Abundant Venture Capital Powers Glassdoor

According to recent reports by the Bureau of Labor (BLS), the unemployment rate in the country continues to go down. In September last year, over 126,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in the private sector in the country. Unemployment claims are down to their lowest since 2007 with unemployment rate for women falling to 6.7% in September and that for men at under 8%. With the job market improving, people can better afford to select the company they would like to work with. To help them with their search, many turn to online job reviews site, Glassdoor.

Glassdoor’s Offerings

Glassdoor was founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneur Rich Barton and Robert Hohman. Since its site went public in 2008, Glassdoor lets potential employees access anonymous reviews on organizations, get insights on job interview questions, seek career advice and even search for jobs, aspiring to be the TripAdvisor of the job market by relying on user-generated content. Based out of Sausalito, California, Glassdoor has over 22 million members accessing data on more than 300,000 companies spread across 190 countries. And those numbers are growing. They claim to be witnessing the addition of one new user every two seconds and one in ten of their visitors adds content to grow their library. During the last year, traffic to their site grew 160% to more than 13 million monthly unique visitors.

Initially, Glassdoor began as a review site helping new employees get a better understanding of the company that they were planning to work with including reviews, salary comparisons and interview questions. Soon, they added additional features to grow their market reach. The JobScope feature, launched in 2010, is an online job search engine that lets job seekers scout for job listings more effectively. Job seekers have the added advantage of being able to read employee reviews about the organization.

Two years later, they launched Inside Connections, a tool that works with the member’s existing Facebook network. Inside Connections enables Glassdoor users to see where their Facebook connections are working, thus adding to Glassdoor’s existing content. Earlier last quarter, they also released a Job Feed app for their iPhone app that sends out notifications on job relevant job listings to job seekers.

Glassdoor’s Financials

Access to Glassdoor data is free for their members and they earn revenues primarily through an advertising model. They sell various solutions for branding and analytics to their employer partners. Their detailed financials are not known, but the company has seen revenues grow 175% over the year. As part of their analytics solutions, Glassdoor offers both free and subscription based services for employers. As of last month, they had more than 15,000 free employer accounts that let allowing employers engage with the community and access basic analytics. Additionally, 1,400 employers subscribe to Glassdoor Talent Solutions that offer features like Enhanced Profiles, JobAds, Display Advertising, and Advanced Analytics. The pricing terms of the advanced employer accounts are customized based on the employer’s size and requirements.

They remain venture funded and have raised $91.5 million in funding from investors including Benchmark, Sutter Hill Ventures, Battery Ventures, DAG Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Dragoneer Investment Group. Their last round of funding was held last month when they raised $50 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management. Glassdoor plans to use the new funds for international expansion. Currently nearly 25% of their traffic comes from outside the U.S. They have not finalized on timelines for an IPO, but they admit that they do plan to go public.