Interviews
Interviews
Podcast
27.6.2023
Jonas Stamm has always had a knack for business. The 31-year-old computer scientist grew up in Schleswig, in the very north of Germany. At school, he assembled computers and sold them to his classmates. He moved to Copenhagen in Denmark to study computer science and also gained experience at the top American university Stanford on a scholarship. He has already founded a colorful repertoire of start-ups: a deposit system for festivals, then a kind of "Airbnb" for hunters looking for hunting grounds, followed by two start-ups in the construction industry. Crafthunt is his latest coup, a kind of dating platform for construction companies, engineering firms, craft businesses and workers. The highlight: the traditional application process is being turned on its head. More and more companies are applying for skilled workers via the platform.
A new graphics card, they've become really expensive. I needed it to pursue my current hobby project. I'm a total fanboy of artificial intelligence and train various AIs for my purposes. It's very computationally intensive.
That doesn't just sound like a leisure hobby.
I'm still paying out of my own pocket because I'm still experimenting with it. But of course it also plays into the hands of my activities.
I grew up in a family of building contractors. My father had a construction company for years and my brother has just joined one. My parents said right from the start: Jonas, you have two left hands, please don't do anything in construction. But I know the problems in the industry very well. One of the biggest at the moment is of course the shortage of skilled workers. I've been thinking about how to solve this problem. After countless conversations and many ideas that were useless, I came up with the idea of setting up a digital platform.
We are like elite partners for the construction industry. Every craftsman and every company has special strengths and skills. We bring them together like a dating platform. Entrepreneurs create a profile with us and show which construction projects they are working on, what trades they employ, what equipment they have and what benefits they offer. On the other hand, you have all the tradesmen. From excavator drivers to site managers, everyone who wears rubber boots once a month. They also upload pictures of their work or of the construction plans they have drawn up or of competitions they have taken part in. The workers can apply to the companies in the traditional way, but the companies can also apply to the workers.
You can no longer sit back and wait for the right people to apply to you. The train has left the station, especially in construction. This has been the case in the software industry for years. It doesn't matter whether you're an excavator operator or a site manager. You're in high demand.
The construction industry is still a bit old-fashioned in some respects. Many have not yet realized - and many will not realize it until they retire - that the employee and employer market has changed completely. This will drive many to ruin. If you expect people to come to you, you can't complain if you can't find people.
You can't be a friend to everyone if you cause displeasure among many and enthusiasm among many others, then you have achieved a good balancing act. There are always entrepreneurs who worry that people will leave because of us. But if you're worried about someone being poached, it means that your offer doesn't match the market value.
Many skilled German workers are already employed at the moment. But there are also people who are latently dissatisfied. They've had a really shitty day on the construction site, the foreman has shouted at them again or the boss has folded them up. Someone like that might want to take a look around. But they can very, very rarely do that in a safe way. Especially in the local area, it doesn't take 24 hours for your boss to know that you're asking around at other companies. He will make your life a living hell. That's why it's important for us to protect the identity of professionals. You can chat informally with other companies first and decide for yourself when to reveal your identity.
We will not be able to avoid bringing skilled workers from abroad to Germany. They are just often afraid to risk moving to a foreign country because they are afraid of being exploited. There are horror stories circulating about insolvency filings and unpaid wages.
The language barrier remains.
Crafthunt is available in 13 languages. An AI translates the chats, checks for spelling mistakes and also helps with formulations. This means that as a German entrepreneur, I can also go fishing in Poland, Romania or Spain.
Salary has now slipped to third place as a decision factor. I've spoken to many construction managers who have actually accepted wage cuts because they were able to finance further training in another company, for example, or have a say in changes. The older generation of building contractors are sometimes not so open-minded. They still think they are the only ones who want to set the pace.
I would definitely stay away from marketing agencies and headhunters. They have become a real cash grab. They take a lot of money, but deliver relatively little in return. As an entrepreneur, I would simply take care to present my company in a presentable, honest way, not embellished. In the age of Instagram and TikTok, people don't want prettified marketing images, they want something real, something tangible. People need to be able to imagine themselves on your construction site or sitting in the office with their colleagues. Today, hiring people has become more like dating than selling.
Sure, you can argue that dating is a bit like selling, but I'd say it's a bit more intimate. You meet someone, you listen, you try to understand the other person. Does the worker want more time with the family? Then perhaps the four-day week is the answer. Would the employee like further training? Then perhaps offer to pay for their master craftsman training. Make people want to work for your company!
Personal details: Jonas Stamm is a computer scientist and has a Master's degree in Technology and Innovation. He initially worked for an IT consulting company for just under a year. Since then, he has founded various technology start-ups.
Interviews
27.6.2023
Pascal Mill
Jonas Stamm is a computer scientist and founder of Crafthunt. In this interview, he reveals how he combats the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry and why recruiting today is like dating.
Jonas Stamm has always had a knack for business. The 31-year-old computer scientist grew up in Schleswig, in the very north of Germany. At school, he assembled computers and sold them to his classmates. He moved to Copenhagen in Denmark to study computer science and also gained experience at the top American university Stanford on a scholarship. He has already founded a colorful repertoire of start-ups: a deposit system for festivals, then a kind of "Airbnb" for hunters looking for hunting grounds, followed by two start-ups in the construction industry. Crafthunt is his latest coup, a kind of dating platform for construction companies, engineering firms, craft businesses and workers. The highlight: the traditional application process is being turned on its head. More and more companies are applying for skilled workers via the platform.
A new graphics card, they've become really expensive. I needed it to pursue my current hobby project. I'm a total fanboy of artificial intelligence and train various AIs for my purposes. It's very computationally intensive.
That doesn't just sound like a leisure hobby.
I'm still paying out of my own pocket because I'm still experimenting with it. But of course it also plays into the hands of my activities.
I grew up in a family of building contractors. My father had a construction company for years and my brother has just joined one. My parents said right from the start: Jonas, you have two left hands, please don't do anything in construction. But I know the problems in the industry very well. One of the biggest at the moment is of course the shortage of skilled workers. I've been thinking about how to solve this problem. After countless conversations and many ideas that were useless, I came up with the idea of setting up a digital platform.
We are like elite partners for the construction industry. Every craftsman and every company has special strengths and skills. We bring them together like a dating platform. Entrepreneurs create a profile with us and show which construction projects they are working on, what trades they employ, what equipment they have and what benefits they offer. On the other hand, you have all the tradesmen. From excavator drivers to site managers, everyone who wears rubber boots once a month. They also upload pictures of their work or of the construction plans they have drawn up or of competitions they have taken part in. The workers can apply to the companies in the traditional way, but the companies can also apply to the workers.
You can no longer sit back and wait for the right people to apply to you. The train has left the station, especially in construction. This has been the case in the software industry for years. It doesn't matter whether you're an excavator operator or a site manager. You're in high demand.
The construction industry is still a bit old-fashioned in some respects. Many have not yet realized - and many will not realize it until they retire - that the employee and employer market has changed completely. This will drive many to ruin. If you expect people to come to you, you can't complain if you can't find people.
You can't be a friend to everyone if you cause displeasure among many and enthusiasm among many others, then you have achieved a good balancing act. There are always entrepreneurs who worry that people will leave because of us. But if you're worried about someone being poached, it means that your offer doesn't match the market value.
Many skilled German workers are already employed at the moment. But there are also people who are latently dissatisfied. They've had a really shitty day on the construction site, the foreman has shouted at them again or the boss has folded them up. Someone like that might want to take a look around. But they can very, very rarely do that in a safe way. Especially in the local area, it doesn't take 24 hours for your boss to know that you're asking around at other companies. He will make your life a living hell. That's why it's important for us to protect the identity of professionals. You can chat informally with other companies first and decide for yourself when to reveal your identity.
We will not be able to avoid bringing skilled workers from abroad to Germany. They are just often afraid to risk moving to a foreign country because they are afraid of being exploited. There are horror stories circulating about insolvency filings and unpaid wages.
The language barrier remains.
Crafthunt is available in 13 languages. An AI translates the chats, checks for spelling mistakes and also helps with formulations. This means that as a German entrepreneur, I can also go fishing in Poland, Romania or Spain.
Salary has now slipped to third place as a decision factor. I've spoken to many construction managers who have actually accepted wage cuts because they were able to finance further training in another company, for example, or have a say in changes. The older generation of building contractors are sometimes not so open-minded. They still think they are the only ones who want to set the pace.
I would definitely stay away from marketing agencies and headhunters. They have become a real cash grab. They take a lot of money, but deliver relatively little in return. As an entrepreneur, I would simply take care to present my company in a presentable, honest way, not embellished. In the age of Instagram and TikTok, people don't want prettified marketing images, they want something real, something tangible. People need to be able to imagine themselves on your construction site or sitting in the office with their colleagues. Today, hiring people has become more like dating than selling.
Sure, you can argue that dating is a bit like selling, but I'd say it's a bit more intimate. You meet someone, you listen, you try to understand the other person. Does the worker want more time with the family? Then perhaps the four-day week is the answer. Would the employee like further training? Then perhaps offer to pay for their master craftsman training. Make people want to work for your company!
Personal details: Jonas Stamm is a computer scientist and has a Master's degree in Technology and Innovation. He initially worked for an IT consulting company for just under a year. Since then, he has founded various technology start-ups.
About the author
Pascal Mill
