Mystic — It's not unusual: A startup business begins with a vision that, once tested in the market, starts looking a little blurry.

That's not to say an entrepreneur should give up and scrap the product or service entirely. But those involved with a startup shouldn't be afraid to recognize the blind spots of one business model in hopes of coming up with another idea that gains traction.

Such was the lesson learned at startup company VoiceGlance, which launched a year ago when chief executive Sekhar Naik's software-development team helped solve some fundamental problems in the job-recruitment industry. The software allows companies to administer a targeted series of questions by phone to a large pool of candidates at any hour to help narrow the field of potential employees at minimal cost. 

"A lot of innovation comes from outside the industry," Naik said. "VoiceGlance allows us to engage everybody. The system doesn't sleep. That's a paradigm shift."

The shift was so fundamental, however, that many executives were unsure how to integrate the new tools into their overall job-recruitment strategies. VoiceGlance's initial model was surprisingly cheap, only $350 per hire, but that didn't translate into as many sales as expected because the recruitment process is a lot more complicated than just narrowing down the field of candidates.

So Naik made the decision to take a strategic shift toward delivering an integrated, full-service hiring solution that located good candidates, compiled information about each and helped narrow down the choices.

"We built pools of qualified candidates specific to what companies were looking for," said Bill Palifka, vice president of business development for VoiceGlance.

And as VoiceGlance got better at the process, which included the use of social media tools such as LinkedIn, the company found it could cut the average hiring turnaround from 34 down to as few as 10 days. But the new solution required the company to spend more time with clients and gain new job-targeting skills, and the cost for each recruit hired went up correspondingly, to $3,500.

"In traditional businesses, things are more defined," Naik said. "But in tech startups the models are not defined; you really have to build your own model."

At VoiceGlance, the model started with software that streamlines the hiring process by asking each candidate to answer a few pre-selected questions chosen to determine whether they are the right fit for a given job and company. The answers are then analyzed to determine who meets the basic job qualifications and can therefore be brought in for face-to-face interviews in which softer skills can be scrutinized more closely.

So far, VoiceGlance has dealt mostly with small to medium-size businesses, but there's no reason larger concerns couldn't benefit as well, Naik said, and the firm has started a strategic shift in that direction. Companies have used VoiceGlance for positions ranging from top-level executives to manufacturing workers, and as the Mystic firm evolves it now is developing a huge database of job-recruitment questions as well as potential employee matches.

"The beauty of what we do is all this stuff is reusable," Naik said.

Despite its Mystic location, VoiceGlance does little business with local clients, Naik said. He finds new customers across the country through social media and trips to conventions, as well as word of mouth.

And the word is spreading because of lower costs and more efficiencies delivered by VoiceGlance, Naik said. The company's fees may have risen under its new business model, but they are still far lower than charged by the typical head hunter, who gets 18 percent to 30 percent of a worker's salary (up to $30,000 for a worker earning $100,000 annually), he added.

VoiceGlance, which currently has eight employees, is looking to grow exponentially over the next year, Naik said. He estimated the company will likely triple in size over the next 12 months now that the business model has been solidified.

"That's the beauty of a tech company," Naik said. "You can build a very good workforce, and these people can really help customers all over the country."

Naik said he likes the idea of helping southeastern Connecticut grow its talent pool.

"I'm very committed to this area," he said. "It's such a nice, beautiful place to live and raise families. I hope we can develop a tech ecosystem here."

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow

Name: VoiceGlance

Principal: Sekhar Naik

Employees: 8

Years in business: 2

Address: 12 Roosevelt Ave., Mystic

Website: www.VoiceGlance.com

Phone: 860-333-6285