Glints (platform)

Glints is an online talent recruitment and career discovery platform headquartered in Singapore. It is a platform for young talent to build up their career readiness through internships and graduate jobs; developing skill sets required in different careers.

Glints Intern Pte Ltd
IndustryHuman Resource
FoundedAugust 2013 (2013-08)
FoundersOswald Yeo, Looi Qin En, Seah Ying Cong, Wong Yong Jie, Steve Anderson Sutanto
Headquarters
Singapore
Area served
Singapore
Key people
Oswald Yeo CEO,
Seah Ying Cong CTO,
Wong Yong Jie Technical Lead, Steve Anderson Sutanto Country Manager
ProductsOnline Career Development & Matching
WebsiteOfficial website

The company was founded in August 2013 by Oswald Yeo, Looi Qin En and Seah Ying Cong. The website was launched in January 2014. Wong Yong Jie and Steve Anderson Sutanto joined and cofounded the technology team and Indonesia business respectively in 2014 and 2015.

Through the website, users can apply for internships, full-time, part-time or project based positions with partnered companies. The website targets job hunters aged 16 to 26. Some major companies registered with Glints include Adidas and Puma. Glints is looking to expand operations beyond Singapore to other countries in the region and the larger US market.[1]

History of Glints

The company was founded by Oswald Yeo, Looi Qin En and Seah Ying Cong, who met back in high school, Hwa Chong Institution. Aged 22, 21 and 21 respectively, they were the youngest entrepreneurs in the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI) program.[2] Wong Yong Jie and Steve Sutanto joined and cofounded the technology team and Indonesia business respectively in 2014 and 2015.

They discovered that there are 75 million unemployed young people worldwide[3] and many employers are struggling to fill entry-level vacancies. Glints sought to bridge this mismatch between employer needs and young, skilled talent.[4] Initially, Glints began by assisting their friends' search for internships by building up their career readiness through practical & real-world experiences. In August 2013 glints started off with 38 people in google spreadsheets and as of April 2015 it had grown to over 7000 active members.[5] The trio have put their computer science degrees and scholarships on hold at Stanford, University of California Berkeley, and Wharton Business School respectively, in order to pursue the business.[6] Glints' mission is to bridge the gap between education and employment by being a professional platform for young people focused on career discovery and development.

In 2017, Looi Qin En left the company, citing "creative friction".[7] Meanwhile, its revenue grew by 60% and user growth doubled quarter-on-quarter in 2017.[8]

Funding

Glints is an alumnus of accelerator Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI.Asia). In 2014 Glints had received US$59,940 in pre-seed money from private business angels and JFDI.[9] On October 20, 2014, Glints managed to secure $475,000 in an oversubscribed seed round from venture capitalists, led by East Ventures, with participation from 500 Startups, Infocomm Investments, Darius Cheung, John Tan, SPH Media Fund, 8 Capital and Pix Vine Capital. These funds will be used to grow its engineering team to develop the platform. According to co-founder Oswald Yeo, they have turned away about US$250,000 as they "didn't want to raise so much money right now".[10]

In July 2019, Glints managed to secure $6.8 million in a Series B round led by Monk's Hill Ventures.[11]

Features

User profile

Glints allows users to create profiles to showcase their relevant skills and experiences. Skills can be certified when users demonstrate proficiency in the skills to a minimum standard, although the feature is currently in beta as of May 2015.[12] To complete the profile, users can upload their resumes and their own photos to aid in identification. The account can then be used to source for relevant job opportunities using the various available filters.

Job listings

Employers create job postings and describe their needs and skill requirements. They are segregated into different industry functions and could be filtered with the industry filter function. Users can further narrow their search down to four different types of position, namely, internships, full-time, part-time and project-based type of jobs. Prospective employers are then able to receive applications from users and review each application individually; Glints uses a mix of human and algorithmic screening to bring companies quality candidates.

Glints DNA profiling test

The Glints DNA profiling test was developed by Looi Qin En, one of the co-founders. The test helps in profiling the personalities of interns. The test was developed and a test group of 50 people were asked to take the test and then asked to do established personality tests such as DISC and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as well. The results were compared in order to draw correlation and similarities. One of the key features of this test was that the number of questions were reduced from the usual 50-100 to 10.[13]

Business model

the business model side of things, Glints will only charge employers once they contact a potential match. Alternatively, companies can also pay a monthly subscription fee to access Glints’ entire database of jobseekers.[14]

Future developments and expansion

The company is working on a key feature called the “dynamic skills tree”. It works by recommending career paths to users based on their indicated interest. Each career path comes with a "skill tree" that shows projects, internships, and courses he can take. Once completed, these stints will reflect on his Glints profile, which employers can discover and then reach out to the person for an interview.[15]

Glints has plans to expand to the larger American market, with plans to settle in Blk 71 San Francisco as a member of the pioneer batch of occupants, using it as a base to further their venture through building their network in this space first.[16]

Reception

Within the first three months, the firm has gained revenue of US$10,000. It has over 800 intern accounts and 200 internship petitions from various companies. Line, Goldlion and Puma are hiring interns through Glints Intern. It is currently in talks with financial giant Goldman Sachs to discuss the possibility of using the portal to hire future interns as well.[17] Glints Intern was one of the top 50 startups listed to attend Echelon Ignite in Singapore. The trio made a pitch at the Singapore Echelon 2014 Satellite. The team though missed the coveted “winner” rank, but it certainly has managed to catch the eye of investors. The company claims that it has been approached by angel investors who are keen to pool in seed capital into the company, mainly because of the traction and the vision of the company.[18]

References
  1. "Singapore Startups Stretching Their Wings in the US". Archived from the original on 14 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  2. "Find out how 3 young men at 20s founded a startup". Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  3. "Employment". Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  4. "21 Year-Olds Drop Ivy League Scholarships to Solve Global Talent Problem, Raises Oversubscribed Seed Round". Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  5. "Recruitment startup Glints raises S$475,000 in seed funding from East Ventures, SPH Media Fund". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  6. "Young Singapore Ivy League dropouts attract $475,000 in funding for startup". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  7. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  8. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  9. "Glints team raises US$380K seed round, gives up Ivy League path". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  10. "Glints turns away funds in oversubscribed US$475K seed round". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  11. "Glints raises US$6.8m in Series B funding to expand to Vietnam, Hong Kong". The Business Times. 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  12. http://www.glints.com/support
  13. "Glints founders defer studies to shake up online recruitment, raise $475k in seed money". Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  14. "Glints founders defer studies to shake up online recruitment, raise $475k in seed money". Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  15. "Glints founders defer studies to shake up online recruitment, raise $475k in seed money". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  16. "Singapore Startups Stretching Their Wings in the US". Archived from the original on 14 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  17. "Youngest JFDI founders of internship portal Glints Intern in Echelon top 50". Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  18. "Echelon 2014: Can Glints be the JobsDB of the internship world?". Retrieved 13 April 2015.
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