Conspire does the networking for you so you can focus on getting the job you want

by Lauryn Schroeder
November 18, 2014

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Finding your dream job and getting a foot in the door with its top employees has just gotten easier. A Boulder-based startup and featured Galvanize member, Conspire, has developed software to help job seekers become their own “super connector,” mapping their own networks with a simple search.

Conspire, founded in 2012 by Stanford grads Paul McRyenolds and Alex Devkar, is a recent product of the Techstars Cloud program, which connects selected startups with top-notch mentorship and funding access. Unlike LinkedIn and other similar networking sites, Devkar said Conspire takes networking to a deeper level, helping its users avoid awkward cold calls and introductions that plague the job-hunting process.

“With LinkedIn, you end up with a bunch of connections, but there’s no added understanding to what that relationship means,” Devkar said. “The basic idea of [Conspire] is to understand not only who knows someone, but how strong they know someone.”

The process is simple: Give Conspire limited access to your primary email accounts and watch your network — and the relationships of those within your network — come to life. By analyzing email data and recognizing who talks to whom and how often, Conspire creates an up-to-date assessment of your network and shows you the strength of the relationships within.

Type in the name of a top VC or a company you’d like to work for, and Conspire lists the most effective route to get there based on relationship strength. Relationships are rated from “acquainted” to “knows very well”, and users have the option to request an introduction from there.

Say you’re at a startup and you’re looking for investors. “When you know that someone in your network has a strong relationship with an investor, you can reach out in the most intelligent way,” Devkar said. Or if you’re looking for a new job, “this is a way to get your resume to the top of the stack.”

Once enrolled in the program, Conspire also sends users more personal information about their own emailing tendencies, such as a list of their top connections, people they are losing touch with and how fast on average certain people respond to emails.

Devkar said Conspire’s network can currently reach more than 29 million people and they’re hoping to hit 100 million by February 2015. Maintaining a user’s privacy is also a top priority and Conspire plans to be as transparent as possible when requesting access.

“We’re a prime example of ‘network affects product,’ and so growing the size of the network is one of our biggest goals,” he said. “But we’re asking people to give us access to their private data, and so we’re prepared to answer any and all questions for users to feel comfortable with that.”

Devkar said Conspire’s team is working to expand on the tools already available to users, while also maintaining privacy protection. Current customers are only able to link certain email accounts to Conspire’s software — particularly Gmail. Additional servers and networking applications will be added soon. General membership is free for all users, and will remain free, but Conspire’s team plans to add features that will fall under a paid premium account such as more advanced searching capabilities.

Devkar said Conspire is also looking to expand its workforce, primarily in the engineering division.

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Jobs at Conspire

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