By Jacob Maranda
Staff writer, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
Friday July 29, 2022
Abdu Rahman Mahmud founded Twinist in 2019. The immigrant job search site is opening its first office in September. NANCY KUEHN
Twinist is a jobs website designed for immigrant and minority populations in the Twin Cities to find jobs with local companies. Abdu Rahman Mahmud, an immigrant from Somalia, launched the platform in 2019 to help bridge gaps between immigrants looking for jobs and interested employers.
Since then, Twinist has grown online; monthly visitors to its website went from 200 in 2019 to 10,000 now, Mahmud said. The site posts about 30 job openings each month with more than 200 partnered employers that advertise job openings and pay to access other Twinist services like its resume board and community engagement events.
Moving into a brick-and-mortar office space represents the most recent step in Twinist's growth. The office will officially open on Sept. 3 in the Griggs-Midway Building at 1821 University Ave. W. in St. Paul.
The new office for Twinist, a Twin Cities immigrant job search platform, will be in the Griggs-Midway Building, seen here, at 1821 University Ave. W. in St. Paul. JACOB MARANDA/MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL
Mahmud wants to use the space to meet in-person with employers interested in posting their job openings on the site, while also inviting outside groups to host skills trainings and hold meetings.
"The good news is that we now have office space where people can come visit us and where we can interact with the community and with the employers and clients that we serve," Mahmud said.
Twinist's office comes with a large meeting room and smaller rooms equipped to handle different types of job trainings, Mahmud said, such as software development and information technology training.
The website includes membership plans for employers to post jobs and job seekers to upload resumes. Employers can pay $15,050 for the "Twinist+" package plan that includes community engagement services, direct hiring and temporary staffing opportunities, according to Twinist's website.
There's also a premium posting plan for employers that lets them access the site's resume board and participate in Twinist community events and programs.
More employers have used Twinist's services recently Mahmud said, as businesses look to tap into the Twin Cities' diverse workforce.
"We have become a resource for a lot of employers that really want to improve their diversity," Mahmud said. "Twinist has been a solution for them, especially over the last two years as more employers look to diversify."
Mahmud hopes that getting an office space will show additional employers that Twinist is a more established business with membership potential.
"I really want to partner with all employers out there, especially in the Cities," Mahmud said. "Twinist is ready to partner. We've built capacity with the team, the office space, the website. I'm excited about new partnership opportunities."
Once the office is more established, Mahmud said he wants to expand Twinist's platform to include employers from Minnesota outside the Twin Cities, where he said more immigrants are starting to relocate.