BrightHire Raises $20.5M Series B for Zoom Interview App
BrightHire Secures $20.5 Million in Series B Funding
BrightHire, a company focused on revolutionizing organizational hiring practices, has announced a $20.5 million Series B investment. The funding round was spearheaded by 01 Advisors, with additional participation from Index Ventures and the Zoom Apps Fund.
Leveraging Zoom for Data-Driven Hiring
The involvement of the Zoom Apps Fund highlights a core aspect of BrightHire’s approach. The company centers its operations on extracting insights from Zoom-based interviews to inform and enhance hiring decisions.
Co-founder and CEO Ben Sesser observes a disparity in how businesses operate. While most critical decisions are data-driven, hiring often relies heavily on intuition and subjective assessments. BrightHire aims to rectify this imbalance.
Transforming Team Building Through Data
“Our primary objective is to fundamentally change how teams are constructed,” Sesser explained. “In the business world, data-backed analysis is standard for significant choices. Yet, hiring – arguably the most crucial function for a company’s future – frequently depends on gut feelings and recollections.”
Sesser emphasizes that BrightHire introduces consistency to the hiring process, ultimately improving the experience for all parties involved.
Streamlining the Interview Process
The platform records and transcribes interviews conducted via Zoom. This allows interviewers to fully focus on the candidate, eliminating the need for note-taking or other distractions.
Furthermore, the software proactively suggests key questions during the interview, ensuring a standardized and comprehensive evaluation of each candidate.
Post-Interview Insights and Continuous Improvement
Following each interview, the software delivers key highlights and actionable insights. These resources assist companies in making informed hiring decisions and continually refining their overall hiring strategies.
Addressing Bias in Hiring
Dick Costolo, managing partner at 01A, noted that BrightHire addresses a critical issue he encountered while leading Twitter from 2009 to 2015 during a period of rapid expansion.
“During our time at Twitter, we identified unconscious biases within both the interview and promotion processes,” Costolo stated. This realization prompted a search for a more objective, data-driven approach to decision-making – an approach facilitated by tools like BrightHire.
“A solution like this would have mitigated many of the challenges we faced regarding subjectivity and unconscious bias,” he added.
The Impact of the Pandemic
The shift to online business during the pandemic accelerated the acceptance of Zoom interviews, creating a favorable environment for BrightHire’s launch in 2019.
“Even before the pandemic, we recognized the importance of addressing fundamental flaws in the hiring process,” Sesser said. “However, 2020 proved to be a pivotal year, with the pandemic acting as a significant catalyst for our business growth.”
Promoting Equity and Diversity
Sesser confirms that BrightHire is being utilized internally to promote diversity in hiring practices. However, he clarifies that the platform is one component of a broader diversity and inclusion strategy.
“We don’t claim to solve diversity in hiring outright, but our product fosters a more equitable process,” he explained.
He further elaborated, “A fair evaluation process is impossible if candidates are assessed inconsistently. Without a data-driven foundation for our decisions, we are left relying on subjective memories and feelings – a highly unreliable approach.”