candidate.fyi 💼

setting the scene

• eager for a career switch, you apply for your dream job

• a recruiter contacts you, and so begins a messy and frustrating interview process

  • you spend a week emailing back and forth to schedule the first call

  • unsure of what to expect, you Google “top interview questions,” and stalk prospective interviewers on LinkedIn 👀

  • the post-interview radio silence leads you to apply elsewhere

  • weeks later, the recruiter reaches out to schedule the next round after having accepted another job 🤦🏻‍♀️

• this week’s company improves the candidate experience by helping companies build transparency and retain potential talent

in a sentence

candidate.fyi is a candidate experience platform that enables talent teams to engage with candidates and track sentiment throughout the interview journey

• platform: integrates with 30+ existing applicant tracking systems (ATS)

• engage: a customizable portal allows companies to present personalized information to the candidate that updates throughout the process

• track: automated feedback tools provide hiring teams with data on candidate engagement

bulleted version: similar to how Telehealth portals help healthcare providers improve communication with patients, candidate.fyi helps talent teams build transparency with interviewers 👨🏾‍💼

the basics

• industry: HR tech

• headquarters: New York City 🍎

• year founded: 2023

• company size: 4 employees

• investors: Ben Zises, SuperAngel.Fund, Howard Lerman, Mark Nathan, Ted Wang, Justin Marcus, Sumit Chachra

• amount raised: $700k pre-seed

• business model: b2b SaaS

• early traction: publicly traded enterprise customers, usage doubling week over week, 10x increase in candidate response rates on survey tools

sponsored by

• Sweater Ventures is proud to announce round two of Barnburner, the world's largest CONSUMER pitch competition.

• Imagine Shark Tank meets America's Got Talent. Founders will compete to pitch on a live stage for a $500k investment from a panel of VCs, filmed in front of a live consumer audience, and premiered to a global consumer audience.

• Your vote makes all the difference in deciding who makes it to the final stage. Vote here today through the Sweater app.

due diligence

what we like

• 👨‍💻 market drivers: the growth of the $2b recruitment software market is driven by investment in technology that caters to virtual recruiting, improves user experience, and integrates with existing HR systems

• 🤩 candidate engagement: candidate.fyi helps companies attract and retain applicants by improving UX, building transparency, and gathering real-time feedback 

  • in a study, 50% of applicants declined offers due to a poor candidate experience

• 💰 enterprise checks: by integrating with the enterprise customer’s existing recruitment software, the company builds a high annual contract value while eliminating switching costs and shortening sales cycles

potential risks

• 💸 budget cuts: as companies tighten spending on non-core software, HR departments may face budget cuts 

• 👥 customer support: enterprise customers require significant time and resources, which could slow initial growth

• 📝 ATS innovation: as more ATSs prioritize the candidate experience, well-funded market leaders may pose competition

founder profiles

• Kyle Connors (CEO; prev. @ Nodal, Zipari, Tivix)

• Chris Connors (CRO; prev. @ Google, Yext)

comps

• Guide

• Starred

• Great Recruiters

• Talenthub

comps raised from: First Round Capital, Spero Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Seed Capital

why candidate.fyi: by improving UI, automating candidate feedback, and integrating with existing systems, this company hits the pain points that hiring teams experience throughout the interview journey

bulletin board

• 🤑 fundraise alert: Valence Vibrations, a neurotech startup that provides communication tools to help interpret emotions, is raising a $500k pre-seed extension

  • click here for an intro to the CEO and co-founder Chloe Duckworth

• 🏦 SVB, explained: on Friday, Silicon Valley Bank, the bank for half of all venture-backed tech and life-science companies and 2,500+ investment firms, collapsed

  • during the pandemic, SVB invested funds into long-term bonds when interest rates were near zero

  • interest rates rose, bond prices fell, and SVB scrambled to raise capital after declaring a $1.8b after-tax loss

  • as a result, the bank’s market cap fell sharply, and customers withdrew $42b on Thursday, causing the largest bank run and second largest bank failure in history

  • Secretary Yellen assured SVB clients would not incur losses, and the FDIC began returning funds yesterday through the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara

  • regulators will re-attempt to auction off the bank’s assets after Sunday’s failed auction