← Dave Pride

Reinventing recruitment through aligned incentives

WAAZU

WAAZU (2012 - 2014)

WAAZU — Waazu pays you for landing a job

The problem

In 2012, the recruitment market was built for large employers and white-collar roles. LinkedIn had transformed professional networking, while job boards like Seek focused on listings, but trades, services, and small businesses remained underserved.

Hiring was expensive and inefficient.

Employers paid upfront for job ads or thousands in recruiter fees without certainty of success. Candidates applied into a black box with little transparency, feedback, or trust.

I founded WAAZU to redesign recruitment around outcomes, creating a marketplace where employers and candidates only succeeded when the right match was made.

Building from zero

Built in 2012, before today’s startup ecosystem and no-code infrastructure existed, WAAZU was bootstrapped from the ground up.

We built the platform ourselves while solving the harder marketplace challenge: creating value for both employers and candidates at the same time.

The opportunity

Recruitment rewarded activity, not outcomes

Traditional recruitment created friction for both sides of the marketplace:

For employers

  • Expensive upfront costs before seeing results
  • Limited tools to manage hiring themselves
  • Reliance on recruiters for a process they often couldn't control

For job seekers

  • Applications disappearing into a black hole
  • Limited communication or feedback
  • Little understanding of where they stood in the process

The opportunity was to create a more transparent, outcome-driven marketplace built around trust.

A new marketplace model

Aligning incentives around successful hires

WAAZU replaced traditional recruitment fees with a performance-based model.

For employers

Post jobs for free. Pay only when you hire.

Businesses could access qualified candidates without upfront costs or the risk of traditional recruitment fees.

For job seekers

Share in the value you create.

Candidates received 50% of the success fee when successfully hired through WAAZU — a marketplace where both sides benefited from the same outcome.

Onboarding email

WAAZU welcome email — Hi Dave! Welcome to Waazu!

Job search — mobile

9:41
WAAZU mobile job listings — hospitality, travel and tourism

Designing a better hiring experience

Changing the business model was only part of the solution

We redesigned recruitment around simplicity, transparency, and trust.

Job post — employer view

WAAZU job post — annotated walkthrough of the employer job listing

Helping small businesses hire without HR teams

WAAZU gave employers the tools to manage recruitment themselves:

  • Create and manage roles
  • Review and shortlist candidates
  • Track applications through the hiring process
  • Communicate with applicants

Creating a more transparent candidate journey

For job seekers, we replaced the traditional black-box application process with:

  • Greater visibility into application progress
  • Better communication with employers
  • A clearer path from discovery to interview

Manage applications — employer dashboard

WAAZU manage applications — four-step hiring process

Building the marketplace from zero

As Founder, I led:

  • Marketplace strategy and business model
  • Customer discovery and validation
  • Product vision and roadmap
  • Growth strategy and acquisition
  • Brand and positioning
  • Partnerships and commercial development

Reflection

The biggest opportunities often come from questioning the incentives behind existing systems.

By redesigning both the business model and user experience together, we created a marketplace where employers and candidates were aligned around the same goal: finding the right person.