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I have a itch to build HR tech product but I dont know how to get started
I am entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Canada. It's 12:35 am right now, my two kids and wife are asleep and I am here typing this to get some answers and guidance. I started my first business back in 2016, it was HR tech product that aimed to digitize the staffing agencies, it didn't end up working due to legal disputes with founders and burn out. After that, I started IT/HR consulting business that I still run to this day but I still have itch to do HR tech product. Atm, I am thinking to build something that I can use internally for my recruitment with adding AI to the mix. I want to diversify my businesses and add product along with my service business. How can I get started? I feel like I am stuck in middle of Lake ontario with not sure which way to go.
HR enthusiast entrepreneur here too. HR is a MASSIVE universe of fields such as Recruiting, Training, Policy & Procedures, Payroll, Staffing Needs Studies, Scheduling (future), Workforce Distribution (live scheduling), Workforce Management (KPIs from past performance), sometimes Roles & Permissions, not to mention being a system of record for critical business ops.

I'm sketching out a project that will cover many of these and I've developed similar projects before. If you need ideas, feel free to reach out. contactme at myuser.com

What would be your competitive moat? In the US you have one off HR products like WorkDay and full fledged PEOs (https://www.adp.com/resources/articles-and-insights/articles...) like Rippling (a YC company) and Insperity.

And you have the whole issue of “no one ever got fired for buying IBM”. Why would a company trust you for their HR needs over a well known company.

The "something" needs to become more specific, far more specific. Do you have strong domain expertise in HR? If not, you could use your consulting client base as a starting point.

You mention you might use it internally for recruitment. That's a great starting point. Find one pain point (your itch) fix it with your tech. Then pick the next pain point, repeat.

In parallel your marketing effort should be identifying potential clients who are most likely to have the same pain points as you. Since you are dog-fooding your product, you can easily demonstrate how your product solves that particular problem. Again, repeat.

In your case, you could start with an AI tool to streamline your recruitment process. For example:

Build a simple AI-powered resume screener to filter candidates based on key skills or an internal chatbot to answer common applicant questions.

Once you’ve tested and refined it within your own business, you can expand the tool’s capabilities or offer it to other companies facing similar recruitment challenges.

Start small, solve a real problem, and grow from there.

Heya (also from TO ), I had something similar in mind when I built https://www.producthunt.com/products/hitechjobsca , had to shut it down during covid but happy to connect and brainstorm ideas in the Hrtech space if you are up for it. Contact in profile.
  • smgit
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  • 2 days ago
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Product is usually a risky cash sink if your experience is services. You haven't mentioned how big your business is, but if its small split the costs of the experiment with larger firms. Pitch your plan to them. If you can raise 3-6 months of funding for a team then go for it.
Do you know what problem you ate going to solve with your product? I guess so as you are in the business?
What would AI do for your project?
> I am entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Canada. It's 12:35 am right now

Just go to bed, the itch will stop. No point staying up late nights.