Some folks and some companies I’ve been chatting with:
- Martin Dangerfield, out of the UK, will be launching a tool used to search your applicant tracking system or other HR data. Talentpuddle, as its called, does a more sophisticated, machine-learning based, competency search and not just a keyword search, he says. It’s in the same genre as the highly regarded startup Restless Bandit. “We are progressing with one large corporate,” Dangerfield told me this weekend, “by the end of this week we should have the testing locked down and can say they are a client.” He’s targeting global companies based in EMEA but is “equally happy with U.S. based.” Dangerfield works with recruitment teams to embed the platform into their workflow, saying an advantage of going with him is his experience in house, at companies like Symantec. He’s building relationships and partnerships with kannon.io, Candidate.ID, Lever, and Phenom People.
- Celential.ai is in stealth-mode in the “artificial intelligence” game, like many other startups I’ve mentioned. Jason LaBarbera says that what separates Celential is that it’s not just for sourcing. “Matching, sorting, ranking, engagement,” he tells me.
- I’m sure you’ve heard of bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Well, there are more companies talking about the use of blockchain for human resources and recruiting. I’m not sure where it’ll all end up going, but anyhow, some examples are Chronobank; Ethlance; and now SAP’s TrueRec, the latter being a new launch for keeping track of employment credentials.
- I’ve been hearing the last few days from a couple companies I’ve talked about in recent years, reaching out to tell me they’re alive and well. One is Maprecruit (which we mentioned back in 2015; yes, the website is still a little confusing). It tells me it’s hitting the revenue targets it wanted, particularly in the large-company market. And, it was on a 10 best startups in HR technology list out of India. Another is WeFind (which I mentioned last year), which tells me things are chipper as well. David Sokolow says it has six employees now, with perhaps some announcements of well-known customers coming soon.