Finding the right candidate for a job is time-consuming and labor-intensive work. MosaicTrack hopes to expedite that process for recruiters and employers using its artificial intelligence technology.
MosaicTrack CEO Ed Windgate said his company can read resumes and job descriptions like a human would and predict which candidates will be asked to interview with 80 percent accuracy. The software scans resumes and job descriptions to match talent based on experience, skill, and company culture.
Windgate launched MosaicTrack with wife Elena in 2014. Prior to that, he was working for a consulting firm designing websites and helping clients find candidates for their job openings.
“We soon realized it was not just us who were overwhelmed with the centuries-old practice of manually reading through resumes, either on a screen or in print,” said Windgate. “We thought there must be a better way.”
MosaicTrack is one of several machine learning/artificial intelligence companies in Seattle, which is poised to be an epicenter for this budding industry.
We caught up with Windgate for this Startup Spotlight, a regular GeekWire feature.
Explain what you do so our parents can understand it: “MosaicTrack reads through resumes with its cognitive artificial intelligence abilities to find talent matched for company culture and skill, simply by comparing the text of a resume to a job description.”
Inspiration hit us when: “We heard about artificial intelligence used to predict events, like who would win a race. We wondered if we could predict who would be asked to interview, out of hundreds of resumes.”
VC, Angel or Bootstrap: “Bootstrapped. We have spent our time developing a product and developing a business strategy that works. This way, when we have funding, we will have a much clearer focus.”
Our ‘secret sauce’ is: “Artificial intelligence. To elaborate, all applications in the future will have AI to enhance their user experience, and find and present data the way a person wants to interact and view information.
The smartest move we’ve made so far: “We have been developing our product for almost two years now. At first, people could not understand why we would have artificial intelligence as a core feature of our product. Now, with AI in the news every other day, this decision seems obvious.”
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: “Not realizing what a breakthrough product we have developed, every day. When we started our marketing efforts we fell into the habit of focusing exclusively on getting setup for trade shows, startup demo events, customer support, potential customer demos, etc. These kind of activities are no different from any other kind of company.
We needed to re-focus on the fact that we are different than just any other company. We have a great product and present that enthusiasm when we present our product.”
Would you rather have Gates, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner: “Maybe Mr. Gates, as I would have less of a chance of offending him by misspelling his name in an email.
Seriously, how do I choose? I think all three of these business people are facing the same decision: How do we remake applications, and our experience on the world wide web, in the face of AI? I would like to learn their thoughts on this subject.”
Our favorite team-building activity is: “Reviewing meeting notes from months or even a year ago, and see what we said back then, and listen to how it sounds now. We get lots of laughs. ‘Did you really say that?'”
The biggest thing we look for when hiring is: “Culture. It’s not so much about personality, it’s how well we’ll all work together. Do we all understand it, in the same way? Do one person’s ideas inspire the another person, to inspire another person?
We’re not about having one person who has an idea that should be delegated to another person to delegate to another person to work on, without any input from everyone involved.”
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: “Don’t give up. Yes, it is always important to evaluate what’s important for the customer. When a product is out there in the wild in customers’ hands you will always gain unexpected insight as to what your product should really be. Either new features, modified features, or a whole new business opportunity for your product.
Don’t give up. Marketing is hard. You’re product should always be years ahead of what’s out there now. It’s not easy selling the future to people.”
