Facebook is about to go face-down to $25 a share — but CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be saved by a new recruiting startup. (Recruiting industry watcher Joel Cheesman just keeps serving these flapjacks up, hot off the grill. I’m still LMAO about the last one.)

Identified.com

The Stanford University-spawned start-up Identified.com just got $21 million in sucker capital funding. (Disclosure: I went to Stanford and have yet to raise $21 million, but I do not hold that against Stanford.) And what does this “fastest growing career site for young professionals” actually do?

 

 

Yep — Identified.com sends traffic to Facebook.

Judging by the time-honored rule of putting your best assets right out front on your home page, Zuck’s got a winner by the short hairs. Somebody finally got the message — just send ’em over to FB right away!

Plus it’s not boring.

That’s the value proposition right off the bat. All you have to do is KMA and “Turn On Platform.”

Not Boring: Identified hangs out with Richard Branson

Courtesy of the Sacramento Bee, you can read all about it in the “unedited press release,” which explains nothing about how the “business” works. Well, it does say that Identified.com:

  • “transform[s] professional identity through gamification”
  • “aims to help young people achieve their professional goals”
  • “[is] taking the principles of game design and applying them to managing your career”
  • “[is] helping young people leverage data to make career choices in a fun, interactive way”

Then I realized where I’ve seen some of this stuff. It kinda reminds me of the classic resume objective statement: “I want to work with people to achieve my professional goals in a progressive company!”

But, the company’s business model, displayed on its front page, is that it’s driving more users to Zuck’s website… and that’s good for America.

And Identified hangs out with Richard Branson.

Dick Is Not On The Website

But the website doesn’t say dick about how it helps people and employers get together to fill jobs.

Because when I spent a few minutes to figure out what the proposition really is, all I learned is that:

The website says as much about the business as the press release. If you want to actually do anything on Identified.com, you need to talk to Zuck:

 

 

Why would V.C.’s dump $21 milion into a website that sends all its traffic to Facebook?

Wired magazine says:

“Facebook is on the cusp of becoming a medium unto itself — more akin to television as a whole than a single network, and more like the entire web than just one online destination.” (Cf., “We’re more popular than Jesus.“)

But then again, Wired also said:

“The sheer magnitude of Facebook’s success is one reason why, as the company charges toward what will likely be the most successful public offering in the history of capitalism…

Disclosure: Wired is my favorite magazine. But like I said, Facebook is about to suck rocks at the bottom of $25 a share. (Facebook Deathwatch reports $25.87 at today’s close.)

If I were Tim Draper, Bill Draper, Innovation Endeavors, VantagePoint Capital Partners, and Capricorn Investment Group, I’d get Marc Cenedella on the phone, quick — Identified.com needs a better blog and a more capable hawker of recruiting services. (No disrespect to all these renowned V.C.s, but Dudes, I went to Stanford, too.)

How are we going to do that? Dunno, but it won’t be boring.

About Identified:

“What Facebook did for your social life, Identified is building for your professional life. How’re we going to do that? We’re going to make managing your career not boring.

I was gonna say, who needs yet another online recruiting start-up? Who needs a business when you can just send all your traffic to Zuck?

But Cheesman already said it (I love this guy’s insights):

“The playbook for start-ups in the recruiting space usually goes something like this: Group of young, educated people — usually coming off their own job search, which apparently qualifies as experience in the employment space — come up with an idea to ‘make things better.’”

More Mooney?

When are the V.C.’s gonna learn that Facebook cow clicking is as good as it’s gonna get?

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9 Comments
  1. “In short, what Facebook did for your social life, Identified is building for your professional life.”

    LinkedIn v. 2.0?

  2. Why does this website say copyright 2011 at the top? Isn’t it 2012 for over 6 months now? Just sayin.. As for IDentified, bleh there are already facebook job ‘apps’ that already suck, and are useless. LinkedIn *might* be worthwhile, but the jury is still out on that. FlipDog (acquired by Monster) was the last good job site out there. Internet is hurting job-hunting as much as it is helping it, IMHO. My headhunters can email me, and I can send them my resume faster than I used to be able to, otherwise, not so helpful. BTW: I’m looking for work in Utah, so contact me headhunters. I have IT background, tons of experience, and I’m eager to get working full-time. My credit sucks, but my background check is ok. Hit me up, if you want to. mrwarewolf@gmail.com is an email to contact me at.

  3. Interesting analysis on Computerworld this morning:

    Analyst predicts Facebook will ‘disappear’ in 5 to 8 years
    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227773/Analyst_predicts_Facebook_will_disappear_in_5_to_8_years

    He makes some pretty compelling points. The article in Wired (mentioned in my post above) goes on to point out that FB is a closed system, much like AOL was.

  4. Nick – Boring. Not your post by any means, but this idea that ‘special’ apps are needed to social recruit, when recruiters intuitively understand how to work social sites as they are. Blah… I do like having a free job board embedded in a Fan Page (I use jobcast) and beyond that not interested in any of the social employment flavors of the day. Hard to believe they keep getting funded. ~Karla

  5. They need some checking on the identified system. PhD’s and things are not checked..

  6. Boring is right…just think how many deserving students they could have given the opportunity to attend Stanford with 21 million….wow! Perhaps they may have come up with some new and innovative ideas on their own instead of reinventing “the job search” tread mills. Even LinkedIn is becoming heavy with new rules. “you already joined enough clubs” “you have already invited” enough ..UPGRADE! Get more! Baloney…..maybe Mr.Zuckerberg can use some of the money to defend himself against the 1,000’s of lawsuits he is about to face. Some people just can not leave well enough alone.

  7. Nick,
    The link you provide to the article on Facebook disappearing in 5 to 8 years takes me to a music video. The song was nice, but I didn’t get the reference to FB. :)

    Jen

  8. @Jen: Oops! I fixed the link. Or, to make it easier, here is the correct link:
    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227773/Analyst_predicts_Facebook_will_disappear_in_5_to_8_years

  9. I cannot stand fb. However, I interviewed there; I had a bare account. They require that you sign away all rights to your data on the application. You cannot interview there, as in all Silicon Valley companies, unless you sign away your right to all your data on the application. In addition, you have to agree to not hold them responsible for distribting and “sharing” your data. It F…King schucks.