Geoff Morgan says ASX listing will help LiveHire grow overseas
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Geoff Morgan, Michael Haywood and Antonluigi Gozzi of LiveHire. Supplied
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by James Thomson
Recruitment industry veteran Geoff Morgan says an ASX listing for early-stage recruitment technology growth LiveHire will help it gain traction in overseas markets in a way that a private business couldn't.
LiveHire will list on Friday morning after raising $10 million. The company will have a market capitalisation of $40 million when it hits the boards. Mr Morgan will chair the company.
The business, which was started in 2011 by co-founders Antonluigi Gozzi and Michael Haywood, aims to invert the typical recruitment model, where an employer or recruiter puts out a job ad and waits for
responses.
Instead, employers use LiveHire to built "talent communities" of potential employees who can be pre-screened; when a position needs to be filled, the theory is that the process will be faster, cheaper and more targeted. An employer that subscribes to LiveHire and builds a community pays 50¢ every time someone joins that community.
The company is very much in its infancy and posted revenue of just $135,570 in the 12 months ended December 31, and a net loss of $2.1 millon.
It has not issued financial forecasts as part of its prospectus and Mr Gozzi said its key growth metrics would be the number of "connections" to communities it hosts; that number has grown from 50,000 in December to 100,000. Time is right
Mr Haywood said he did not believe LiveHire was too young or small to list; he said the company had been through four private funding rounds and the time was right to go public.
Mr Morgan, who is best known as the co-founder of recruitment firm Morgan & Banks and Talent2, said LiveHire had attracted "people who I believe are in the business for the medium or long term" rather than "flippers".
"They believe in the vision and mission of the business and the reason we are going to float the business," Mr Morgan said.
The $10 million raised will be invested back in the business, to further develop the company's technology and build a national footprint.
International expansion could be pursued down the track and Mr Morgan said an ASX listing would help with the company's offshore push into markets such as North America.
"You go over there as an ASX-listed business, people want to listen to you and talk to you," Mr Morgan said.
"The timing of the IPO is about acceleration. It's about using the power of the market for funding but also visibility for the business." Human factor
Some are sceptical about the role of technology in the recruitment process and how recruiters will best use platforms such as LiveHire.
Simon Meyer, founder and chief executive of FutureYou Executive Recruitment, said that recruiting for executive positions was still largely dependent on what he called the "human factor".
"Best of breed executive recruiters are actively engaged on digital platforms – currently all roads lead to LinkedIn and Seek," Mr Meyer said.
"If LiveHire is challenging the status quo then recruiters will investigate to see where they can add value just like they have with new products from Seek and LinkedIn."
Mr Morgan said there was no concern about technology wiping out the role of recruiters and argued that it would allow employers and recruiters to focus on the final stages of a recruitment process, when candidates are interviewed
"LiveHire doesn't take away from what I do, in fact it enhances it. It gives me more time to work on that last part, the human part."
LVH Price at posting:
18.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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