During any particularly painful and tiresome job application cycle, we’ve all heard the same adage: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” However irritating it might be to hear, there is certainly truth in it. Although we often don’t value our professional networks enough, they are the most crucial aspect of career development.
In fact, in 2016, LinkedIn and the Lou Adler Group released research that revealed 85% of all jobs were found through networking. As a result, any career coach will tell you that posting an application in response to a job-board advertisement is nowhere near as effective as directly messaging the company’s hiring managers to inquire about opportunities. In short, professional relationships are everything, and should not be underestimated.
But where should you begin? Although LinkedIn is useful, it isn’t regionally specific and lacks a crucial personal touch. This experience frustrated the ambitious Egyptian entrepreneur, Sherif Bacheet, who encountered trouble creating a reliable professional network whilst studying abroad in Heidelburg, Germany. As a result, he sought to solve this problem by establishing Tays. The app aims to re-inject personality into networking and guides you in beginning more meaningful conversations with potential mentors and employers. The app claims to do so through its unique algorithm that connects you with contacts more specific to your field and goals. According to their mission statement, Tays defines itself as
“A professional user to user networking app that uses a unique machine-learning algorithm to matchmake individuals based on their professional interests and aspirations to help people in expanding and maintaining their network on a professional level while keeping the social and casual touch.”
In a statement released by the company, Tays announced that after a year of development, they managed to raise an impressive 7-figure LE pre-seed investment round. The investment was a collaborative effort from multiple angel investors, some of whom opted to join Tays’ executive board with Co-Founder Fady Yonathon. These investors included the Business Development Manager at Google Ireland, Karen Sewasa, the CEO of Remax Middle East, Khaled Nasser, the Founder and CEO of O7 Therapy, Ashraf Bacheet, and the Facility and Procurement Director at El Ahly Capital, Joseph Hanna.
Networking has always been a bit of an elusive concept, especially for young professionals just beginning their career, living abroad, or those who can’t rely on familial connections. This app aims to make job searching and network building more equitable for everyone – meaning you will be judged on the quality of your ideas and your ambition above all else. Moreover, during a period of travel restrictions and minimized social gatherings in Egypt to curb the spread of Covid – opportunities such as these to meaningfully network online are timely and welcome. We were intrigued to learn more about Tays, so we sought out their CEO, Sherif Bacheet, to ask some further questions about the company.
A picture of a startup networking event hosted by Seedstars. Photo Via: Seedstars Facebook
Was there a particular moment that the idea was inspired by or reacted to?
I’ve always been the type of person who enjoyed working in parallel to my studies, and this carried on when I started my studies abroad. While I was in the small German town of Heidelberg, I felt the inner drive to start my own business. I found myself in a place where all the people I know are my landlord and professors. I needed people to start a business and my network failed me, that’s when I knew that the quote “my network is my net worth” is extremely accurate. I wanted to do something about it, I wanted to change how people perceive networking around the world because I believed it should be much easier.
What gap in the market are you filling with Tays?
Tays is all about opportunities, we aim to provide people with both professional and networking opportunities which will help them develop their skills and advance their careers. Accordingly, the people that we benefit most driven individuals looking to boost their professional development to the next level. Current platforms do little more than inform corporate employees about their colleagues’ current positions and standings. However, there is a clear gap for the persistent entrepreneurs, the powerhouse freelancers, and ambitious graduates who are looking to stand out in their fields and grow with their networks.
What do you think is unique about Tays that only your platform can offer the consumer?
Tays’ unique matchmaking algorithm creates a new digital era of networking. By providing you with only the most meaningful connections, using Tays will guarantee that professionals will only make and develop professional relationships based on mutual benefit. The lack of meaningful and insightful connections people have experienced during this pandemic is what drove us to push Tays further into the light because simply-put: you are nothing without your network.
Another major aspect we decided to tackle head-on was the fear of networking. The majority of people, especially ones with less seasoned careers, feel intimidated by the feat of going up and networking with someone else. After extensive research we found that the main issue is not that individuals were intimidated by those they were about to approach, quite the opposite, people were unsure of what they could bring to the table. As a result, they opt out of going up to make a new contact. The Tays algorithm evades this by showing individuals the different discussion topics they may start with, the different benefits they may bring to one another, and the possible paths for a prolonged professional relationship.
How can people currently get involved, and where do you envision your expansion beginning?
We’ve already started testing out our application with numerous partner organizations and we’re at a point where we’re happy with the way everything has gone so far. Therefore, we’ve decided that we are going to have a public launch for the application around June 14th, so that we can start benefiting individuals all over Egypt even if their organization is not one of our partners.
We’ve already started partnering with multiple student organizations, coaching centers, and companies so that we may reach the opportunity-seeking professionals at the source. We believe that those are the people that can benefit the most from Tays and that with over 25 extremely talented and driven employees, we will be able to change their professional lives completely.
Want to get involved? You can download the app here, and follow their Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram (@tays.app) to keep abreast of all updates. Happy networking!
