Interviewed

Founded in 2015 by Darren Nix, Daniel O'Shea, and Chris Bakke, Interviewed was a human resources technology company that developed a platform to streamline the candidate evaluation process for employers. The company was a participant in the Summer 2015 batch of the Y Combinator accelerator. The founding of Interviewed stemmed from the team's direct experiences with hiring challenges at previous companies. While at 42Floors, they found that conventional hiring methods for non-technical roles were often based on soft assessments rather than tangible skills. This led them to create internal situational interview processes, which proved effective but were manually intensive. The idea to productize this internal tool was born after Nix and O'Shea, both engineers, participated in a hackathon, attracting early investor interest.

The company's core offering was a suite of automated screening tools and job simulations designed to provide employers with substantive insights into a candidate's qualifications. This platform featured programming tests, personality assessments, and language skill evaluations. For job seekers, the simulations offered a preview of a typical workday, helping them make more informed decisions about potential roles. Interviewed's business model was centered on providing its assessment platform to corporate clients, which included major companies like IBM, Zillow, and Thumbtack. The primary goal was to reduce hiring time and improve the overall experience for both hiring managers and applicants.

In August 2017, just over two years after its inception, Interviewed was acquired by the global job site Indeed for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was a strategic move for Indeed to integrate Interviewed's skills assessment technology into its own platform, enhancing its offerings for millions of employers. As part of the acquisition, the entire Interviewed team, including the three co-founders, transitioned to become employees of Indeed, where they continued to develop the assessment products.

Keywords: skills assessments, candidate screening, HR technology, job simulations, hiring automation, recruitment tools, talent evaluation, pre-employment testing, programmatic recruitment, Y Combinator