After two years of tinkering, former Microsoft employees Alvin Loh and Hui Dai at Kirkland-based Jobvention have created the equivalent of match.com for small and medium-sized businesses.

Instead of dates, however, for $50 employers can post an opening at Jobvention, which uses software Loh and Dai created to compare the job description with their extensive database of resumes in order. The most qualified applicants are then recommended by Jobvention to the business owners, who also receive additional active applicants for 30 days.

The current formula came out of several years of trial and error, according to Loh, the CEO of Jobvention and Kirkland resident. Creating the company two years ago after working in security at Microsoft – it’s home-based, but the two met at Caffe Rococo in downtown several times a week – Loh said he was inspired by employers, like his chiropractor, who were having trouble finding qualified job applicants on sites such as Craigslist.

One of the problem Loh’s chiropractor mentioned was the sheer number of submissions and how to sort them out.

Loh said they developed an applicant tracking system, a subscription-based service, but had trouble getting it to catch on with small and medium-sized businesses. He concluded that it was better fitted for larger companies that hire enough employees to make the subscription cost effective. Although Linkedin.com has helped transform the way in which employers seek out job candidates, Loh said this subscription-based service is also too costly for startups and other smaller companies getting off the ground and is more geared for engineering or high tech positions.

Yet, Loh said, there remained a real need for a tool smaller businesses could use to make it easier to match their jobs with the right person, something he personally had experienced while running a cafe in the University District in Seattle.

“I experienced some of the pain of the small business world,” he said. Reaching out to businesses and potential customers, they learned that many of them spent money posting ads on Craigslist, but they had problems, one of which was maintaining the visibility of the ad, which sometimes required them to invest additional money. They also told Loh that many applicants wouldn’t respond to phone calls and emails. Typically, Loh said, a hiring manager will read all the submitted resumes on their computer and then choose around five to print out before contacting the candidates. While this was effective in finding active applicants, it left out those who may be more qualified but are not actively searching for a job, according to Loh.

In November, they sought to implement several changes. Dropping the subscription, they converted it into a fee-based service of $50 per job post. Jobvention matches the job description with candidates by sorting through resumes collected from public domains by their search technology, active job applicants themselves in response to a job posting and partnerships with recruiters.

“We are constantly searching the web for jobs,” Loh said. “We just want to get people back to work.We’ve seen really strong communities are employed communities.”

To make appropriate matches, their system takes the natural language in the job description and helps correlate it with similar keywords found in resumes.

Jobvention also created a new pitch. Within 48 hours of receiving the job description from a customer, they send up to 10 recommended resumes they’ve selected, in addition to active applicants for 30 days, and added a money-back guarantee: If Jobvention is unable to locate any qualified applicants within those time frames, they receive a refund, something Loh said does happen but rarely. In December they launched a beta to test job postings and then went live in January at $50 per post. Since rebranding themselves, Loh said the response has been very positive when recontacting prospective customers.

“Now we know what people are willing to buy,” he said.

One way their system has proved effective, Loh said, is that their submittals to employers include active as well as passive candidates. In other words, they send the most qualified resumes, even if the person isn’t actively looking for a job, but if the candidate turns down the job they often provide referrals for those who might be interested.  At some point, Loh said they hope to expand and create a database business owners can search on their own.

“We have a lot more plans down the line,” he said.

To learn more, go to jobvention.com.