Jared Tang

Jared Tang is the CEO and co-founder of Gaggle Social, an enterprise application dedicated social network and hiring platform designed to streamline technology employment. Jared holds a bachelor’s degree from Pace University, Executive Leadership certifications from Cornell University, and Entrepreneurship Specialization certifications form The Wharton School. Using his experience in the recruitment, marketing and technology space, Jared focuses on making hiring, networking, education, and business development available to enterprise application professionals like never before. Ditching the one size fits all approach he has figured out how to use his knowledge to make the hiring process efficient and enhanced without recruiters and middlemen. Jared’s background is primarily in start-ups, he specializes in setting the foundation for marketing and communications departments. He has experience with spearheading successful creative and digital marketing campaigns for both for-profit and non-profit organizations in verticals like Broadcasting, Health & Wellness, Care Coordination, and now Enterprise software as well as recruitment and technical implementation services in Manhattan’s Financial District. Jared comes from a rich mixed heritage and enjoys going to the gym, reading, listening to music, creating digital art, and spending time with his loved ones to avoid burnout from long days of devoted work and daily travel.

Where did the idea for Gaggle Social come from?

Gaggle Social was conceived during the midst COVID-19 when I realized just how much companies were struggling to hire enterprise software talent and how difficult it was for technology talent to be considered for openings. At the time, I had recently transitioned away from technology recruitment when I realized that how I was being instructed to develop business & manage my clients was largely impactful on why it was so hard to hire talent in the fastest growing workforce in the world. We were taught to push down on our candidate’s rates and squeeze our clients for higher hourly rates to ensure that we made higher margins which resulted in higher overall costs and the eventual no which would then lead to the desperate yes a few days later.

At the time, there were but a few employment websites which were the likes of LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter to name a few. Considering how widely used these sites are, one would imagine that you’d have no problems finding jobs, but the keyword here is “widely used”. These platforms focus on “boiling the ocean” providing decent solutions to all who have hiring needs but as businesses shift or grow the technologies and their offers grow as well. Innovation coming with more and more solutions and digging deeper and deeper into the needs. Thus, the more complex these technologies become the more complexed it is to hire professionals with experience in all their solutions.

We realized that the current means is a “One Size Fits All” approach offering little to no customization or finetuning to showcase requirements other than tons of lines of text and then its deposited with all the rest of the “Salesforce Admin” jobs. So, we got to work and began to develop a platform tailored to meet the needs of every angle of the business software industry.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

Typically, I am up by 5:00AM and following my daily morning routine. By no later than 6:30 my laptop is open and I begin deep work for the next 2 hours handling any tasks, setting up meetings for myself with external stakeholders, making connections on LinkedIn, getting back to emails and more. Throughout the day I meet with our various team members from sales, marketing, and product development before 1:00.

During this hour is my moment of quiet to calm my thoughts.

By 2:00pm I am back to the grind, I start off with another hour of deep work and then make time for creative strategy, planning, and task facilitation until 5:00. After that I will continue to work on future planning and more social networking or anything that I didn’t get to throughout the day but at a relaxed pace. Then by around 8:00pm I plan out my next day.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Proper research and planning is key! I research it all thoroughly to find out whether this is actually a solution to a problem and then look for potential competition. If its unique than I won’t find many if any companies providing solutions and then I vet my idea deeper. After that I begin to consider all the ways that I can solve this problem and learn from others who may be experiencing this problem and look to understand what they’d like to see in a solution.

After comes planning. I build a road map of what needs to be completed by task than break it down further to understand what needs to be done and then find out what resources I need to accomplish those microtasks.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The network effect trend that is taking over Salesforce is by far my favorite trend. They have created such a deep rooted and influential relationship with their audience. Salesforce professionals are out and about attending conferences, applying for jobs, collaborating in study groups or programs so they can pass their certification exams, on social platforms lending a hand to their fellow community members, celebrating successes, making how to’s or guides. Its everything that I ever dreamed that all communities in the industry would be.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Day plans. Planning my day out has enabled me to set daily goals, get more accomplished, keep track of the thousands of tasks that I have, and block off times for rest so that I can “stay frosty”.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Late nights in are far more beneficial than late nights out. They lead to innovation, creativity, clearer planning, self-honesty, self-appreciation, and goal setting.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I believe that the power of a dream is far more powerful than we give it credit for these days and that college is a construct and doesn’t serve the same function as it was intended to. It is looked as completely necessary to attend college for success despite some of our most successful entrepreneurs dropping out before graduation and leading lives that are astronomically more lucrative than some who did graduate. Yet we set these boundaries and standards for what is necessary for “success”. While I am grateful for the experience I had in school, I learned the majority of what I know and use every day from my own personal experiences and higher education through non-standardized course loads like certifications, workshops, reading, and videos.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Learn things that interest you and look for more to learn on your free time. We live in a world where knowledge and opportunity are endless. I’m hungry to learn so I can cease more opportunities and nourish what inspires me and I think everyone should do the same.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Attending social networking events. They’ve helped me connect with some awesome people who have in turn endorsed my company and engaged with my content digitally increasing my reach to more potential consumers for my business. Never forget that there are few things more impactful than personally connecting with others.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

In the past I’ve failed to take time for myself which eventually results in burn out. Getting burnt out will set you back even further as it will take you longer to get back on the wagon.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

It would be helpful to have smart glasses that will translate signs for you from any language into any language.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Just recently I co-sponsored the happy hour for the American-Chinese CEO Society. What made it special was I was able to enjoy the evening by meeting new people with my significant other who also participated in festivities and networking and what made it better was that she had a blast.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Trello & Jira, these an awesome cost-effective tools that allow me to keep track of my tasks and projects at a glance.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

The Originals by Adam Grant. It’s a phenomenal book that focuses on contradicting standards in business by detailing some of world’s most successful entrepreneurs and their paths.

What is your favorite quote?

“The most utterly lost of all days is that in which you have not laughed”