Catching up with StartUp Lehigh Valley winner: Cliquify, Inc

Lehigh Valley LaunchBox (LVLB) partnered with Factory, LLC on StartUp Lehigh Valley in November where ten entrepreneurs, selected to participate through an application process, presented a virtual, two-minute live pitch with their business ideas to the panel of judges and virtual audience in a lively shark-tank style event. Participants had a chance to win an award that was part of the $10,000 in prize money from event sponsor Penn State Lehigh Valley LaunchBox. JPMorgan Chase & Co. also served as an event sponsor. 

Now LVLB checks in with event winners on their progress, their advice for other entrepreneurs and how they are benefitting from being part of LVLB. 

Amit Parmar is co-founder and CEO of Cliquify Inc., an AI-powered software that helps recruiters convert their job specs into visually engaging social media job ads to attract relevant talent, was awarded $500 LaunchBox Boost Award at StartUp Lehigh Valley. 

Q: What inspired you to start your business?  

 Parmar: Our inspiration is a problem I faced as global head of recruiting at multi-billion-dollar companies. How do I hire talent faster, better, cheaper? The recruiting process today is very inefficient and expensive for organizations. Cliquify’s mission is to disrupt how people find meaningful work by unleashing their social media networks. Social media networks today are underleveraged for connecting people to open jobs. The way jobs are advertised across social media today yield too many irrelevant applicants for recruiters to sort through (upwards of 250 irrelevant applicants per job) at a high cost of $12 per applicant attracted.    

When job specs are converted to visual content using Cliquify, recruiters experience 4-6 times more relevant candidate engagement (Average of 14 high quality applicants per job) at 60% less costs ($5-7 per applicant attracted) to advertise online. A Disruptive, Faster, Better, and Cheaper way to recruit talent. 

Q: What was your biggest challenge before receiving this prize money from LVLB through StartUp Lehigh Valley? Has it helped you overcome your challenge – if so, in what way?  

 Parmar: The biggest challenge we faced before receiving this prize money was paying for digital marketing tools to get the word out of our unique offering. The prize money is being put towards these marketing tools to fuel our continued growth.   

Q: What LVLB services have you taken advantage of/plan to take advantage of?  

Parmar: We plan to take advantage of the legal services, the digital marketing internship support and with access to the LaunchBox advisers.   

Q: What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs as they start their businesses?  

Parmar: Nail the business or consumer problem down first. Test out whether it is truly a problem and capture 3-5 customers who can prove your problem and solution hypothesis with hard data and science.