RefNow - Employment Reference Checks

RefNow is revolutionizing the way HR teams and recruiters collect employment references with our cutting-edge online platform. With over 12,000 satisfied clients, we've streamlined the process, allowing references to be collected in under 30 seconds. Our platform is scalable and suitable for businesses of all sizes. With our free option, you can request references from up to 5 candidates, and if you require more, we offer flexible plans to meet your specific needs.

Sign up today at https://refnow.com and experience the future of employment referencing.

Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Bally's Interactive

Senior Software Engineer

Gamesys

Software Engineer

Graduate Software Engineer

iTradeNetwork, Inc.

iTradeNetwork Europe provide SaaS hospitality management for large businesses inside and outside of the UK.

Graduate Software Developer

Games Inc

Internship at GamesInc providing Quality Assurance tests for a company that produces gaming platforms for the distribution and usability across HTML5 and flash based systems including Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Camps Kenwood & Evergreen

Worked as a general counsellor looking after children ranging from 7-15 years of age (specifically 13-14 year old boys). Engaging in activities and camp trips throughout a period of 7 weeks making the experience for them both exciting and rewarding.

My working experience as a general counsellor has allowed for greater improvement with personal and communication skills with people from around the world. It has opened up a realm of contacts and friendships that will always provide opportunities.

Responsibilities:

•	Leadership
•	Communication
•	Honesty
•	Reliability
•	Teamwork

General Counsellor

3-month Internship working within the field of quality assurance testing and ensuring that products had been developed correctly and excluded any sign of technical bugs that could affect consumers. The internship involved online slot machine gaming and required a high level of detail and constant attention to guarantee the finest quality in online gaming.

Software Quality Assurance Intern

As an experienced software engineer, I have had the opportunity to work on captivating user experiences that foster strong engagement and a sense of belonging.

I am the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of RefNow, an automated referencing platform. At RefNow, we focus on revolutionising the recruitment process and providing an unparalleled user experience, ensuring a seamless and efficient journey for candidates, referees, and hiring managers alike. Our platform simplifies reference checks, saving valuable time for all parties involved.

Recognising the significance of community in driving user satisfaction and loyalty, I have witnessed firsthand how it can enhance retention strategies.

My passion lies in building websites, problem-solving, and generating innovative ideas. While I may not be an AI expert, I am deeply intrigued by its potential and eager to expand my knowledge in this rapidly evolving field.

If you share my enthusiasm for optimising recruitment processes, fostering engaging communities, or exploring the possibilities of AI, I would love to connect. I am always seeking opportunities to collaborate, learn, and make a positive impact.

If you're a graduate struggling to find work in 2025, read this.

My brother rang me yesterday.

Computer Science degree. Zero offers.

"What would you do if you were me?"

Here's what I told him:

1. I'd start by looking at what companies are looking for in grad/junior/entry-level roles for the job I want.

2. I'd fire up my AI of choice and get it to identify the skills I lack and the ones I need to improve.

3. I'd spend my time sharpening what I'm good at and learning what I'm missing.

4. I'd build something. A project, a portfolio piece, a case study. Something tangible I can point to and say "I made this."

5. I'd then give AI my CV and tell it to redesign it as a one pager that is clear and to the point. No fluff and fits the role I want.

6. I'd then apply to every single job in that field no matter whether I like the company or not (this is not the time to be picky).

7. After applying, I'd find the hiring manager on LinkedIn and send a short message about why I'm genuinely excited about the role. Most people don't do this.

8. In the same AI chat I'd give it this prompt: "Based on my CV, skills, and this JD (upload job description), act like a recruiter and ask me a bunch of interview questions around soft skills, technical skills and cultural fit and test me. Don't tell me what to say but let me practice."

9. I'd optimise my LinkedIn.
Update my profile picture, my headline, my about section and if I felt up to it, I'd start posting.

I'd post what I'm learning and what it taught me: "Today I learned how to create and deploy a website with NodeJS and Heroku".

Here's why:
If I'm hiring in 2025 and I like your CV, I'm checking your LinkedIn profile. If I see posts that you've been actively learning and teaching yourself new things? The chances of you getting an interview at my company are very high.

Don't wait for someone to hand you a job. Build proof to make it impossible for them not to.

I wish someone told me this when I was 22.

If you're hiring in 2025, what makes a candidate's LinkedIn profile stand out to you?

Ben Adams

Founder @ RefNow | Stop Chasing References | Get Them Back in 36 Hours, Automatically

Our product launch was a disaster.

Not because the product was bad.

But because we had no idea who to sell it to.

James and I spent 6 months building RefNow from our bedrooms.

He was building SickCover and discovered that referencing was the weak link in hiring.

We joined forces and built the MVP.

Launched it…

Nothing.

The real problem wasn't our product.

It was us.

We had no idea how to sell. No clue who our ideal customer was.

We were trying to sell reference automation to everyone instead of the right people.

In came Jordan, a friend of mine and a recruitment team lead at Page.

He joined us in 2020. Peak Covid.

Left his six-figure salary to sell software that nobody knew they needed.

Everyone thought he was crazy… So did I.

But Jordan did something we hadn’t:

He talked to customers. Listened. Found the people with the exact pain we solved.

Since then, we've closed 300+ deals.

And we're about to hit a massive company milestone.

Here's what I've learned:
- Product-market fit isn't found in your bedroom.
- Your product won't sell itself. Even if it's brilliant.
- Technical founders need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

I had to learn marketing, positioning, and how to talk about our product in a way that made people care. Building is the easy part. Selling forces you to confront whether you actually built something people want.

Founders: How long did it take you to figure out who your real customer was?

Founder @ RefNow | Automated Reference Checks in 48hrs Not 2 Weeks | 500k+ Processed

I've been building a bootstrapped business for years.

But I've been too scared to post about it.

Worried what people might think. Convinced it was cringe to post content. So I did what I did best, kept quiet and carried on building.

The problem?

People buy from people.

A few years ago, I was sat in my bedroom learning how to build a business from other founders online.

Their failures. Their wins. The tech they swore by (and hated). The mistakes they made, so I didn't have to.

That content changed everything for me.

But I've been too scared to pay it forward.

Last month, I went to a Steven Bartlett talk in Bali.

He said: "Embarrassment is the true price of entry."

He told the story of his first LinkedIn post. A generic quote, "everything happens for a reason".

His friends ripped into him. Made fun of him.

But look where he is now.

Here's what I've realised:

Building a business can be lonely. But sharing what you learn makes it less lonely for someone else.

So here's what I'm doing:

Sharing the frameworks we used to grow without VC money. The mistakes that cost us months. The tools that make a 3-person team punch like 10.

If you've been building in silence too, this is your sign.

Someone needs to hear what you've figured out.

What's stopping you from sharing what you've learned so far?

We spent over £22k on ads before we realised we were doing it all wrong.

Our landing page headline was: "# 1 reference checking solution in the UK"

We thought it was perfect. We'd built the best solution, and our headline made sure everyone knew it.

Except… nobody cared.

Conversions were shocking, and we couldn’t figure out why.

Then a mate who runs a recruitment agency told me straight:

“Mate, I don’t care if you’re # 1. I care that I’m wasting 6 hours a week chasing references.”

Fair point.

We’d made ourselves the hero of our own story.

Our customers didn’t want to hear about us. They wanted to hear about them.

So we rewrote it.

Old headline: “# 1 reference checking solution in the UK”

New headline: “Stop wasting 6 hours a week chasing references”

We stopped listing features:
- Automatic reminders
- 30-second setup
- Downloadable PDF reports

And started showing outcomes:
- Get references back 3x faster
- Never chase a candidate again
- Cut reference turnaround time from 2 weeks to 2 days

Conversion rate jumped 400%.

Turns out, people don’t buy what you do.

They buy what they get.

Your customer is the hero. You’re just the guide helping them win.

Go look at your homepage headline right now. Does it talk about you or solve their problem? Drop it below and I'll tell you which one it is.

The importance of building a self-service culture in 2025.

And the cost of not doing it.

This week has been pretty full on for me.

I've dealt with more customer support tickets than any other week and it occurred to me that this isn't scalable.

The problem isn't our customers, it's how we educate them.

You can follow every book there is on good product design, best UX principles etc but there's no book to tell you how to solve this:

Not all customers are equal.

Some users will only use your platform once.

Some will use it every single day.

You need to account for both scenarios.

Here's what I'm learning in real time:

Help articles and product demos are useless if people don't know where to find them.

We had everything documented. Video walkthroughs. Step-by-step guides. FAQs.

But if a first-time user doesn't know these exist, they'll just hit that support button.

And if a daily user can't find the answer in 10 seconds, same thing.

So here's what we're doing differently:

1. Meet people where they are
In-app tooltips for first-time users. Quick links in the exact place someone might get stuck.

2. Make help impossible to miss
Search bar front and centre. Auto-suggestions before they even finish typing.

3. Assume nobody reads
Video demos embedded directly in the product. Not hidden in a help centre.

The goal isn't to eliminate support tickets completely.

It's to make self-service the path of least resistance.

Because the cost of not doing this?

Your time. Your team's time. And slower growth.

Build for the person using your product once AND the person using it daily.

Both deserve to find answers without waiting for you.

Bootstrapped founders obsess over MRR.

I obsess over something different.

Time to Value (TTV).

It's the gap between when someone signs up and when they actually get value from your product.

And if you're bootstrapped? It's literally the most important metric you're not tracking.

Here's why:

You don't have VC money to burn on paid ads while customers figure out your product over the next 3 months.

You can't afford a 10-person onboarding team holding everyone's hand.

You need customers to get results fast, tell people they know, and stick around.

The faster someone sees value, the faster they:
- ⁠Actually use your product (instead of forgetting about it)
- Refer other people
- ⁠Leave you a glowing review

Mistakes I made with my own TTV:
- Adding more features (we just confused our users)
- Built an over complex onboarding flow (people just abandon it)
- Focused on "enterprise-ready" (when we only had 20 customers)

We grew our company to 1M ARR, and TTV is still one of my strongest metrics to this day. In August, we cut TTV from 2 weeks to 2 days. In one month the % of users getting their first win tripled from 16% to 52%, a 231% increase.

Bottom line: The faster your customers win, the faster you win.

Is your onboarding trying to show off every feature instead of getting users to one quick win?

When you're bootstrapped, you're the sales team, the product team, the dev team, the customer support team, the copywriting team, the marketing team, the finance team, the admin team…

All in one day.

Yesterday morning: I fixed a bug in our code, mapped out our growth plan to $1.5M ARR, and analysed support tickets.

Yesterday afternoon: Continued growth doc and rewrote landing page copy.

Last night: Jumped on a sales call, team catch-up call and built a marketing sequence.

But I wouldn't change a thing.

Would it be nice to have specialists for each of these?

Sure, maybe one day we will.

But right now, the learning is invaluable.

Here's what wearing every hat has taught me:

You can't delegate what you don't understand.

When we eventually hire a marketer, I'll know what good looks like because I've done it myself.

You spot inefficiencies faster.

When you're doing the work, you see exactly where the process breaks down.

You build empathy for every role.

I'll never ask someone to do something I haven't tried myself.

The constraint of being small forces you to get scrappy. And scrappy builds skills that scale.

Bottom line: Being a small team where everyone does everything isn't a weakness. It's an education you can't buy.

One day, we'll hire specialists. But I'll never regret learning how to do it all first.

If you could hire one specialist tomorrow, what would they take off your plate?

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