David Crowley and Gerry Gorman have, between them, more than 50 years' experience of the recruitment and financial services sectors. In 2016, they pooled their experience to set up fintechjobs.ie, a recruitment service catering specifically for the needs of the fast-growing fintech sector in Ireland.
“Fintech’s rapid emergence in the Irish employment market, changing user browsing habits and employer dissatisfaction with the current offering from existing job boards provided the impetus for us to do some market analysis,” Mr Gorman says.
“This confirmed our belief that the timing was right for a dedicated website for all things related to the fintech employment world. Existing job boards offer volume but no focus, so employers really only engage with them on a ‘needs-must’ basis as there is no real alternative.
“Fintechjobs.ie is the only dedicated jobs board in Ireland that offers a specific go-to point for people looking to develop their career in the industry and it has been developed and customised in line with the IFS2020 initiative – the Government’s five-year strategy to further develop Ireland as a global leader in the sector.”
Fintechjobs.ie was launched in October and in addition to posting vacancies, the site will provide listings of fintech events as well as information about educational and training opportunities in the area.
Customers
“Anyone affiliated to the sector can advertise so our potential customers are recruitment agencies (who have told us that specialised and sector-focused portals are needed) as well as employers looking for staff,” Mr Gorman says.
"The problem with existing boards is volume – they are simply too saturated with jobs and a jobseeker can waste a lot of time hunting down relevant jobs on generic sites. With fintechjobs.ie you have results in seconds. Our system uses advanced data analytics which will allow us to hone our offering and efficiently adapt to current and emerging trends on an ongoing basis."
The number of fintech-specific jobs here is currently quite modest. Figures from the IDA/Enterprise Ireland for 2015 put the number at just under 9,000. This is up 7 per cent on 2014 and 40 per cent on 2008.
However, Mr Gorman says the sector is now growing quickly and will offer new career opportunities for those currently in areas such as traditional banking who are willing to retrain and upskill.
“Approximately 25 per cent of established financial service providers expect to lose over one fifth of their business to fintech rivals by 2020 so there is huge potential for career advancement within the sector,” he says. “It should also be remembered that fintech is a very broad area and covers a number of disciplines such as cyber, regulation, legal, insurance and blockchain development. Our platform will list opportunities with the leading established employers in the sector but also with start-ups.”
Start-up costs
Mr Gorman and Mr Crowley, who is a founding partner of Crossflow Payments (a 2014 fintech start-up focused on non-banking working capital) began developing their idea a little over a year ago and the company is now based at the Guinness Enterprise Centre where it employs five people.
Mr Gorman estimates start-up costs in hard cash at about €20,000 which has been self-funded. “We kept the costs low by doing the legwork ourselves and making the most of our existing knowledge and experience,” he says.
Fintechjobs.ie will make its money by selling packages of job credits (of different values) to those wishing to advertise on its site. Between now and Christmas, however, jobs can be listed for free while the platform is getting up and running.
“We very much see fintechjobs.ie as something that will evolve and will grow and change in line with an industry that offers so much innovation,” Mr Gorman says. “As we gain more traction, we plan to implement additional automated features and options that will allow employers to engage with potential talent in different ways.”
