Ropes
Using AI to provide a more accurate and efficient coding assessment for engineers.
Ropes.ai Inc. is a New York-based technology company operating in the skills-based hiring market, founded in 2023 by Ken Schumacher. The founder's background in machine learning research at Microsoft and leading AI projects at Retool informed the company's direction. Schumacher's experience interviewing numerous candidates revealed the limitations of traditional screening methods, particularly in the age of AI, which led to the creation of Ropes.
The company provides an AI-driven software platform designed to assess technical talent, primarily for engineering and IT roles. It serves in-house recruiting teams and staffing firms of all sizes. Ropes addresses challenges in the hiring process, such as the inability of traditional tests to capture nuanced skills, the high cost and bias of live interviews, and the increased potential for cheating with AI tools. The business model centers on its assessment platform, which aims to bridge the gap between technical evaluation and on-the-job performance.
The core product is an asynchronous coding assessment platform that mimics a live, onsite interview. Its key feature is the ability to generate custom, role-specific assessments based on job descriptions, providing real-world simulations tailored to a client's specific technology stack. Instead of only measuring whether a candidate reaches a correct solution, the AI-powered platform evaluates the entire problem-solving process, from the initial approach to debugging. This holistic evaluation provides detailed scorecards that offer insights similar to those from a human interviewer. The platform also features dynamic challenges that adjust in difficulty based on candidate performance and includes anti-cheating mechanisms. It is designed to integrate with existing applicant tracking systems (ATS) like Greenhouse to streamline the hiring workflow. In April 2025, the company announced a $3.1 million seed funding round led by GSV Ventures with participation from Box Group, intended to accelerate technology development and expansion into new domains like nursing, design, and finance.
Keywords: technical assessment, skills-based hiring, AI-powered evaluation, engineering talent, coding assessment, recruitment technology, asynchronous interview, problem-solving analysis, custom challenges, candidate screening, holistic evaluation, HR technology, anti-cheating, talent validation, tech hiring, Ken Schumacher, GSV Ventures, real-world simulations, developer screening, hiring automation