01/05-09   -   Press releases

Your CV will be alive

Investors launches an online CV database where you can build relationships through CV’s and update your career with one click - Mai Møller Christensen
(Translation from Article published in Danish newspaper Erhvervsbladet on Thursday, 30 April 2009)

You take the functionality of Facebook, seriousness of LinkedIn, broad coverage from the public job center databases and the creativity from your personal slideshow and then combine it with business people and a love for manageable, electronic contacts and relationships.

Then you have www.comoto.com, the new website where you can gather all your experience and contacts, manage your CV and relationships and keep current, verified and fully updated Curriculum Vitae. This new CV can be used to establish new relationships and is ready to be sent out if the new job of your dreams is open for applications.

“The world consists of relationships. You build trust through relationships, often through an online community and get new friends and contacts. This is the idea which created www.comoto.com. This site is a sort of Facebook for CV, where you instead of sending a CV file can invite a relationship" says Kren Erik Nielsen.

The 47-year-old Danish businessman has an impressive CV, having been CFO at CW Obel A / S, responsible for business development at Coloplast A/S and also served in numerous company boards, often with a co-ownership in the company. He and the others behind Comoto.com believed that the world lacked a serious, electronic CV database, which could benefit job seekers, employers and those who just want to gather the relevant job search contacts.

In a style like the popular community site Facebook you have your own profile, which you keep constantly updated, so it is current. In ten seconds you can for example add a new skill gained through courses and with just one click send your updated CV to all your relationships. Comoto does not ask if you want to be “friends with CEO Andersen", but if you want to exchange give him access to your CV.

Facebook is for fun

“At Facebook, you should be allowed to stand and look silly on a picture from the Roskilde Festival, and you have no control over what is being associated with your profile page by others and what your contacts can see. The idea of Comoto is to be the business and job related community, where your relationships are invited and can always follow your professional development. Facebook can be retained as a site where you make fun as it might not be the space to write that you are looking for a job" says Kren Erik Nielsen.

It is his impression that there is substantial fraud with electronic CV’s - for example the annual survey by The Risk Advisory Group (TRAG) shows that among people in Britain, one out of three job applicants lie on their CV, and that women in their 30s are the worst liars. There are exaggerations up to 77 percent of the CV.

Comoto wants to stop these exaggerations among others by ensuring that history, exams, diplomas and other certificates will be public on the page also open for relationship and referents. The software behind comoto.com also ensures that your CV is presented beautifully and in real time.
You can make the CV as a flash show or enhance it with images or stylish graphics, depending on what type you are.

SAP as the experimental rabbit

Comoto is already available in a generic version on the internet, and later this year the final version of the website will be released aiming at a solution for all of us, as Denmark is not the primary target. The approach is global and also local versions of the German and Russian market is right now in the pipeline, due to the international Comoto team, consisting of a German Internet expert, a French and a Russian girl.

www.comoto.com has a sister site, www.comozap.com, the first of several specialist communities, which will give the user an even better opportunity to describe their qualifications with the tool called ´Skills Maps´. Comozap is being tested today by the consultants using the software from the large software company SAP AG in Germany and they have accepted the CV relationship application with enthusiasm. Both Comoto.com and Comozap.com are part of the company Comoto ApS, which is based in Copenhagen.

Kren Erik Nielsen’s holding company Kren Holding ApS owns one third, the two founders Chris Plantener and Boye Hartmann owns another third and finally Danish and foreign investors owns the last third.

“It was Chris Plantener and Boye Hartmann, whom originally got the idea to build a website, where you built relationships and give access to an always up to date CV. We took the SAP world that we knew and where we had an existing CV database with old technology and to rebuild the site how it should work. And it´s really good that we now can have it tested by SAP consultants to ensure that the technology is thoroughly tested before Comoto hits the streets" says Kren Erik Nielsen.

A missing course

His ambition is that the public job centers and trade unions also will take Comoto.com to them as their CV program. He cannot see why they should not. Unlike other CV databases currently running in their own isolated systems Comoto will be able to exchange information with various other CV databases, for example of Ofir and LinkedIn to ensure that user only needs to make their CV once.

“It makes Comoto convenient for job seekers. The employer can use Comoto.com to save administrative tasks, because you can set the system for example to automatically answer job seekers after 14 days the application has been received. And in a crisis situation where you really want to say ´Peter and Poul, sorry I have to fire you, but I hope you get another job´, Comoto can also help. You can support and have former employees as relationships, can maintain a contact, but with distance" says Kren Erik Nielsen.

Four persons work in Comoto.com and Comozap.com and they also operate a small handful of people in outsourcing partners. Among others are a development partner in Egypt and designers in Germany and Denmark. Comozap.com is available today in English and German, but several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese are coming.

How came the idea for Comoto?

- The idea arose as a response to all the CV databases that exist today. Most do not have modern facilities, including web 2.0 links and it would be too complex to present your CV everywhere. We are different and using modern features known from Facebook and LinkedIn to build relationships and also have an open approach. We can and will work with other CV databases because it is an advantage for the candidate. You will be able to synchronize your data between the CV databases and we also ensure that the candidate has full control over the data. He or she determines what it shall be used, how it is presented, and who can see it.

How will I earn money?

- At the specialist sites - such as Comozap.com - we give HR departments, recruitment firms, headhunters and others the opportunity to search for exactly the specialists they need, and they can also build relationships with the right candidates. They can even manage recruitment dialogue. This they will have to pay for and we have a large and growing interest in this service already. We also have dialogue with companies and trade unions, which can see a value in both getting an overview of their employees´ skills and manage their recruitment processes.

Who are the competitors and what differentiates you from them ?

- There are a large number of CV databases, but we differentiate us from them as described above. There are a few sites in the UK and the US, which focus on allowing you to create very beautiful CV. Visual CV is an example of this.

How do you market the business?

- We use the standard methods on the internet. It´s actually one of our strengths as several of us come from the advertising and the internet community business, and we have combine this experience with CV database experience. I also have a close dialogue with the users and with a number of companies seeking SAP specialists.

When do you expect to break even ?

- Since we have a flexible business model without many fixed costs, it is not so far away - unless we choose to increase the number of communities more than planned. It costs only a bit in the beginning..