Anexsis Addresses a Growing Need in the Job Market

As more and more entry-level jobs go unfilled, Peerro provides a solution.

There’s a problem in the job market: There are jobs to be had, yet Millennials don’t have them. The Millennial unemployment rate of greater than 10 percent outpaces the rest of the workforce, which sits at about 4 percent. Anexsis in Columbus is looking to address this gap through its flagship product Peerro, which matches non-degreed millennials in search of work to job openings—or pathways to the additional training needed to acquire them.

“There isn’t a lack of interest in employment,” said Dr. Rachel Angel, founder and CEO of Anexsis. “There’s a mismatch that exists that we’re looking to address. We want to provide students who don’t plan to pursue college with access to unfilled entry-level opportunities, and then beyond that, with actionable steps to go from 10 dollars to 25 dollars an hour. We want to help close that skill gap to create more qualified workers from a pool that’s being overlooked.”

Nearly 70 percent of jobs in the United States don’t require a degree, but for many of them, there are simply not enough skilled candidates to fill them. Jobs in specialized hourly wage positions across industries like healthcare, retail, manufacturing and hospitality need qualified applicants for both entry level positions and more advanced roles. Anexsis built Peerro to help them fill that pipeline and set non-degree millennials along the path to higher wages in these high-demand fields.

“When I was sort of workshopping this concept, I realized that a lot of the young people I talked to just didn’t know about these opportunities,” said Angel, a licensed Doctor of Pharmacy who worked with underprivileged young adults in her free time—a big part of what led her to create Peerro. “They don’t realize that there are jobs that, with a few weeks of training, can have them making twice as much as an entry-level job.”

The Peerro mobile app isn’t just for non-degreed applicants to view and apply for job openings in their neighborhood. It also gives employers’ access to a pool of motivated potential workers who’ve signaled their intent to go through the training and certification required to advance toward better paying positions beyond entry-level. That can be difficult to determine from the everyday applicant.

“We have employers who’ve guaranteed our applicants interviews, as long as they meet the baseline qualifications,” said Angel. “So, it’s not like you’re going on most online job boards, attaching your resume, pressing apply and crossing your fingers that somebody will call you. We guarantee interviews on our platform, and you can basically schedule an interview in less than 24 hours.”

Angel developed Peerro’s technology closely alongside Big Kitty Labs and Ohio Third Frontier partner Rev1 Ventures in Columbus. After spending time in the D.C. area and in California, she was drawn back home to build her company.

“I came into establishing Anexsis pretty green and inexperienced, but learning through that process helped me leading up to launching Peerro. I made connections while building Anexsis and really learned along the way,” said Angel. “By the time we launched Peerro, we had the support system in place to build an awesome product. We’re excited to continue to roll it out and hopefully be nationwide in the second half of 2019.”