project have signed partnerships with colleges and universities such as ESC Grenoble, Dauphine, CNAM, 42 and Epitech. MeetnMake has also benefited from good media coverage. A number of general and specialised national publications including Le Parisien, French Web and Le Figaro have put the spotlight on this startup.
The startup’s mediation service is tending to substantially modify the French labour market, which is often criticised for its inertia. Gaining inspiration from the dating model where you don’t commit until you get to know the person, MeetnMake offers an innovative approach to the employer-employee relationship based on information symmetry. That’s why it’s no surprise that Le Figaro has called this startup “the Meetic of the job market”.
The MeetnMake startup has been in residence on #LePlateau since February 2018.
#Le Plateau is a 1,000m² space that accommodates, under one roof and for periods of up to 6 months, Société Générale teams and ecosystem startups. Each resident works on their own project, either disruptive or innovative, in open spaces where teams commingle. The Plateau provides an environment that enables this work to be undertaken in a single place, but also and more importantly methodological support to accelerate projects, the organising of the residents and premises to enable them to swap and share their expertise and experience.
