Opportunities › Applicant tracking and recruitment management for hiring teams › Proposed app
Shortlist
Hiring pipelines, candidates and team handoffs in one flexible workspace
- Score
- 51
- confidence 38
- Evidence
- 2
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 1
- named in sources
- First version
- 35 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop app
- PWA: runs in the browser, installs on Mac and Windows
- Market since
- 2007
- Mature market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop app: Recruiters manage pipelines, review candidates and send templates during office hours at a desk; phone view is a secondary tool. Sample screens on a computer, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Senior Welder
Open · 4 days left23
- New
About this appAI proposal
Shortlist is a hiring workspace for small staffing agencies and in-house teams that hire regularly. Keep jobs, candidates and stages in one place, move people through a pipeline you shape yourself, and see who needs a reply today.
Setup takes minutes: pick a pipeline template, rename the stages, and import candidates from a spreadsheet. Everyone sees the same board, notes and next steps, on a phone or laptop, installed as an app.
The material shows lasting interest in open-source applicant tracking, which suggests teams want control and low cost. Shortlist aims at that with flexible pipelines, plain pricing and nothing to host yourself.
- Tagline
- Hire in the order that fits your team, not the tool.
- Voice
- PlainPracticalCalm
- Why this name
- A shortlist is the working core of any hire: the few people worth a second look. One plain word, easy to say on a call.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Pipelines you shape
Rename, add or reorder stages per job or per client. Start from an agency or in-house template.
No member yet
Candidate records
One profile per person with resume, notes, history and every job they were considered for.
No member yet
Today list
A daily view of candidates waiting on a reply, feedback or a decision, oldest first.
No member yet
Team handoffs
Assign owners per stage, leave notes and tag colleagues so nothing sits unnoticed.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#0F4C4ADeep Teal · primary#F7F4EEPaper · surface#1C2523Ink · text#E3A02BAmber · accent#7FA99BSage · data
Typography
Aa
Shortlist
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Hire in the order that fits your team, not the tool.
PricingAI proposal
The material gives no competitor prices. OpenCATS is open-source, so a free tier and low flat tiers are a starting point to test, not a market-derived price.
Solo
Free
- 1 user
- 2 open jobs
- 50 active candidates
- CSV import and export
Team
$39 a month
- Up to 5 users
- 15 open jobs
- Unlimited candidates
- Public job pages
- Email templates
Agency
$99 a month
- Up to 20 users
- Unlimited jobs
- Client-specific pipelines
- Priority support
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- Shared outputs. Each public job page and apply form is sent to candidates and carries a small 'Powered by Shortlist' line. Agencies also share candidate shortlists with clients through view-only links.
- Do they become customers?
- Candidates mostly will not buy. Client hiring managers viewing shortlists might, as they run their own hiring. Test whether client viewers sign up after seeing a shared shortlist.
- First customers
- Independent staffing agencies of 2 to 10 recruiters in one niche, such as skilled trades or healthcare support, currently using spreadsheets or a self-hosted ATS.
- Where to reach them
- Open-source ATS communities: Offer a migration guide and import tool to teams running self-hosted ATS tools, in forums and repositories.
- Recruiter communities: Post pipeline templates and teardown content in recruiter groups and newsletters, then offer setup help.
- Direct outreach: Email small agency owners with a free import of their candidate sheet into a working board.
- First milestone
- Five small agencies in one niche using it weekly for 30 days, and two of them paying.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedGitHub repository gained 760 stars in 6301 days
- Public claimOpenCATS serves staffing agencies and hiring teams needing applicant tracking and recruitment CRM functionality
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · File storageObject storage for resumesCandidate resumes and attachments need private, signed-link file storage.
- This app · Resume text extractionDocument parsing libraryPull text from PDF and Word resumes so records are searchable.
RisksAI inference
- CommercialMany ATS tools exist. Switching costs and habit may keep small teams on their current tool unless import is easy and the price is clearly lower.
- RegulatoryCandidate data is personal data. Retention, deletion and consent rules differ by country and must be handled before selling widely.
- DataThe only market evidence is GitHub stars on one open-source project. It shows interest, not willingness to pay.
- TechnicalResume parsing is uneven across formats; poor extraction would weaken search and the import experience.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.