Meet Allan Jones, the Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ founder democratizing the HR industry with his company Bambee.
The company serves as the first empathy-driven outsourced human resources compliance solution for small businesses. Bambee has provided thousands of businesses with vital HR services at a very low cost while raising tens of millions in funding.
With over 15 years of experience in business and technology, Jones used his background to create the only business that offers a dedicated HR manager at the low cost of $99 per month. The former Chief Marketing Officer at ZipRecruiter prides himself in his automation technology that keeps over 10,000 U.S. businesses HR compliant.
But navigating the tech space as a Black LGBTQ+ man came with its unique set of challenges. Jones can recall his early positions in the industry and not feeling any friction until he sought more creative roles.
“If I’m honest, I think I didn’t really struggle in tech as a Black man of color or a gay man of color for a while,” Jones told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“But it was years before I realized that the reason, I had any friction was because of my core thesis on life since I was a teenager…..That, I would be creative, and I would work hard, and try to be innovative in these technology companies. I would find the titles that I thought were most exciting and the ones that I was most drawn to at the time.”
When coming up with Bambee’s business model, Jones looked at statistics that show the 6.6 million small businesses with less than 99 employees in the US who employ 40 to 50% of the American workforce. But of those small businesses, less than 4% of those employers and those employees have access to a full-time dedicated HR manager.
“Bambee
aims to restore dignity in employment at America’s smallest companies,” Jones said. “Here [at Bambee] we’ve lowered the price to $99 a month so that every small business can afford HR.”“The hope is that every American company can afford to have an HR manager.”
“Every American employee that goes to work has access to an objective, dedicated HR professional, and it increased the quality of their life inside those organizations.”
His passion for HR started at an early age after watching his dad, a small business owner of a minimart, get sued for wrongful termination of an employee who stole $20 from the cash register. Things became so bad for his family financially, that his parents had to dip into Jones’ college fund to pay the legal bills.
“It was only after two years into building Bambee that I recalled that memory of my father as formative in driving my decision and drive to start the company,” Jones said.
In March, Bambee closed a $30 million Series C round, taking its total funding to $65 million. Bambee doubled its revenue last year and is on track to do it again in 2022.