Question: COMPANY: THE MUSE
Business idea: Create a job board site that presents companies in a compelling manner, to make job listings interesting and to provide job seekers a better sense of what it would be like to work for a particular company. pitch: Job boards and company profiles on job sites are fairly uninspiring. Usually, there is a boring description of a job, followed by a list of skills and educational background needed and a dull description of the company. Rarely is any insight provided about the culture of a company, what its work environment is like, and what the experiences of the people who work there have been. These types of insights are available if a person is granted an interview and visits the company in which s/ he desires to work. But there are occasions when both a company and an applicant spend a considerable amount of time learning about one another, only to go their separate ways when it becomes clear that the applicant isn't a good fit for the culture or the work environment that the company has to offer. Even worse, there are instances where people take jobs and then discover in the first couple of weeks that they aren't a good match with the personality and values of the company. The Muse solves this problem by providing job applicants much richer detail about a company, its culture, and what it would be like to work there as part of the job solicitation process. It starts by individually selecting the companies that post jobs on its site.
Unlike traditional job sites, not all companies that apply are accepted. once a company is accepted, The Muse sends two employees to the company's headquarters to write the copy for the job posting, take photos of the company's workspace, and shoot video interviews of employees. The goal is to give job seekers as keen an insight as possible as to the culture of a company and the type of people who work there. This is a level of understanding that isn't available through job sites such as Monster.com and social media platforms like linkedIn. The reason The Muse sends its own employees to create and gather the content is the belief that a third party can actually be more effective at describing a company than the company itself. Many companies are so steeped in their own culture and idiosyncrasies that they're not good at objectively describing themselves to others. The Muse's goal isn't to make every company sound like the best place in the world to work. Instead, the goal is to give job seekers an honest and realistic look at a company so they will be able to make an informed judgment about whether to pursue a specific job. Companies pay a monthly fee to post jobs on The Muse's website and to recruit Muse users. You can view profiles of companies that are currently recruiting at www.themuse.com. The Muse offers a variety of complementary services on its website, including career advice.
1. Based on the material covered in this chapter, what questions would you ask the firm's founders before making your funding decision? What answers would satisfy you?
2. If you had to make your decision on just the information provided in the pitch and on the company's website, would you fund this company? Why or why not?