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Search - Tuesday, December 9, 2008

High End Job Search Site RiseSmart Raises $3M

We spotted Dallas-based (now relocated to Sunnyvale) search site RiseSmart back in March when it raised angel funding. Today the company announced that it had raised $3M from Norwest Venture Partners.

RiseSmart competes with The Ladders with what it calls a "concierge service" to people who command $100K+. RiseSmart says it now employs clerks in India who sort through jobs posted online that might be the best for for their job-seeking clients. So rather than spending your time combing through LinkedIn and Craigslist job postings, you would pay RiseSmart's clerks to help you. You would pay $43.95 per month or $109.95 for three months for the service.

RiseSmart was founded by Sanjay Sathe, who rose to the rank of VP at Sabre Holdings but was laid off and then said he felt frustrated sorting through job posts for positions at his level. Sathe raised a $1.5M seed round from Craig Stamm, the former CFO for CareerBuilder.com and Headhunter.net; Mark Hamdan, CEO of HRsmart, and Louis Ramery, SVP at Sears.

Clearly this is a great time to go big with a job outplacement service. You'd have to really screw it up to miss the timing. Would we use RiseSmart? Sure. $44 isn't much if if gives you an edge. However, that compares to $30 a month for a premium subscription at TheLadders.com. Resume critiquing costs: $329 for a professional resume and up to $499 for an executive package. So RiseSmart will need to prove to people that they are the Four Seasons to the Ladder's HoJo's.

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