Interviewing people is a pain, especially overseas folks, speaking from experience. It’s hard to get the right people; and over here at our team we bootstrap and use Skype as the main interviewing tool. It works out well for a startup. But not when you need to video interview tens or hundreds of people abroad. The scheduling, the set up, and the platform are all troublesome matters, and larger corporations probably wouldn’t mind paying money to get a one-stop solution.
Singapore-based startup, Next-5, understands the problem and has a solution for it. Employers on Next-5 can choose to have candidates participate in an assessment, a video interview, or both. Once the tasks are completed, the employers will receive the results and be able to make an educated hiring decision. The interview questions are all constructed by Next-5, assessments are taken by potential employees on Next-5, and the results are also reviewed on Next-5. Employers can even rate, comment, and indicate an action to be taken for a candidate.
I gave the demo account a try and found the solution straightforward. There’s no sexy user interface, though. Next-5 is built to be very functional. There are competitors, but none of them are direct competitors, says Kenneth Yap, co-founder of Next-5, as he explained the service to me. He argued that Next-5 is like a hybrid of everything – video interviews, assessments, live streaming, etc. Here’s what he said in full:
So how are we different? In terms of price and product offerings we are miles ahead of today’s developments. No other platform in the market provides clients with assessments, interviews, and an applicant tracking system. If you observe the markets today, it’s only one or the other and never a complete solution.
Next-5 has raised some money from the Singapore government and also a friend and family seed injection. They are looking to raise funds for faster expansion in 2012. From what I have heard, Next-5 expects to be profitable by the end of Q1 next year.