SkillMap for Professional Services

Promising. There is a clear disconnect between employee aspirations (moving service lines based on prior experience) and firm visibility. This is a high-retention problem that mid-market firms are willing to pay to solve without the complexity of enterprise HCM systems.

In professional services, particularly accounting, employees are often siloed into one department (e.g., Audit) despite having significant experience or internships in another (e.g., Tax). Firms lose this data the moment the employee is hired full-time. When these employees want to switch roles, they find no formal process, leading to frustration and eventually quitting to join another firm in their desired service line.

• Resource Managers: Need to staff projects and don't know who has the 'hidden' skills.
• HR Directors: Measured on retention and internal mobility metrics.
• Associates/Seniors: Want their full resume to be recognized for career progression.

Multiple Reddit discussions in r/Accounting show employees with specific tax internship experience (sometimes 1-2 years) struggling to 'swap back' to tax from risk or audit roles. They ask the community because their own firms lack the visibility or pathways to facilitate these moves.

A simple Internal Skill Directory where employees can:

1. Upload their LinkedIn profile/Resume.
2. Tag specific 'Historical Experiences' (Internships, Industry exposure).
3. Set 'Interest Status' for internal rotations.

HR can then search this database using Boolean queries like (Tax Internship) AND (Current Role: Audit) to find internal transfer candidates.

Recruiting a new Senior Associate costs $20k-$50k in headhunter fees. If this software prevents just one resignation per year by facilitating an internal move, it pays for itself 10x over.

Low to Moderate. The core is a searchable database. The 'hard' part is the initial data import, which can be solved with a simple LinkedIn scraper or resume parser API (like Affinda or Sovren). No complex deep-integration with HRIS is required for a V1; it can live as a standalone portal.

• Manual Workaround: Spreadsheets or 'asking around' in the office. This fails as firms grow past 50 people.
• Enterprise Talent Marketplaces: High-end AI tools like Gloat are too pricey for a 200-person CPA firm.
• LinkedIn: Managers use LinkedIn to look up their own employees, which is embarrassing and inefficient.

Focus on the 'Retention' angle. Target HR leaders at firms that are 'too big for spreadsheets but too small for Workday.' Use direct outreach on LinkedIn to Resource Management professionals who feel the pain of staffing shortages daily.

With 100 firms paying an average of $300/month (a conservative starting point for mid-market), this is a $360k ARR solo-business. The scalability comes from the fact that once the directory is built, it requires very little custom work per client.