Beyond Resumes: The Human-Centered Hiring Vision Behind Sensiply

What began as a series of job rejections became a bold leap into entrepreneurship for Azam Dadabhoy. Alongside his brother, he turned personal frustration into a mission, building Sensiply, a video-first, AI-powered hiring platform tailored for overlooked job seekers and struggling small businesses. In this Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, Azam shares how their startup is rehumanizing hiring across Southern California, proving that clarity of purpose and deep empathy can outmatch technical backgrounds. From knocking on doors to innovating with AI, Azam’s journey is a testament to building not just a product, but a movement.

Hi, Azam! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

We built Sensiply, an AI-powered job board for small businesses, because we saw the hiring process breaking down, especially for local businesses in places like Orange County, Los Angeles, and throughout Southern California.

We’re a modern hiring platform where job seekers submit 1–2 minute video pitches instead of traditional resumes. Our patent-pending AI job matching software extracts everything from skills, qualifications, personality traits, and experience to match employers with candidates who actually fit, not just on paper, but in real life.

Today, Sensiply has 13 employers onboarded, 30 more in our pipeline, and planned integrations with 4 major HRIS platforms. We’re already helping 100+ active job seekers, many in high-turnover industries like food service, caregiving, and retail, people who are often overlooked in resume-based systems.

If you're looking for a job in California, or you're hiring in LA or OC, Sensiply is the platform designed to meet you where you are. Sensiply.com

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

It actually started in a moment of total frustration.

I had applied to over 200 jobs and still couldn’t get traction. My brother was going through the same thing with internship applications. I was a recent grad and Raihan was just entering his fourth and final year at USC. We were both eager to work and confident in our ability to bring value. However, all we had to show for it were automated rejection emails.

At some point, we looked at each other and said: If employers could just see us, if they could actually hear us speak, get a sense of our personality, they’d know we’re the right fit. That thought had been in the back of our minds for a while, but it finally clicked.

That was the turning point.

We stopped waiting for the system to work for us and started building a new one. A video-first hiring platform that brings humanity back into the process. That’s when we became real entrepreneurs. When we took the problem we were living and turned it into Sensiply.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

It didn’t start with a big idea; it started with rejection.
 
My brother and I were applying to jobs nonstop. Hundreds of applications. Endless resume uploads. We were qualified, driven, and ready to work. I had just finished my Master of Public Policy at USC. My brother had also recently graduated with a degree in Political Science. We were sharp communicators and passionate about making an impact, but the system didn’t care. We were just two more PDFs in a pile.

After getting passed up for final rounds and never hearing back from roles we knew we were right for, we started asking: What if employers could actually see us? What if hiring wasn’t about bullet points and keywords, but about real people?

That question became a spark.

We had no background in tech. We weren’t engineers. But we didn’t let that stop us. We had clarity, hustle, and a deep understanding of a broken system. So we built Sensiply, a video-first AI job board that helps job seekers put a face to their resume and helps small businesses hire faster, smarter, and more humanely.

That moment we stopped waiting for someone to fix the problem and started building the solution ourselves is when we became entrepreneurs.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

On the internal side, Jira has been huge for keeping our startup operations lean, agile, and transparent. It’s how we organize user research, product updates, investor notes, tech storyboards, etc.

This said, the biggest “tool” has been the video pitch itself. It’s not software. It’s not code. It’s the idea that job seekers should be able to put a face to their resume. That’s what sets Sensiply apart, and it’s why we’re seeing traction in jobs in LA, jobs in OC, and beyond.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

Our biggest pivot was realizing that trying to build a general-purpose job board wouldn’t work. Everyone told us to go broad but we learned that niching down is how you win. 

We focused in on high-turnover sectors like restaurants, senior care, auto dealerships, and retail where the pain is urgent, and the value of seeing someone before you hire is clear.

That shift changed everything. It’s why Sensiply is resonating so strongly with employers right now.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

Most startups go digital-only. We didn’t.

We’re going door-to-door literally walking into coffee shops, QSRs, barbershops, senior homes, and small retail stores across Southern California. We’re listening, onboarding, and building personal relationships with business owners. That human touch has been invaluable.

At the same time, we’re building a digital video-first job board experience that helps these same businesses hire smarter. It’s high-tech meets high-touch.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

You don’t need a perfect product to start; you need a real problem.

Too many founders fall in love with their solution. We fell in love with the problem, how hard it is for small businesses to hire, and how often great candidates are overlooked because of bad tools.

If you're building something, build for people who need you now and will need you at the end of the decade. Sensiply works because the problem is real, and the stakes are personal. Every job seeker we help. Every small business we support. That’s what matters.

Want to dive deeper into Azam's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Sensiply's website sensiply.com
• Learn more about Sensiply on LinkedIn
• Follow Sensiply on Instagram @sensiply