HireBrain, a platform designed to bridge the gap between hiring managers and recruiters, won the annual Pitchfest competition at the HR Tech conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. The startup took home $25,000 from Randstad.
FairNow, an AI governance tool, earned second place and $5,000 from Randstad.
HireBrain focuses on improving hiring from the hiring manager’s perspective since most managers are never trained in hiring. As Head of Growth Master Burnett described it: “It’s not a hiring manager’s fault that they’re not an expert in hiring. That’s not their job.”
In an interview, founder and CEO David Nason described it as “an age-old problem that people had given up on, like it’s just not solvable.”
The tool offers role design, onboarding, intake with an AI assistant, a job library, an interview guide, a scorecard, automated sourcing and more, touching all aspects of the hiring lifecycle. Customers can buy a single module or the full platform, though they are encouraged to start with a focused scope, Nason said.
The judges and the audience agreed with the need for the solution. “HireBrain is solving a real challenge in talent acquisition,” said judge Madeline Laurano of Aptitude Research.
It’s a difficult piece of the process for recruiters: trying to get meaningful feedback from a hiring manager so the recruiters can deliver the right candidate, added fellow judge Tim Sackett of HRUTech.com, adding “HireBrain is taking that most frustrating part of the process and making it pretty easy to deliver.”
FairNow co-founder and CEO Guru Sethupathy said his company is billed as a “one-stop shop” for HR organizations and HR tech vendors to manage their AI risk in a fast-changing compliance environment. The company’s early clients include Dayforce and Plum, bringing together HR leaders and HR tech vendors for the same purpose.
The other finalists were Apriora, an autonomous AI interviewing tool; Sunbeam, a feedback analytics platform; ReviewTailor, which supports performance management with AI-powered software; and TalentValue, a compensation tool. Thirty companies began the process.
