Startup Story
Sasha Knott, the CEO of Job Crystal in South Africa, started her career in IT and moved quickly in her career finding her passion for entrepreneurship and combining this with technology that works for the customer and often disrupts industries. Sasha’s current plan is to make job seekers lives easier while helping SMEs find talent fast and effortlessly! With Job Crystal’s new system called Crystal which combines RecTech, AI, machine learning and UX functionality that makes it easy to find the needle in the haystack for SMEs looking for talent. The vision is to make a dent in unemployment.
LoA spoke to Sasha to learn more about this innovation based business that has the potential to make a big difference in addressing unemployment.
What does your company do?
Job Crystal is an all-encompassing recruitment solution that blends the speed and accuracy of an AI machine brain with the care and compassion of a human heart to connect amazing companies to ideal talent. Click.Connect.reCruit. The business started in 2009 and today employs 23 people.
“We wanted to make a difference and found that with helping SMEs hire we could make a dent in unemployment.”
“We focus on SMEs and helping them hire fast while being cost effective as we know all about cash flow!”
What inspired you to start your company?
We wanted to make a difference and found that with helping SMEs hire we could make a dent in unemployment.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
We focus on SMEs and helping them hire fast while being cost effective as we know all about cash flow!
Tell us a little about your team
Our team are 23-women led, with a wealth of experience in Recruitment, IT, Customer Service and Finance. We all work virtually from our homes, to ensure we can multi-task between clients, candidates, crew and our children! Sasha and Kelly work with the team to ensure our vision is reached of making a dent in unemployment. We are all extremely passionate about what we do and the way we do it!
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
Having begun my career as a System Administrator then moving into a Computer Programming role, it gave me the foresight and understanding into the tech-era. Having run a large IT Support Centre in Cape Town I further grew my entrepreneurial leadership skills in the tech sector, being headhunted to start the Operations & IT Centre for the Virgin Group.
In April 2010, I successfully moved to the financial services industry. I started an online trading business (iTRADEpro), sold the business and then became the General Manager for Como Capital; a holding company that invests in credit financial services businesses with a high potential to solve industry problems or disrupt inefficient markets. I then entered the Insurance industry, first into Africa and then later started Switch2, a credit life insurance business, which was recently sold to Clientele Life. Switch2’s focus is to save consumers money in their credit life insurance.
“We love to help all types of people from those looking to hire - to those looking for a job - to those looking to make a difference with us!”
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
We have recently launched Crystal, an AI powered recruitment machine! Crystal is aimed at working with the SME market to help hire simply, faster and better. While our White Label tool works with corporations looking to have a technology edge in the recruitment space. Our plans are to take our technology into Africa next!
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Being able to make a difference fast! Being an SME we are agile and able to pivot fast and effectively. We love to help all types of people from those looking to hire - to those looking for a job - to those looking to make a difference with us!
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Just do it! It’s going to be scary, lots of hard work, frustrating and thrilling but it will be the most exciting journey you will make, that will make all the difference to the world that you want to make!
Contact or follow Job Crystal
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | EMAIL sasha@jobcrystal.co.za
Why LoA loves it…
Africa needs innovators to help solve some of the biggest challenges such as massive unemployment. Sasha Knott is one such innovator, using her tech expertise and experience to build an innovative recruitment solution connecting companies to talent. By thinking differently and harnessing the power of technology and AI, she is using her entrepreneurial know-how to make a real difference to people’s lives. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa