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While working in their MBA at Harvard Business School, Colombian immigrants Stephanie And Lorenga Velez Noting that most workers were Hispanic in the cafeteria. In conversation with them, a general theme comes out: how difficult it was for people who legally moved to the United States to find their first jobs in the United States from Spanish -speaking countries. English was good or not speaking at all, amazingly, the biggest challenge.
“But then we look at the news that the US is actually facing an unprecedented face Labor deficitEspecially for this type of position where you will usually see low -skilled immigrant workers, “Murra told TechCrunch in an interview.” So we were like this, ‘Okay, there is definitely a problem here. “” “
The roommates started researching and realized that many potential employers would actually use the Traditional Terrible Job Board, which “not for Hispanic immigrants,” said the Murra.
“These workers, whom many of whom do not speak English and are not really good with technology, they are accustomed to looking for jobs through friends,” he explained. Furthermore, they are often distracted by online applications and in English someone is scared by the idea of ​​interviewing them.
Concept Pont Was born These two – who had previously worked together in two years of Colombia Fintek Adi -Harvard founded the Miami-based company in April 2023 during their final semester.
“In hospitality, construction, retail and other blue-collar industries, employers truly fight to fulfill the role every hour when several million-owned Hispanic migrant language and cultural barriers struggle to find stable jobs,” said Village.
“We know where the workers need to look for, speak in their language and contact them through WhatsApp,” Velez added.
The founders claim that their recruitment platform is pre-veted, matches and onboards legally approved by “Traditional Typeical Methods faster and more efficiently”. ”
Employees are directly employed by employees ‘agencies, which they say not only saves the employers’ money, but also gives a greater pool to potential employees to choose them. On the flip, “Workers gain access to incredible job opportunities that otherwise are difficult to access,” Velez added.
Pont only works with the documentary immigrants: Each candidate is pre-Vessed for legal work approval before reaching an employer.
Startup has created an in-house AI hiring that pre-vet candidates through WhatsApp and Voice-based AI interviews. Now, it has only been focused on the hospitality industry but there are plans to expand in other sectors such as future construction or veteran care.
Growth
Since Moore and Velez officially launched the platform in November 2021, Pont has been steadily growing, driven more than 1,5 candidates and plays about 5 workers as a hospitality. Its annual net revenue has risen from $ 70,000 to $ 550,000 today in February 2024. It is not yet profitable, but the pair say they work with high contribution margin, so their model is more sclerable. To today, they have said that they have burned less than $ 1 million.
Today, 5 employers in Pont are working with workers like Omni Hotels and Resorts, as well as using the platform to recruit large hotel management companies like Pyramid Global, Pachry Hotel Group and Attium Hospitality.
The startup recently raised a $ 3 million seed round under the leadership of Harlem Capital, $ 15 million evaluated, which called TechCrunch exclusively. Better tomorrow Ventures, 3 collections and Wisff initiatives also participated in financing. Better before Ponty, Tomorrow Ventures The Mint Accelerator, NFX’s rapid competition and 81 collected $ 1.5 million from the collection.
The organization’s revenue model is based on success. Pont charge a monthly fee equivalent to 10% of the monthly wages of the worker for up to 12 months. Because it is a high turnover industry, if the worker leaves within the first month, the hotel gives nothing.
Currently, the startup has 15 full-time employees.
Since Pont’s social media and recruitment channels are in Spanish, more than 95% of its candidates are hippanic immigrants, Murra said. In addition to using WhatsApp, it also plays advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
“This focus has helped to create deep confidence with our community and present our views for their specific needs,” he said. “But we are making tools that can be easily adapted to serve other migrant communities, including language-irregular and future Portuguese-speaking Brazilian.”
And, he added that the startup even supported the local English speakers who found Pont, which was named “Bridge” meaning by the name of the Portuguese word.
Looking at the front, the founders say that Pont’s goal is to “create a place to help Hispanic immigrants to achieve their professional goals in the United States.”
“So it doesn’t just help them find an entry level job. We also want them to help them grow in this job,” said Velez. “We see one of the biggest opportunities to help candidates learn English, because they are now stuck where they are now and are promoted for their next job.”
Henry Pierre-Jack, managing partner of Harlem Capital, says he has been looking for founders since the pre-seed days of Pont.
“I liked Lorenza and Stephanie Adey’s ex -colleague … and then there was a roommate in the HBS together before starting Pont,” he told TechCrunch. “We got very positive references from customers who spread about their products. They were able to see strong traction in a short time. Obviously Stephanie and Lorenza could do a lot with very little things.”
Pierre-Jack also believes that Hispanic hospitality focus on staff “is a huge difference”.
In fact, Hispanics Liable for about one and a halfIn the United States in 2021, 1 47..6%of the foreign-national labor force, according to the US Labor Department.
“We are always wondering how our founders handle the supply aspect with talent marketplaces,” he said. “We saw the power of WhatsApp in this community and Stephanie and Lorenza realized that the work of recruitment through WhatsApp was the best channel to find their staff.”