By Allan Maurer
Updated ATLANTA—Protuo, a Web-based career portfolio management company, has secured a first round in an undisclosed amount from WCX Investments. Alan Cullen, president of WCX parent Westwood & Wilshire, joins the Protuo board.
The company says Cullen, an entrepreneur himself, has built Westwood & Wilshire into one of the premier executive search firms in the country.
The firm primarily recruits executive-level positions for technology and bio-pharmaceutical companies. “I am excited to be part of a company that is at the center of the next generation of job recruitment,” Cullen said.
Protuo also named Keenan Hogg, CEO, chairman of its board, while Dale Hogg moves from COO to director. Jennifer Gerlach, formerly vice president, assumes the COO role.
Gerlach tells TechJournal South that the company, formed in 2005, has been bootstrapped until now, but landed clients that require it to take on more help. The ten employee company recently listed seven new open positions and expects to hire more help, she says. “We do everything in house,” she adds.
This funding will also help the company upgrade its system to a Web 2.0 version in August as well as ramp up marketing and public relations, she says.
Protuo enables customers to quickly and easily replace their standard two-page resumes with digital portfolios that may include materials such as photographs, recorded speeches and even video clips. It launched the product at the CES show in January.
In addition, through its trademarked Best Fit technology, the company provides one a cost-effective way for employers to identify and locate hard-to-find candidates, increasing the percentage of successful hires. Gerlach says it’s like a combination of Monster.com with eHarmony, because it matches job seeker skills and background to employers seeking them.
Gerlach says the company provides job seekers a free Web site–not just a page–where they can upload not only a resume, but samples of their work, awards, and even steaming video. “It’s a branding site for them,” she says.
Employers, who do pay from $259 a month up to “millions” for large numbers of postings, can use a power-posting feature that puts a job vacancy on more than 270 job boards at once.
Protuo partners include Young CEOs, the DC-based emerging business organization that helps young professionals, executives and entrepreneurs through business networking.
Protuo provides Young CEOs’ membership with an online employment portal that helps members find the right careers, and develop their business enterprises.
The company plans to open its second round soon, seeking about $1 million.
For more see: www.protuo.com
Allan Maurer is at: allan@techjournalsouth.com
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