Jonny O’Brien

Business: On Tap Recruitment

Age: 22

State: Victoria

Jonny O’Brien sees the online recruitment market as ripe for disruption.

“We would not be playing in the market if we didn’t think we had a reasonable chance of disrupting it,” the Melbourne University economics graduate says.

He’s the managing director and founder of On Tap Recruitment, which launched two geographic-focused jobs platforms this year – lygonstjobs.com and melbourneCBDjobs.com.

When On Tap launched a basic version of its first platform in March it was inundated with around 1100 users signing up.

“We thought, ‘this idea’s got legs’,” O’Brien says.

The platforms see job seekers upload their resume and take a 15 minute test on basic English and maths, as well as experience-based questions on retail work or hospitality.

O’Brien says the platforms allow employers to quickly whittle down hundreds of applications for work to a more manageable number and make faster decisions on who to hire.

He says he came up with the idea for the business while he looked for work himself while he was a student.

The company, which is co-owned by Kingston Equities, is constantly growing, with new users – job seekers and employers – continuing to sign up with almost nothing spent on marketing.

O’Brien says they’re on track to launch interstate in the next six months.

While he considers himself too young to offer advice to other young entrepreneurs, one thing he says he has discovered is how supportive the entrepreneurial environment is.

He suggests young entrepreneurs become involved with incubators wherever they’re based, such as Melbourne’s York Butter Factory.

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