Like Tinder but for work, Fortuna lets job hunters swipe right and connect

It seems that people don’t know how to have downtime without being glued to their phones anymore. When people stand in line, they tend to be on their phones reading the news, checking social media, or doing work. But there is something else they could be doing: looking for a new job by swiping through Fortuna, a Tinder-like employment app where job seekers and employers can connect through a job posting.

There are other employment apps such as UpWork, but it tends to be for freelance work, whereas Fortuna is focused on blue collar jobs.

“We found that people don’t actually often know what they want to do,” said Max Kilberg, co-founder of Fortuna. What he means by this, is that many people think they want to do one type of job, but may stumble across other listings that interest them while they are swiping through the app.

Kilberg started the company during his senior year of college at Stanford University where he took a labor economics class. After learning that many young people despised the existing hiring process, he saw an opportunity with Fortuna.

He and his co-founder, Faris Qubain, who grew up in Miami, decided to move the company here once they graduated.

The company launched a few weeks ago in Miami, and Kilberg said it already has about 10,000 pre-signups. And even though Fortuna has been in stealth mode, they were able to raise a pre-seed round with investors such as Great Oaks VC, Accomplice VC, and various angel investors.

From Offline to Online

“70% of businesses are currently hiring offline because the online job search does not work for them,” added Kilberg. He explained that people used to reserve a chunk of time, maybe on a Saturday, to search for a job and apply, whereas now, with Fortuna, they can just open their phones and swipe whenever they have a few minutes to spare. 

“The whole goal is to integrate this portion of the job search into a person’s daily life,” Kilberg said.

The Details

The company was founded in September 2021, and it just launched a few weeks ago. Fortuna already has 7 employees, and its target market is young job seekers in blue collar industries and local businesses with high turnover rates.

Fortuna is currently free to job searchers and employers, but Kilberg said they plan to add new, more in depth features, which it will then charge for.

“Our team has built a product that we think truly encompasses the way that younger generations want to participate in the job hunt, while still producing the results businesses need when hiring,” Kilberg said.


In photo at the top of post: Fortuna co-founders Faris Qubain, at left, and Max Kilberg.

Marcella McCarthy