EUAN Cameron and Ilan Abehassera set up Willo in 2015 to revolutionalise the UK’s recruitment industry. The virtual interviewing platform allows candidates to be interviewed remotely. The company’s crowdfunder didn’t go ahead due to the pandemic but it adapted the platform to allow companies to communicate anywhere in the world remotely over video.

Name: Euan Cameron

Position: Co-founder and CEO

WHAT IS THE BUSINESS CALLED?

Willo

WHERE IS IT BASED?

Glasgow

WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?

I STARTED the business in 2015 to change how recruitment happens. I wanted to take away the stress of interviews and reduce the time and money people spend going to them. I wanted to make the interview process better for the candidates.

We trialled it last year and lots of businesses said they could hire people straight after seeing videos on Willo. We helped a business in Glasgow that runs bars and restaurants by interviewing people on Willo and then they were offered trial shifts. Traditionally this would have involved awkward phone calls and meetings.

In 2010 I was a graduate with Peter Vardy car company. I was their first digital marketing employee and I worked there for two years.

The team grew from just me to 32 others. Digital wasn’t a focus for them – they did a lot of traditional media – but we grew the online budget from 3% to 60%.

When I left I set up a cars finance company and ran it for two years. I’ve always wanted my own business – I made websites for people when I was 15. My parents ran their own businesses so it was a natural thing to do.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

THIS year has been really difficult. We planned to do crowdfunding in April but all of our advisers said it was a bad time to ask people to invest in a business.

We canned that but it allowed us to focus on the business we already had as we didn’t have the stress of making the campaign a success. We turned Willo into a tool to help people communicate remotely. We discovered we could help businesses to communicate anywhere in the world remotely over video.

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We have businesses from all over the world using it – one in Australia uses it to survey houses. If Covid hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have done that. It’s a good time to be doing things that are good for the world – we are giving significant discounts and helping non-profits by allowing candidates looking for jobs onto the platform. In specific industries like technology, real estate/property, care homes and marketing there are more people looking for jobs. They are all doing well on the platform. Lots of property firms are still trying to sell property remotely. Lots of people have lost their jobs so we are hoping to grow the business to allow candidates to practice interviews and they can then connect with others for feedback.

Lots of people who have lost their jobs won’t have done interviews for years. It’s hard to describe yourself to a stranger in a time limit so we want to take that pressure away.

WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?

IT was originally UK-based small recruitment companies that were underserved by expensive software that they couldn’t afford – they would run their whole business on spreadsheets. We aim for ones with one to 15 employees. There are 90,000 of these in the UK so it’s a huge target market.

They are underserved because they are small – people are running the business from their house and small offices. Our target has changed now as there are more candidates than there are jobs. Businesses are spending less on recruitment.

People are using Willo to narrow down the pool of candidates. If 500 people apply for a job a business can invite half of those to an interview and half of those will complete it so it narrows it down.

It’s an investment in time so candidates who aren’t interested won’t complete an application.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?

THE price point is very low or free which breaks down the barriers to entry. Me and my co-founder do a lot of work ourselves and have a good skill set between us so we don’t need to outsource. Our design is better, easier and more fun to use than others.

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Being fun to use is the key to software. Employees don’t want boring software anymore. We give fun feedback and use fun language on the platform.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?

DESIGNING the platform, speaking to customers and making it happen for them. We get their feedback on how it works and if something is wrong we can make a quick fix to the software within a few days.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN RUNNING THE BUSINESS?

TRYING not to wear too many hats. If you do that you will just fall over. It’s good to get other people who are experts to do these things – we have an accountant, graphic designer and someone to do legal stuff. The challenge is to stick to what you’re good at.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?

WE want to be the tool that businesses go to for connecting with others on video. This year we secured our investment of £250,000 in September. It’s not what we expected.

We were approached by venture capitalists in June and got the full amount three months later which meant we could go full-time.