How did Jovy grow GitRoll to a 40K community within 6 months?

Welcome back to the Maven Club interview series, where we bring you invaluable insights from top business leaders to help you excel in your roles. Today, we had the privilege of sitting down with Jovy, the Co-founder and COO of GitRoll, a serial entrepreneur who deeply believed in tech for good. In our interview, she revealed her strategies and secrets to success. Here are the highlights:

Could you please introduce yourself to our audience?

Jovy: Sure! I'm Jovy, the COO and Co-founder of GitRoll. I handle sales, operations, and marketing, and have three years of experience in startups. I previously cofounded another startup called Metamory, which was the first web 3.0 online commemoration platform for pets and humans. My journey has been all about leveraging technology to solve real-world problems and create social impact.

What does GitRoll do?

Jovy: GitRoll is a platform designed to bridge the gap between skilled software developers and companies struggling to hire tech talent. We identified a significant problem on both the supply and demand sides of tech talent hiring market.

• Supply Side (Developers):

  • Developers with impressive GitHub portfolios were not getting noticed because companies focused too much on traditional CVs.

  • There was a lack of platforms that could showcase developers' true technical abilities quickly and effectively.

• Demand Side (Hiring Companies):

  • HR departments frequently spend significant time sourcing tech talent and evaluating their skillsets, often facing challenges due to their lack of technical background.

  • There was a need to quickly identify and hire the right talent to execute projects efficiently.

Our vision for GitRoll is to become the gold standard for assessing development skillsets, much like IELTS is for language proficiency. We aim to provide an in-depth analysis of one's abilities beyond what a CV can showcase.

What are the differentiations compared to other companies?

Jovy: GitRoll differentiates itself in several ways:

• AI Analysis: We use AI to analyze developers across five parameters, focusing heavily on their GitHub code.

  • Parameters: Reliability, Influence, Contribution, Maintainability, Security

• GitHub Focus: Emphasis on a developer’s existing GitHub portfolio to provide a more accurate and comprehensive view of a developer’s abilities.

• Prescreening Process: Accelerates the prescreening process by analysing developers’ Github portfolio, giving companies a clearer picture of a candidate's suitability.

Maven Club: Can you share a success story?

Jovy: One company hired three developers within two weeks from a pool of five candidates, achieving a 60% success rate. This was significantly higher than the market average and expedited their hiring process.

How do you grow the community to 40K developers within 6 months?

Jovy: As a startup with limited marketing resources, we had to roll up our sleeves and get creative. We discovered four effective strategies to generate buzz among our target audience, even with a minimal marketing budget:

• Go to where our audience is.

  •  Facebook: For developers in Taiwan.

  •  Reddit and Discord: For broader tech discussions.

• Consistent Content Strategy: Created engaging posts and discussions on X consistently.

• Social Share Features: Implemented features like rankings and social sharing within our product.

• Community Engagement: Built a strong, engaged community by understanding and addressing their needs.

Maven Club: Marketplaces often face a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Why did you choose to focus on building the supply side first?

Jovy: Developers are the ones who best understand our product and have a greater need for it, as they are often overlooked due to their backgrounds.

What is your biggest takeaway from this journey?

Jovy: Launch fast and fail fast. Building in public and gathering feedback is crucial.

• Feedback: Within two months of launching, we received valuable feedback that helped us refine our product.

• Iterative Process: Constantly improving based on real user input.

Any books or inspirations that have impacted you?

Jovy: "Zero to IPO" has been instrumental—I made the whole team read it to tackle realistic problems with valuable insights.

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