See the article below from WBJ, which you can also read here, about Groover Labs member and local tech startup QuickHire, who has secured funding and hired a new CTO. Congrats to the whole QuickHire team!

QuickHire team boosting operations in Wichita

The team at QuickHire in Wichita has secured new funding and made its own first hire as they quickly grow their hiring and workforce development app. 

Sisters Deborah Gladney and Angela Muhwezi-Hall declined to reveal the exact amount they recently secured through angel investor Gene Camarena, but say the funding has helped the startup make its first hire. 

That hire is Caleb Swank, who joins the company as chief technology officer, bringing with him development experience at both High Touch Technologies and Koch Industries Inc. 

His addition comes as QuickHire’s original platform, which they now call QuickHire for Business, has left the beta stage and been officially launched. 

Muhwezi-Hall says there is now a premium version in which QuickHire “becomes an extension of their team" for employers, scheduling interviews and sourcing applicants.

“It’s been really helpful for companies as they mass hire,” she says.

The premium portion is currently only being offered for businesses in Kansas, with the company offering 30-day free trials of the service. 

Still to come in the next few weeks is QuickHire Grow, which Gladney says will be a feature included in the business services package. 

That will be a talent management and career development tool weighted toward job seekers. 

“We want to put the power back into employee’s hands,” Muhwezi-Hall says. “We find a lot people have issues moving up (in the workplace) because there is a disconnect between who is operating on the floor and who is in that corporate seat.”

The goal with QuickHire Grow, the pair says, is to make sure applicants utilizing their platform stay aware of opportunities for advancement and are connected to resources that can help them further their careers. 

As part of the continuing development of their app — which now has around 5,000 users, most of whom are concentrated regionally — applicants and companies can connect on everything from specific industries and skills to individual goals and training. 

That will include a Career Health Score feature, which, much like a credit score, the sisters say is designed to give applicants a real-time snapshot of their career and what areas could be boosted to help open up new opportunities. 

“We really want to lean into this new focus of being a career-discovery platform,” Gladney says. “We really want people to be able to come to our platform and be able to discover, or rediscover, their careers.”  

Launched last year year, QuickHire leverages swipe-left-or-right technology familiar to the online dating world to match employers and job seekers in manufacturing and other sectors. 

And as they help those job seekers advance their careers, the sisters say there will be natural opportunities for employers that QuickHire Grow will be able to help with as well. 

“It’s really an opportunity for them to manage their teams,” Muhwezi-Hall says. “If they see someone is looking for opportunities to advance … it gives them some insight to advance their team and create some internal mobility.”