2. What we thought
• Hypothesis
o Engineers wanted a tool that would integrate
elements of a typical remote interview (video chat,
collaborative coding, code execution / testing)
• How we tested it
o Talked to 29 customers: many engineers, many
recruiters, 1 HR employee, 1 VC
3. Business Model Canvas
Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Relations Customer Segments
1) Amazon 1) Customer Problem Encourage hiring Individuals
2) Dice, Indeed, service Wants to conduct engineers to use the Hiring managers and
Workopolis 2) Sales interview remotely but free version. Spreads engineers conducting
needs to use several virally through interviews in software
mediums company. Company engineering fields.
has to pay for the
Solution additional interviews. Companies
Integrated product for Initially growth stage
conducting interviews companies, but later
remotely. first tier, large software
companies.
Key Features
1) Collaborative editor Job they want us to do
with code formatting. Ability to effectively and
Key Resources 2) Record interviews Channels quickly interview
1) Servers (AWS) 3) Execute and test 1) Website
candidates, so they can
2) IP of our code code. return to their jobs.
execution server 4) Video chat
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
1) Servers 1) Freemium
2) Designers 2) Monthly subscription
3) Technical support engineers 3) Yearly subscription
4) Account managers 4) Per interview
5. Monday night - What we learned
• Small market
o TAM only $5-10M.
o Target market only $1.25-2.5M
• Engineers who conducted interviews were
interested in our product, but we weren't sure if
they thought the company was willing to pay
o Liked code execution but didn't feel like it was crucial
o Other features weren't as important
o Mostly, this process is useful for quickly screening out fakers
• A better idea of the recruiting and interviewing
process
o From the perspective of engineers, recruiters and human
resources employees.
6. Market Analysis
• TAM: About 1-2 million software interviews per year
based on data from US Bureau Labor of Statistics.
o Charging $5 per interview, we will make $5-10 million per year.
• SAM: About half of these interviews are conducted
remotely and can run on our platform
o Many companies just hire locally
o $2.5-5 million per year
• Target Market: Growth stage (size: 20-2,000)
companies actively hiring
o $1.25-2.5 million per year
7. Business Model Canvas Customer Segments
Individuals
Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Hiring managers and
1) Amazon 1) Customer Problem Relations Engineers conducting
2) Dice, Indeed, service Interviewers aren't Encourage hiring interviews in software
Workopolis 2) Sales getting as much engineers to use engineering fields.
information out of the free version.
remote interviews as Spreads virally Recruiters and CTOs
they want to. through company. looking to get more
1) Interviews take up Company has to analytics about good
engineering time pay for the programming
2) Tough to assess a additional questions
candidate accurately in interviews.
a short amount of time Initially from growth
stage companies, but
Solution later first tier, large
Integrated product for Channels software companies.
conducting remote 1) Website
Key Resources interviews quickly and 2) Talk directly to Job they want us to do
1) Servers (AWS) providing predictive engineers and Ability to effectively
2) IP of our code analytics of employee recruiters and quickly interview
execution server performance based on candidates, so they
questions asked and can return to their
evaluations jobs.
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
1) Servers 1) Freemium
2) Designers 2) Monthly subscription
3) Technical support engineers 3) Yearly subscription
4) Account managers 4) Per interview
8. Tuesday Night - What we learned
• Got more data about engineer concerns during
interviews
o Tool used to conduct interviews is not an area that
can be improved
o Concerns about false positives (bad hires are a
headache)
o Engineers don't want an automated solution either
because they can't see thought processes
o Additional legal issues
• Finished mapping the recruiting pipeline.
• Came up with the idea of an analytics platform
that could deduce correlations between
interview performance and job performance
9. At Facebook. Director of HR or
recruiting has a large budget for
these sorts of tools. Still working
on taxonomy of customers...
Recruiting pipeline
10. Business Model Canvas Customer Segments
Individuals
Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Engineers conducting
1) Amazon 1) Customer Problem Relations interviews in software
2) Dice, Indeed, service Tough to assess a Encourage hiring engineering fields.
Workopolis 2) Sales candidate accurately in engineers to use
3) ATS tools like a short amount of time the free version. Recruiters and
Jobvite Spreads virally engineering exec's
4) Evaluation Solution through the looking to get more
tools Analytics platform that company. Forced analytics about
correlates job to pay. interview effectiveness
performance with Sell directly to
specific interview engineering execs Initially from growth
procedures and and head of HR stage companies, but
questions. later first tier, large
Integrated product for software companies.
conducting remote
interviews quickly and Requested job
Key Resources providing predictive Channels Ability to effectively
1) Servers (AWS) analytics of employee 1) Website and quickly interview
2) IP of our code performance based on 2) Talk directly to candidates, so they
execution server questions asked and engineers and can return to their
evaluations recruiters and jobs.
HR
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
1) Servers 1) Freemium Trial period
2) Designers 2) Monthly subscription
3) Technical support engineers 3) Yearly subscription
4) Account managers 4) Per successful candidate interview
11. Wednesday Night - What we learned
• More confirmation on problems with
interviewing platform: alternative isn't bad
enough to warrant paying for our solution
• Learned a lot about agency recruiters
• Competitive analysis
o Who are the key players and their feature sets?
Recruiting / screen process is a very competitive
market
o What are people doing that is similar to us?
13. Business Model Canvas Customer Segments
Individuals
Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Internal recruiters and
Key Partners
1) Customer Problem Relations engineering exec's
1) Amazon
service Tough to assess a Sell directly to looking to get more
2) ATS tools like
2) Sales candidate accurately in engineering execs analytics about
Jobvite
a short amount of time and head of HR. interview effectiveness
3) Evaluation
tools
Solution Initially give away Initially from growth
Analytics platform that for free to build stage companies, but
correlates job corpus of data. later first tier, large
performance with software companies.
specific interview
procedures and Requested job
questions. Ability to effectively
and quickly interview
Key Features candidates
Ability to predict
Key Resources Channels
1) Servers (AWS) 1) Website
2) Talk directly to
recruiters and
HR
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
1) Servers 1) Trial period
2) Designers 2) Monthly subscription
3) Technical support engineers 3) Yearly subscription
4) Account managers 4) Per successful candidate
14. Thursday Night - What we learned
• More validation with analytics platform idea,
although a lot of people were dubious without
seeing actual results because of amount of data
required.
• Another pain point from recruiter
o Problem: prioritizing resumes would help with recruiters
meeting recruiting quota
o Solution: correlate terms in a resume with the candidate's
success in the interview process to create a tool that can
identify what sort of resumes indicate good performance.
• Recruiting team has a budget somewhere
between $1000 - $10,000 before going through
VP for approval (LinkedIn)
15. Business Model Canvas Customer Segments
Individuals
Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Internal recruiters and
Key Partners
1) Customer Problem Relations exec's looking to get
1) Amazon
service Tough to assess a Sell directly to more analytics about
2) ATS tools like
2) Sales candidate accurately in engineering execs interview effectiveness
Jobvite
3) Evaluation a short amount of time and head of HR.
Initially from growth
tools
Solution Initially give away stage companies, but
Analytics platform that for free to build later first tier, large
correlates job corpus of data. software companies.
performance with
specific interview Keep it under about Requested job
procedures and $10,000 Ability to effectively
questions. and quickly interview
candidates
Channels
Key Features 1) Website
Ability to predict 2) Talk directly to
Key Resources
HR and
1) Servers (AWS)
recruiting
3) We know a lot
of recruiters and
engineers
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
1) Servers 1) Trial period
2) Designers 2) Monthly subscription
3) Technical support engineers 3) Yearly subscription
4) Account managers 4) Per successful candidate
16. Value Proposition
• Recruiters are basically guessing about the
helpfulness of their questions. What
questions are best?
• Recruiters say they need better analytics –
that ATS software does a terrible job at
analytics
• Solution: we provide a platform that ties into
ATS software like Jobvite and HRS software
that collects evaluations to provide feedback
on the effectiveness of interviewing practices
17. Key Features
• Page for interviewer to conduct interview
and upload comments afterwards
o Lists questions to ask and ratings
(in order to gauge the interviewee more
accurately)
o Rate interviewee afterwards in categories like:
Code elegance
Communication
Experience
o Can import data from Jobvite periodically
This would be a frictionless and automatic
process
19. Key Features (cont.)
• Page for performance reviews
o Users can rate hired candidates 1-2 years later in
categories like:
Productivity
Good teamwork
Technical skill
Any other aspect that HR wants...
o Compile all these statistics about performance
o Can periodically import data from performance
tracking software: Taleo, etc.
Seamless and automatic
20. How it works
Iterative approach to assessing candidates
Recruiting pipeline
Sourcing Assessing Decision
Evaluation pipeline
21. Where we go from here
• Develop a better understanding of the
market for an analytics platform
o Size and demand
• Do additional competitive analysis of this
idea
o Analytics tools are often buried in ATS software.
These tools take time to get ahold of since we're
currently going through sales channels.
• Flesh out the key feature set based on more
customer feedback.
