In Irvine company has launched a public beta of an online job search engine geared toward millennials.
Job seekers visiting JobzMall Inc.’s website are greeted by a seven-building virtual complex where they can shop for jobs in a video game-like setting by hopping between stores representing various sectors, such as startups, nonprofit organizations, government, education and staffing. Freelance opportunities will be added in June.
JobzMall, co-founded by Pembe Candaner and her son, Nathan, fuses augmented reality and artificial intelligence insights from job seekers and employers to recreate the job-search experience. It’s attracted more than 300 corporate customers to job listings, including Coca-Cola and Amazon, though the company is targeting small to medium-size businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Features include swiping interested jobs a la the Tinder dating app; commute mapping; job application tracking; and a video cover letter and resume option intended for younger professionals who lack career experience but want to stand out.
Feeds are presented in a Netflix-like fashion, with minimal text, and instead of creating traditional resumes in Word documents, users piece together skills, mission statements and other qualifications more akin to social media profiles.
“We are living in very tech-rich world, but when it comes to finding jobs, it’s scattered throughout many platforms,” Nathan Candaner said during a product demo for the Business Journal. “The idea is to make this process very enjoyable and very smart.”
JobzMall, launched in 2016, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding.
Pembe Candaner is a former chief executive of Adecco Turkey, which connects job seekers to positions in Turkey, and Nathan is a student at the University of Southern California.
— Chris Casacchia
Bulletproof
Lined with hidden soft-armor panels, the backpack can convert to a protective vest in under five seconds. It’s worn like a life jacket, guarding the front and back torso, and is capable of stopping up to a .44-magnum round.
Two brothers started Costa Mesa-based bulletproof backpack maker Leatherback Gear based on their experience as first responders to active shooting and terrorist-related incidents.
“We don’t look at ourselves as a backpack company [but] a safety and protection company,” said Chief Operating Officer Stephen Bizal.
It offers two options: a $399 tactical backpack for first responders, military personnel and law enforcement officers, and a $329 civilian version.
Bizal said feedback from law enforcement has been positive and that many officers have asked that the product be tailored for their families. A child’s backpack is scheduled to hit the market this year.
Of the number of active-shooter incidents in the U.S. from 2000 to 2015, 23% happened at schools, 44% in areas of commerce, such as businesses, according to a 2017 report by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
Leatherback was founded last year with $1.5 million in funding from two investors, according to Bizal.
Executives are in talks with U.S. resellers to carry the product at gun shops and tactical gear stores. For now, the product is available online, except to Connecticut residents, where state law requires shoppers to purchase bulletproof vests in stores.
— Subrina Hudson
Inside Jobs
New American Funding is introducing something new to its mortgage program.
“We bring the kids in—they might not even know how to spell mortgage—and teach them the business,” said Chief Executive Rick Arvielo of the lender’s Launch Lab on-boarding boot camp. “We turn them into inside loan officers.”
Or not.
He said the “exceptional young humans” who make it through the six- to nine-month paid training, and customer service work have also “pushed into other areas: recruiting, marketing, operations—if sales wasn’t their bag.”
The Tustin-based firm funds $900 million in loans a month. It bought a 25,000-square-foot building on Red Hill Avenue in Santa Ana a few years ago, spent 18 months renovating it, started with a couple of dozen trainees in December, and plans to enroll “80 to 100” students in “NAF University” on a rolling basis, year-round.
Arvielo calls it “will over skill” work. “We realized it was an advantage to get young people into the business. This is a vetting process.”
He added, “We teach them our systems, teach them our culture.”
He says, “There’s no shortage of interest” in mortgage lending. “People can make a six-figure income here.”
— Paul Hughes
