The JobsCentral Success Story, From Founding to Exit

A couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that Singapore’s JobsCentral got acquired by U.S ’ CareerBuilder. The sum, though undisclosed, was rumored to be the highest ever in Singapore’s tech start-up scene.

Their success was derived from hard-work and smart decisions over the years. We wanted to understand how JobsCentral was founded and learn a little more about the team, the culture, and about life after the team’s exit. A special thanks to the JobsCentral partners Lim Der Shing, Huang Shao-Ning, Michelle Lim and Eric Koh who took time out of their busy schedule to share their answers with us.

The Founding

The JobsCentral idea was sparked during the dot com boom from 1996 to 1999. After studying some business models, the team decided that the job portal business has good potential in the region.

“We also liked the fact that a job portal business helps people better their lives. So by April 2000, our initial team was formed and we started working on the business,” said Der Shing.

Initially, it was only Der Shing and Shao-Ning operating as a two-man show under the JobsFactory name. Like most dot com start-ups during that period, the team operated out of Der Shing’s home to keep costs low. They were paid just $500 per month which was just barely enough for survival.

When asked why was the name changed from JobsFactory to JobsCentral, the team explained:

“We needed a separate brand as JobsFactory back then was closely associated with campus recruitment, which was our niche market when we first started. So in late 2005, we created the JobsCentral brand which we use for all our experienced professional products.

Both JobsFactory and JobsCentral were used concurrently for a couple of years before we merge everything under the JobsCentral brand as it has gained considerable mindshare in Singapore. So now, we only use the JobsCentral brand and have BrightSparks as a separate brand due to its unique audience.”

Subsequently as the business grew, Eric and Michelle joined JobsCentral full time in 2002 and 2003, respectively. As CTO and COO, Eric and Michelle brought on board their valuable operational and strategic skills. Today, JobsCentral has a management team that have complementary skill-sets. They work well together as friends and as partners.

“We have been fortunate to have grown the company over the past 10 years and currently we have about 3 million career seekers and 20,000 employers/organizations using our various media channels each year.”