Connectifier

About Connectifier

Connectifier was a recruiting software company established in 2011 by former Google employees John Jersin and Ben McCann. The founders, who met at Google while working on products like Google Analytics and Google Spreadsheets, leveraged their expertise in search technology and data analysis to address inefficiencies in the recruitment market. Jersin, who served as CEO, previously founded Zintin, which developed one of the early popular iPhone apps, while McCann was a software engineer. Their shared background in engineering and product management at a tech giant provided a strong foundation for developing a data-centric solution for recruiters.

The firm developed an AI-powered platform designed to give recruiters a more comprehensive view of potential job candidates. Operating in the Human Capital Services and Software as a Service (SaaS) sectors, Connectifier's business model was subscription-based, serving tens of thousands of recruiters across high tech, finance, and healthcare, including a significant portion of Fortune 100 companies. The platform aggregated data from numerous online sources, such as code repositories and social profiles, to create a searchable database of over 400 million candidate profiles. This allowed clients to find and connect with talent who were not actively seeking new jobs.

The core service was a search tool that utilized artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and provide contact information for hard-to-reach candidates. Its primary feature was a browser extension that supplemented LinkedIn profiles with additional data points, including personal email addresses and links to other social media profiles like GitHub and Twitter. This enabled recruiters to personalize their outreach and improve response rates; early results showed a 35% increase in responses when using Connectifier emails alongside LinkedIn's InMail. The platform aimed to solve issues of outdated and incomplete candidate information by continuously updating its profiles.

After participating in an accelerator in early 2012, Connectifier secured a $1.6M seed round in August 2012. The company's growth accelerated, leading to a Series A round in June 2015 and a $6M Series B round in October 2015, with total funding reaching $12M from investors like True Ventures and Gold Crest Capital. In February 2016, LinkedIn acquired Connectifier for an estimated purchase price of over $100 million. Following the acquisition, Connectifier's R&D team was integrated into LinkedIn's Talent Solutions division to enhance its core recruiting products, and the Connectifier extension was eventually offered to LinkedIn Recruiter users at no additional charge.