Matching by mindset and betting on reciprocity. A marketer created a hiring tool with minimal effort that turned out to be more convenient and cheaper than jobs.dou and Djinni. How he did it and what was the result
Ukrainian IT professionals are creating a job search platform called Matchsy, which is changing the approach to recruiting. In six weeks, the startups have formed a community of almost 2,000 subscribers, recorded almost 1,000 applications for the whitelist, and the platform threatens to become a full-fledged competitor to jobs.dou and Djinni.
How the experts came to the idea of developing a startup, what innovative things they offer, how they lost a developer, thanks to which they found a new one in a few hours, and what they can offer candidates now, was told to dev.ua by the co-founder and CEO of Matchsy, IT entrepreneur, experienced startup marketer, and Dnipro resident Oleksandr Burlachenko.
Ukrainian IT professionals are creating a job search platform called Matchsy, which is changing the approach to recruiting. In six weeks, the startups have formed a community of almost 2,000 subscribers, recorded almost 1,000 applications for the whitelist, and the platform threatens to become a full-fledged competitor to jobs.dou and Djinni.
How the experts came to the idea of developing a startup, what innovative things they offer, how they lost a developer, thanks to which they found a new one in a few hours, and what they can offer candidates now, was told to dev.ua by the co-founder and CEO of Matchsy, IT entrepreneur, experienced startup marketer, and Dnipro resident Oleksandr Burlachenko.
Base on experience
Oleksandr, 45, graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology (USCTU) in Dnipro with a basic education in information systems engineering. Since then, his path has taken a completely different direction — through marketing, startups, and EdTech.
Oleksandr Burlachenko, IT entrepreneur and co-founder of the startup Matchsy (Photo from personal archive)
In particular, he has 5 years as a C-Level IT manager in one of the largest retailers in Ukraine and experience as Chief Marketing Officer in a manufacturing Polish-Ukrainian startup, and later in an EdTech startup with Ukrainian roots GIOS. In addition, over 10 years in online entrepreneurship in a digital marketing studio laid the foundation for the new project.
Finding a solution to the «pain»
At the end of March, during a marketing audit of the HR systems integrator studio, Oleksandr researched the hiring market and saw the obvious: candidates were massively complaining that they were not being noticed, and recruiters were complaining that there were no relevant specialists. And then the startuper asked himself: «Is this really a market crisis or just a lack of modern tools?»
He initially shared his vision of the problem and possible solutions in a post on LinkedIn. And, according to the entrepreneur, the post literally exploded with comments and personal messages, from which it became clear to Oleksandr that the topic was painful for many. This is what prompted him to think that the market needed a new tool, but research was needed to verify expectations.
At this stage, Oleksandr engaged an HR specialist for consultation, who helped formulate questions for the hiring party and candidates. Over the first 2 weeks, together they conducted about 300 surveys and in-depth interviews, collected a database of pain points, expectations, and potential solutions, and clearly saw the bottleneck.
The idea crystallized, and at the end of April, Oleksandr met a technical specialist who could become a co-founder and CTO of the startup. But, as the entrepreneur says, the format did not work. «The focus was too different, the priorities too. This is normal for a startup: an attempt — feedback — the next iteration,» he says. In addition, as Oleksandr admits, this is exactly the essence of a startup — constant testing.
«In a traditional business, testing a hypothesis can take months. In a startup, time simply doesn’t exist. Everything needs to be done quickly,» the entrepreneur adds.
At this stage, the specialists returned to one of the first pieces of advice they received from experts at the start: «Build an MVP on a no-code Bubble.» Which, as Oleksandr emphasizes, was the key to the breakthrough. The Matchsy team was joined by no-code developer Vitaliy Doroshenko, a specialist in building MVPs in ultra-fast cycles. His expertise allows you to launch functionality and test hypotheses in the shortest possible time.
Vitaliy Doroshenko, no-code developer at the startup Matchsy (Photo from personal archive)
As a result, the startupers decided to create an alternative that would quickly, accurately, and humanly help understand a person, their potential, and their real suitability for the team. They also approached the choice of name consciously and moved away from the words «job» and «work» in the name. «Because Matchsy is not just another job board,» explains Oleksandr. According to him, it is about matching people and teams — by thinking style, communication, and role in the team. And in the name, they focused not on «work,» but on coincidence and reciprocity, because this is the main idea: not just finding a vacancy, but finding your place.
«Matchsy sounds like something friendly, warm, human, but with a hint of technology,» the entrepreneur explains.
«No endless fields, no cloning of old templates»
The developers of Matchsy position the platform as HRTech, which aims to change the paradigm of searching through resumes to searching through live candidate cards. From a practical point of view, this will look like this:
For the candidate: the specialist undergoes an in-depth (but quick) survey — and the system creates his live card. According to the startuper, it’s like a digital avatar — if a person had conducted an in-depth interview with himself, analyzed his strengths, collected feedback, and created a profile that really says something about him — not just a list of jobs. «Only all this is not in a year, but in a few minutes. Without endless fields, without cloning old templates,» he adds.
From the hiring side: the recruiter creates a request and the platform searches not by keywords, but in essence: who fits in with the team, the manager’s style, the business culture. And most importantly, as Oleksandr emphasizes, the hiring party sees not just a set of linear qualities or banal «soft skills», but the context: how this person works, what motivates them, in what environment they will show their maximum — and why exactly they can be effective in this particular role.
«We are transforming recruiting: from the outdated resume format to a modern system of assessing potential and an accurate value match between a person, a company, and a role,» summarizes Oleksandr Burlachenko.
Anton Kurapov, PhD in Psychology, cognitive science researcher and Digital Health entrepreneur at the startup Matsy (Photo from personal archive)
The developer and scientific partner of the project, Anton Kurapov, PhD in psychology, cognitive science researcher, and Digital Health entrepreneur, who joined the project at the stage of creating the system, notes that this test is an innovative author’s tool for assessing a person’s personal and professional qualities, which combines scenario-based questions with a flexible scale for identifying individual predispositions in 16 key competencies.
«Instead of the standard 'agree — disagree', he offers a more detailed approach,» the specialist adds.
About artificial intelligence algorithms in the project
The startups added AI models to the project that not only search but also interpret the information received, and the system helps make a decision based on over 600 parameters regarding the match between the candidate and the employer.
Thanks to a multi-level algorithm that uses primary competency grouping and cross-analysis of latent factors, Matchsy automatically generates a person’s profile with clear recommendations, growth areas, and ideal working environment. «The combination of a casual approach, deep data analysis, and AI interpretation makes this test a true innovation — fast, objective, and easily adaptable to any task,» notes Anton Kurapov.
«Matchsy is not just another tool, but a new era of painless recruiting and a new way to see a real person in hiring,» says the project co-founder.
From MVP to product
In 4 weeks in the Matchsy community (Telegram and Linkedin), startupers have already gathered more than 2,000 subscribers, interviewed 500 candidates and business representatives. The early access letter includes more than 200 potential employers and more than 600 candidates. According to Oleksandr, there are several agreements on pilot projects. In addition, the startup developers emphasize that the number of participants is constantly growing and they plan to multiply these numbers by the launch.
«This is the fastest organic growth I have ever seen or heard of,» notes Oleksandr Burlachenko.
Now the startups, as he put it, are «at a low start,» and the platform, according to him, is at the final stage of creating an MVP. The site is scheduled to launch on June 15. But the core, namely the survey system, interpretation of results, and creation of a live card, are undergoing testing and we are already preparing for some collaborations that are already working. «And it is not a template „agree–disagree,“ but an original evaluation system,» notes the co-founder of the project. The startups have already formed a Core-Team of the best specialists in various areas of IT and business.
According to project participants, MVP is being created for rapid validation of hypotheses. Early adopters will be able to try out the service in part or in full as early as June.
«When we see which connections give the expected (or better) result, we will immediately be ready to scale,» says Oleksandr, adding that today startups have the tools and expertise to do this.
About the team
Four key specialists are currently working on the Matchsy project. Three of them have already been mentioned earlier: a developer, a business founder, and the author of a scientific methodology for assessing potential. Tamara Matyukh also recently joined the team, taking on the role of HRTech Growth Advisor. She has expertise as a doctor of psychology, an entrepreneur, and an HR strategist with over 15 years of experience. She is responsible for talent management, competency assessment, and team development.
Tamara Matyukh, HRTech Growth Advisor at the startup Matchsy (Photo from personal archive)
In addition, Matchsy consults a business advisor with a focus on smart startups and market entry strategies. He is an experienced startup entrepreneur who, according to Oleksandr, invested in the EdTech startup Preply at an early stage. However, the project co-founder does not reveal his name, calling it a «secret weapon» for now and promising to officially introduce it later.
Currently, startups are looking for two more specialists to join the core team:
Product Designer.
Head of Growth and Community.
Also, a little later, Matchsy plans to form a development team, which will require technical specialists.
About money
Currently, the project, according to Oleksandr Burlachenko, is at the stage of organic growth. Startups manage on their own without grants and commercial fundraising. According to the entrepreneur, several thousand dollars have already been invested in the project, but according to him, the main investment is the time, effort, and expertise of the team.
«The current dynamics have forced us to reconsider the assessment twice. We are already reaching a level where the numbers don’t sound, but work. And although we are still talking about the first million dollars, the team’s internal focus has long since shifted to the bar with one more zero. We are simply preparing to scale — wisely and with character. We are not knocking on investors’ doors. We are building a business that people want to invest in,» says Oleksandr.
The team plans to monetize Matchsy and is focusing on a subscription-based SaaS model.
In addition, Oleksandr says that they continue to consider both investment partnerships with specialized funds and are interested in collaboration with progressive companies. However, the startup also does not yet disclose the names of potential partners until the final agreements are confirmed and the product is fully launched. The startup is ready to provide details about the strategy, financial model and development plans to partners under NDA and is not yet making them public.
About plans
According to the startupers, they are deliberately starting in Ukraine and Matchsy has a Ukrainian team. «Because if it works here — in turbulence, war, with distrust of the system and fatigue — then in other markets it doesn’t just work. It flies. And most importantly: we believe in the Ukrainian market, we dream that Ukrainian products will become the best global practices,» emphasizes Oleksandr.
In the future, the startups plan to conquer the main platform of global HRTech, in particular, in the USA.
«Either I don’t fit into any position, or everyone keeps this database and no one opens it.» Do recruiters return to candidates after they’ve been saved in the database?
«I advise those looking for a job at Miltech to take the first call from a recruiter seriously.» HR of the company «General Chereshnya» on the peculiarities of hiring at Miltech, candidate stop words and a lie detector
«Maybe recruiting is just a simulator of broken hopes?» Recruiter told how a candidate who responded to a vacancy disappeared without a trace. Aitovites call the situation karma
