Info Magzine: Kalibrr founder joins ranks of WEF leaders

Rivera is the lone Filipino to make the newest record of WEF Young Global Leaders.

Filipino technopreneur Paul Rivera made it his mission to assist individuals land their dream jobs when he based careers platform Kalibrr in 2013.

He sees a future the place this platform—which has emerged as a a lot wanted IT firm offering hiring options in Southeast Asia—will match a couple of billion jobseekers with appropriate employers throughout the globe.

Because of this mission and what Kalibrr has achieved up to now, the 38-year-old Rivera was just lately chosen by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) to be half of the 2021 Class of Young Global Leaders (YGLs), a choose pool of outstanding individuals beneath the age of 40 who exemplify what humanity wants most immediately: hope, empathy, authenticity and the drive to develop options that may change the world for the higher.

Only Filipino

Rivera is the one Filipino to make the lower this yr.

Each yr, the Forum of YGLs goes by way of a rigorous choice course of to determine, choose and commemorate leaders beneath 40 who come from completely different communities and industries worldwide.

“We celebrate the individuals in this class of 2021 and the difference they are committed to making globally, particularly at this critical juncture,” the Forum stated.

“Over the past year, the world has dealt first hand with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic inequalities, discrepancies in our health-care systems, economic downturns and education shifting to digital. While many leaders call on the need to fix what is broken, the more urgent need is to take immediate action. Young leaders around the world are leading by example and paving the way for action on these issues,” the Forum stated.

Team effort

For Class of 2021, there have been 9 honorees from Southeast Asia out of the 112 new YGLs from over 100 international locations and varied sectors. YGL Class of 2021 features a numerous group of younger individuals who have made their mark on the planet—from a gender justice and human rights activist to a multi-award successful artist and advocate for indigenous literacy, to a celebrated chief from the world’s youngest nation, and leaders from enterprise, civil society, well being care and authorities.

Asked what this YGL meant to him, Rivera stated: “It is a team award—I’m primarily selected for the work I do at Kalibrr and it’s a total team effort. But it is an amazing achievement to be recognized for this work by such a prestigious organization.”

Matchmaker

Kalibrr, a careers platform for over 5 million younger professionals, has discovered jobs for over 300,000 individuals since its inception in 2013. Prior to Kalibrr, Rivera was the co-founder and president at Open Access BPO, an revolutionary outsourcing firm that introduced a number of expertise firms to the Philippines.

He can be an energetic investor in expertise startups within the Philippines together with online dermatology options supplier Remedy, health-care plan market Maria Health and all-around providers supplier MyKuya.

Rivera was 5 when his household moved to the United States in 1988. He studied Political Economy at UC Berkeley, curious concerning the intersection of historical past, economics and politics and their roles in shaping what occurs to a rustic and its society.

His school thesis was a comparative evaluation of South Korea and the Philippines from the Nineteen Sixties onwards. One has since turn out to be an industrialized nation whereas the opposite is caught as a middle-income nation.

He began his profession in Silicon Valley as product supervisor at an e-commerce startup known as Mercantila, which was later acquired by Google. His function finally advanced into constructing and overseeing a 50-person merchandising group in Bangalore, India.

“This startup exposed me to the world of both tech and outsourcing which I would later build on when I moved back to the Philippines,” Rivera stated.

At Google, he held an entry-level function within the enterprise group beneath Sheryl Sandberg (YGL Class of 2009), who’s now CEO of Facebook. This group helped handle and assist excessive spend advertisers on the AdWords platform. So much of time was spent on curating and rejecting advertisements.

Return to PH

He didn’t keep that lengthy in Google—spending solely seven months—however what resonated with him was that nice firms are constructed on their skill to draw wonderful expertise individuals. “And I felt lucky to be in that environment,” he stated.

Per week after he give up Google in March 2007, he returned to the Philippines. He at all times wished to be an entrepreneur however by no means had the concept. An outdated colleague at Google, Ben Davidowitz, enticed him to begin a name middle within the Philippines.

“Back then, India was the center of the call center universe but the Philippines was emergent and about to explode,” Rivera stated. “Being Filipino, I knew the capabilities —particularly in English—of Filipinos. And having spent several months in Bangalore, India with Mercantila, I put the pieces together and saw a tsunami of opportunity in the BPO (business process outsourcing) space and decided to ride the wave,” he stated.

For six years, he ran Open Access BPO and grew it to over 1,000 individuals, working with many prime tech firms to assist their operations within the Philippines. It was whereas constructing and scaling that he skilled the hiring drawback. There are too many functions, however not sufficient high quality. There’s a lot effort, however little or no end result.

“And on the other side, [I’ve been] learning and hearing about talented jobseekers who had a difficulty getting a job. It seemed like a big, valuable and impactful problem to solve and I guess being an entrepreneur, I was motivated to solve it,” he stated.

Major buyers

Among the buyers which have backed Kalibrr are Y Combinator, Kickstart Ventures, Wavemaker, Omidyar Network and Patamar Capital.

Asked how completely different Kalibrr’s enterprise mannequin is from different job search platforms, Rivera defined: “For the jobseeker, we are the Spotify for jobs—where you discover, rather than search for relevant opportunities. For the employer, we allow you to spend the most time with the best people. Our technology, AI (artificial intelligence) and platform automate much of the administrative work of what recruiters do so you spend more time with what AI can’t do— talking to people.”

Kalibrr believes that recruitment is the enterprise of individuals, not transactions. Companies throughout industries and sizes have picked Kalibrr for its confirmed technique to have interaction and entice the highest expertise.

To attain his objective of serving to a billion individuals get a job, Rivera appears past the Philippine shores for each person base and roster of staff.

“We’re already sort of global in the sense that Filipinos and people in Southeast Asia are using Kalibrr to connect to local, regional as well as global remote jobs,” he stated.

Asked what else he intends to perform outdoors Kalibrr, “to be the best husband and dad,” stated the daddy of three.