Lee Brice: Garth Brooks is my hero | Kurt's Country
Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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Brave Ukrainians and Russian Citizens Fight Back Against Invasion, U.S. Braces for Fallout
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Ukrainians are fighting for their country.
A college student whose family is in Kyiv gives WCBS 880 a glimpse into the Russian invasion as they move to take over the capital.
Anchor Steve Scott examines whether U.S. sanctions go far enough to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and their impact on U.S. gas prices and cybersecurity on The 880 Weekly Rewind.
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What’s Up New York: Speakeasies for the New Roaring 20s
Produced by Carousso Enterprises, LLC and NY2C Corp.
NEW YORK, NY — Speakeasies are part of the fabric of New York and they still exist today.
Alycia Powers takes a look at some hidden gems to throw one back on this week’s What’s Up New York.
NY2C’s flagship digital series “What’s Up New York” is produced and written by Carousso Enterprises, LLC.
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RippleMatch Platform Improves Early Career Hiring Process
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — RippleMatch helps college students and recent graduates launch their careers while improving employee retention rates by using data to find the best fit.
“If you’ve ever had the experience of applying for a job, it’s often that you throw your resume into a black hole and just sort of hope that someone maybe gets back to you,” said RippleMatch founder and CEO Andrew Myers on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
“With RippleMatch, you know, we only present opportunities on the platform when a candidate’s very likely to be a good fit. They generally hear back really, really quickly. They always get an answer,” he said.
Myers said that 66 percent of candidates on RippleMatch have gotten called for an interview.
He founded the company in 2015 in his dorm room at Yale University after feeling dejected when he only got three or four job interviews out of 55 applications. Calling the process “overwhelming” and “daunting,” Myers sought a better way for his peers using data predictive analytics to match early career candidates with jobs where they are most likely to succeed.
“Our mission (is) to replace job boards,” he said.
RippleMatch is free for candidates. It earns all its revenue from employers that now include Amazon, eBay, and Ernst & Young.
“One of the deals we make with every company that we work with is they commit to certain standards in terms of candidate experience and how they’re going to get back to candidates, and very typically prioritize the RippleMatch candidates that they’re getting matched with in terms of getting them into the interview process,” said Myers. “We just establish workflows on the back end that sort of get candidates into the company as fast as we possibly can, which is generally an advantage when it comes to candidate experience.”
He said retention rates among Gen Z employees that used RippleMatch are much higher as a result.
“The single thing (Gen Z employees) want most is professional development,” Myers said, continuing, “Within our own Gen Z workforce, we’ve seen really good retention within roles and I know a lot of our stronger companies have as well. So I actually think that good professional development with Gen Z employees can actually be a pretty effective strategy even in the heart of the Great Resignation. And, I think that there’s actually more shifting going on in sort of later stage positions than there are with Gen Z compared to millennials who are already pretty jumpy themselves. There’s not like a big Gen Z jump or anything like that that we’re seeing.”
He said RippleMatch has upended the belief that the best talent comes from prestigious universities and it has the data to support it.
“If you’re clinging to the notion that a candidate had to go to Princeton or you’re over attached to degree pedigree, I think it can actually mean you miss out on phenomenal talent,” said Myers.
See how RippleMatch works for both job candidates and employers on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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What’s Up New York: Who Makes the Best Tacos?
Produced by Carousso Enterprises, LLC and NY2C Corp.
NEW YORK, NY — Time to turn up the heat.
NY2C gets competitive in the kitchen on this week’s What’s Up New York. Plus, Alycia Powers tells us about some unique and fun workshops to take part in this winter.
NY2C’s flagship digital series “What’s Up New York” is produced and written by Carousso Enterprises, LLC.
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Whose Your Landlord Introduces Transparency, Accountability to Residential Rental Market
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — This business is redefining the landlord-tenant relationship.
While studying entrepreneurship, management and information systems at Temple University, Ofo Ezeugwu saw first-hand that the trust between landlords and tenants was broken. He thought there had to be a better system, and in 2015, he founded Whose Your Landlord.
“Housing started coming up a lot as we were talking to students,” he explained to Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
“There was (sic) so many issues around infestation or harassment between male landlords and female residents,” Ezeugwu said. “Things that, you know, quite honestly, no one should go through.”
As a first-generation American whose mother is from Barbados and father is from Nigeria, he was motivated to make an impact and solve a glaring problem in the residential rental market.
“At first, I thought there had to be some way just to review landlords so you knew what to expect before signing your lease. And honestly, as we built that out, there was (sic) so many other value-adds that having that insight be more prevalent in this industry,” said Ezeugwu.
Whose Your Landlord launched in New York and Pennsylvania where he was attending school at Temple. Today, it is available in 400 cities with 25,000 different landlords and property managers reviewed on the platform.
Tenants share their experiences in an apartment building, which informs others looking to rent. Reviews are vetted so it is appropriately mixed between positive and negative, and topics range from the landlord-tenant relationship to living conditions.
“We see ourselves as being the number one used platform when it comes to resident reviews and analyzing resident insights for home providers,” Ezeugwu said, adding, “We also see ourselves really shifting that culture, that relationship between residents and home providers, forever.”
This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 winner for social impact told WCBS 880 he has observed rental conditions improving in Charleston, SC, Dallas and Houston, TX.
“I think if we can kind of recreate how we think about our industry as a collective, it’s only going to lead to more positivity.”
He said landlords benefit, too, from data that helps them provide better service and grow their real estate businesses.
“They’re actively asking, ‘We want feedback. We want insights. Please share that with us,'” said Ezeugwu.
Some of the analytics Whose Your Landlord collects and provides property owners for a fee, include complaint trends from appliances being out of service to snow and ice removal.
The company also sells advertisements on its website to major brands who can further serve tenants.
“So if you are Allstate, you know, renters insurance is huge and it’s actually pretty cheap comparatively to other insurances. So, why not protect your apartment and your car if people don’t usually often realize your car gets broken into that covers it, too?” said Ezeugwu of one brand partnership.
“We would create content like that that helps support renters,” he said. “It was always adjacent to their experiences so that it would be more valuable to them as a(n) overall platform.”
See more about Whose Your Landlord and get growth ideas for your business on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
