Hi SkillProfilers – I just got a chance to write up my experience at HR Tech this year. We were super excited to show off what we’ve been working on and get some insight form the broader HR community on what we’re building. We were part of the Startup Pavilion and got to exhibit alongside some other great startups. It was a bit of a coming out party and a way to see if a) our message resonated and b) see what’s been up in the HR community. HR Tech didn’t disappoint on those fronts.
That said, we had a lot of discussions with the other startup founders that were in the pavilion that the show felt a bit like all us HR Tech vendors had a party for ourselves. While there were buyers at the show, it was a shadow of its former self in that regard. I met probably 2 or 3 actual employers/buyers vs. probably 50-60 other vendors who were also exhibiting. Great for visibility but not so great for the companies who were hoping to get buyers interested.
For me, that was ok. I was there to get validation and catch up on what’s been going on in the HR space and try out our demo and pitch and get a chance to refine it.
The great news is I got a HUGE amount of positive response to what we’re doing. This inspired me! We had alot or folks who were like “that is very exciting and I can see the vision” and other who thought that HR departments might be threatened by the idea of a personalized app that is in the control of the employee.
Josh Bersin (a really smart dude in the HR space) did a whole keynote where he highlighted skills and the need for marketplaces where skills are shared. The message resonated with me particularly because that’s what we’re all about. It’s making sure you know your skills and ways of validating them before you use them in a general marketplace.
It was also a bit of “Old Home Week” where I was re-introduced to some of the traditional players in the space as well as some of the newer folks. JoinEight https://joineight.ai/ stood out as a newer entrant with an advantage because they can build on new technology. They had some interesting ideas around skills and I can see the advantage they have with building on the latest technology.
Caught up with some the UKG https://www.ukg.com/ folks as well. As a former Kronite I will always feel a bit of a camaraderie with the time and attendance folks at UKG. I cut my teeth there in the late 1990s and early 2000s and will always look at UKG with fondness. If I can be half the leader that Aron Ain has turned out to be, I will call myself successful.
I left Las Vegas inspired to fulfill the vision of SkillProfile and inspired that we are on a path that is both exciting and interesting. Back to the real world where we build technology.
Our app demo’d really well but we did have a bit of refactoring to do and I wanted to take some of the feedback from our beta users so we’re progressing toward full launch at a breakneck pace!
Here is a pic of me at the booth!
