ZipRecruiter Acquires White Label Job Board Solution JobBoard.io

JobBoard.io is one of those under-the-radar success stories in our space. An overnight success, five years in the making. No big venture capital. No industry famous co-founders. No big city address. Just a small business, providing a valuable service at a fair price, growing organically. Sometimes companies like this come-and-go with little acknowledgement, and sometimes a bigger fish comes along with a deal that can’t be refused.

For JobBoard.io, a company founded in 2012 by Christian Malpeli with the goal of providing white-label job boards to blogs, associations, and publications like TechCrunch and Politico, that time is now and that bigger fish is ZipRecruiter.

“Over the past few years, we’ve worked closely with ZipRecruiter and it is clear that we share a similar vision,” says Malpeli in an email announcement. “The ZipRecruiter team has a track record of delivering high quality, innovative products and together we will now be able to execute on the JobBoard.io vision faster and more efficiently, bringing more resources in both product development and customer service to you and your clients.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Malpeli will become an employee of ZipRecruiter and continue to work on JobBoard.io, running it as a standalone business, powered by ZipRecruiter, implementing features that will support ZipRecruiter’s core business, particularly job distribution. JobBoard.io currently says it has over 200 clients, which would put it in the $500,000-$1 million in annual revenue range based on current pricing.

“Christian and the team at JobBoard.io have built a terrific product, and we’re excited that they’re joining the ZipRecruiter team,” says Ian Siegel, CEO at ZipRecruiter. “We’re already implementing new ways to delight JobBoard.io publisher partners, including having job postings run across the ZipRecruiter traffic network, and there are more great features on the way.”

As part of the existing plans for JobBoard.io customers, they will now have the option to submit qualified jobs from their job board into the ZipRecruiter-owned and operated network. This feature should drive more traffic and applicants to job postings. JobBoard.io will also develop additional monetization solutions for clients, including access to the ZipAlerts email product, as well as boosting openings within the ZipRecruiter network.

The commoditization of job postings has put a lot of pressure on the job distribution business, and Google for Jobs isn’t going to make things any easier. Duplication is a big problem, and it’s getting more challenging to get in front of new eyeballs when the same job posting is located everywhere. Throw in the fact that job posting prices aren’t going up, and life gets really uncomfortable.

Acquiring JobBoard.io opens up a whole new channel and flow of talent. A TechCrunch reader who passively checks out jobs on Crunchboard isn’t necessarily the same candidate going to Google and searching for jobs or going straight to Indeed. ZipRecruiter customers need to see fresh resumes they don’t find everywhere else, and this helps accomplish this feat.

For publishers and associations, who can’t make big bucks from banner ads anymore, a job board is an easy and effective way to open up a new revenue stream. Most organizations like this don’t have the expertise to implement an API or build a WordPress site, and many don’t want to co-brand. For JobBoard.io, finding as many blogs, associations, government entities, schools, etc., and closing deals as quickly as possible, should be paramount. As such, I have to think using ZipRecruiter’s resources to build a partnership development team would be paramount.

Fortunately, for JobBoard.io, the competition is pretty sparse and greenfield lies ahead. SimplyHired’s Jobamatic was trashed after Indeed acquired the company, and players like JobMount and Smartjobboard aren’t serious threats. Pricing and features are all pretty much the same as well. Additionally, JobBoard.io says it won’t just become an exclusive depository for ZipRecruiter jobs, taking away that selling point from competitors.

JobBoard.io will remain in Charleston, South Carolina. ZipRecruiter is based in the Los Angeles area.