Jim Schimpf saw the problems with recruiting hourly workforce employees long before any talk of the Great Resignation.
He was a senior recruiter for TEKsystems, one of the largest IT staffing and recruiting firms, before ultimately moving into the startup space. He told Hypepotamus that hourly workforce turnover can exceed 100% annually and that those “antiquated processes cost businesses millions of productive days and billions of dollars.”
He’s also felt the pain points on the business side. “Then when I became an entrepreneur, I mainly relied on hourly workers, so now I was on the other side of this challenge. Same rinse and repeat process…only as the business owner I was responsible for this on top of all my other responsibilities,” he added.
That is something that more companies are experiencing as they compete in a tight labor market and pandemic-related workforce shortages. “Many businesses are operating understaffed and some can’t even open for operation,” he said.
Chattr is his answer to the “frustrating” recruiting process for companies running into that problem. The conversational AI platform focuses on what the applicants want, which Schimpt summarized as “speed, engagement, and immediate gratification.”
“Chattr is designed to act like a highly efficient personal recruiting concierge that manages the entire hiring process behind the scenes,” he added. “By leveraging both AI and automation, Chattr’s friction-free experience results in an 83% application completion rate, 25% hiring rates, and an 88% overall reduction in time-to-hire.”
The platform has already attracted costumers like Dunkin’, KFC, Bealls, Subway, DoubleTree by Hilton, College Hunks Hauling Junk, and others looking to attract hourly workers.
Last month the team raised a $3.7 million seed round from Florida Funders and Steven MacDonald.
Chattr is one of several Tampa startups backed by the hometown venture Florida Funders. Others include Satisfi Labs, Kliken, TSOLife, and Homee.
“The Tampa tech ecosystem has exploded,” Schimpf told Hypepotamus. “Many prominent private companies, businesses, and government leaders are all investing a ton of time, energy, and resources. We’re fortunate to have all of our initial team members based out of Tampa. This really helps set the culture early on in a start-up. Our commitment to daily collaboration and execution has been the key to our success. While we certainly embrace remote as we scale the company, we’ve been lucky thus far with great local talent.”
The team also has support from Atlanta-based VCs Circadian Ventures and Panoramic Ventures.
While Chattr got off the ground in 2018, the last two years served as a unique springboard for the recruiting-focused SaaS platform.
“Throughout the pandemic, the need for Chattr was extremely high so we learned and iterated quickly to meet the rapidly changing demands. From unique ways to source valuable applicants to innovative new features developed designed specifically for the pandemic (and now after) businesses no longer have to accept the pain points in hiring as a cost of doing business. Chattr proves that time and resources can be reduced as it streamlines the application and hiring process through AI automation.”