HR Tech Trailblazer HireQuotient is currently serving global clients like one of the top 3 management consulting firms, Emtec Inc., Singapore Government agency, etc.

The eureka moment for Smarth was when he realized that most of the top-tier companies did not have the right filters to screen "skilled" candidates and relied a lot on academic pedigree or CV. As a Management Consultant, this IIT Delhi grad was advising global B schools (like Imperial Business School London) and Govt authorities on revamping the masters' programs to include the future of skills. Working with these B schools, interacting with their students – he realized that at times, "skilled" working professionals with not-so-good CVs, could not crack the shortlist of top firms. Talking to HR leaders, he found that they were struggling with significant volumes of misfits in the first round of interviews and it was costing them millions of dollars and time. These insights led to the realization that the screening process for business hiring was broken and had to be fixed. Smarth then decided to leave his job at Boston Consulting Group and pursue building a venture that will build AI-virtual interviewers which can accurately interview candidates and potential employees for business roles.

According to Smarth, HireQuotient is the only player in a global market that does skill-based screening simulating the real on-the-job experience and answering an age-old question, "Can the candidate do the job?". There are quite a few platforms that do psychometric or IQ/aptitude testing but none are doing testing on functional skills. HireQuotient creates an in-person interview experience via functionalities like speech-to- speech, free-text, and video assessment. Sidana, who is a massive fan of inflection points, is convinced that this is the time for disruption in global HR Tech. Both tech and market adoption has matured over the last 2 years, to enable this disruption. He believes that HireQuotient is on the path to disrupting the 200Bn USD sourcing & screening market for business hiring globally.

Talking of traction, HireQuotient is currently serving global clients like one of the top 3 management consulting firms, Emtec Inc., Singapore Government agency, etc. The company has done 30K+ screenings in 42 different countries. The company raised pre-seed funding of USD 1.8 Million from seven (7) Asian Unicorn founders including Binny Bansal, Sumant Sinha (ReNew Power), Anand Prakash (Vedantu), and Brian Cu (Gojek). As the company is witnessing growing traction in US and European markets, the company wants to be one of the first to grow quickly and penetrate deeper into these markets. "It is very early for us, and we are very excited as the market is growing from 2.5% to at least 10% software penetration in talent acquisition globally" Sidana added. Being a first-gen founder, Sidana's entrepreneurial journey has been very organic. Before HireQuotient, he was a part of 2 startups – Asha foundations, and reDockto as both were focused on the field of holistic mentorship for HigherEd students. While both startups did not scale, it gave extensive insights and learnings to Smarth.

Cracking his first B2B client has been Sidana's all-time high. He also claims that working with an enthusiast and a passionate team keeps him excited & motivated. In his words, "my team is my fuel. Potential to positively impact the lives of over a billion working professionals through competency based hiring, keeps me charged." In the last 8-9 weeks, HireQuotient onboarded 3 global clients, the team grew from 5 to 13 members, realized $ 0.5 million in revenue, and added growth fuel in form of pre-seed. The company is now focusing on scaling its clientele in the US and Europe to unlock further growth, and enter the mass hiring market.