HBUS News: Interview with Kartik Mandaville, Co-Founder of SpringRole

San Francisco, CA
June 24nd, 2018

Welcome to HBUS News. We’re happy to chat with you today. How did you hear about HBUS?

Well, everyone who’s heard of digital currency exchanges has heard of Huobi. The Asian market is so important and we’re seeing great traction for SpringRole there — especially in India where we have offices in Bengaluru. So, when we heard of a US partnership it came as great news.

How did you decide on entering the hiring industry?

The idea for SpringRole was borne from our experience in hiring over 1,000 employees in India for US companies. We saw the need to verify claims on so many CVs. As we did this and as we saw survey after survey show that this was a huge paint point for recruiters, it became clear that verified professional profiles were needed.

Tell us more about your company and why blockchain is a good fit for your product.

Sure. SpringRole is the first project to come out of Science Blockchain in California, and it stems from our already-profitable hiring service. What we’re building is a professional identity protocol on the blockchain where users can create a verified professional profile that’s validated by their employers and schools with an AI-ranked endorsement of their skills.

As a company, we focused on the immediate need that exists for verifiable professional identities in education institutions, online certifications, and professional networking sites like LinkedIn and others. Anybody can claim anything online and it’s hard to verify that. This is where blockchain ups the ante. We knew we could build a platform that could fill that gap with transparency and accountability. All while leaving users in complete control of their data, which is so important as we’ve seen lately.

And if you want to get a little technical, the SpringRole platform is basically an attestation protocol that uses the SPRING ERC-20 utility token as an incentive for a strong community of attestors and endorsers that keep the platform’s information accurate. That’s what sets SpringRole apart from traditional networks.

What is your philosophy around hiring?

Internally, we look for problem solvers who are in blockchain for the long haul. A good fit to our team is someone who brings real solutions to the table. Someone who, when push comes to shove, is able to back their credentials. We believe this is what any company looks for in the first place and it’s precisely how SpringRole helps when onboarding new hires. It’s why we’re so useful to companies hiring in India, for example.

Our platform gives recruiters access to reliable validation on every candidate’s work experience, education, and skill set. Different from other job networks, on SpringRole these claims are backed by weighted endorsements. It really helps recruiters save so much time and money that would otherwise be spent vetting or sifting through a pool of candidates that might or might not add value to the company. We want to enable SpringRole users to uphold the same hiring standards we practice ourselves.

What is a unique insight that you have gained while working in the blockchain ecosystem / industry?

Oh, that it’s so important to cut out the noise and work on building what’s useful to people.

What are your thoughts on building an active community around your project? Any tips that you’d like to share?

Community is crucial. SpringRole is always answering on Telegram, always updating on Medium, always engaged. The community is who we are accountable to, so we want to be transparent and keep that conversation a priority.

Ultimately, the community will stay active if you have things to show, if you’re working hard and following the roadmap.

Who are some people that you feel are influential in the space that we should follow on Twitter?

Everyone should follow our advisor Toni Lane. She was recently ranked as one of the most influential people in blockchain because she’s done so much for the space, from founding CoinTelegraph, to teaching at Singularity University, to using blockchain for Ebola relief in Sierra Leone. She’s been focused on the concept of self-sovereign identity which is so close, ideologically, to what we’re doing at SpringRole.

That brings me to another person you should follow, Christopher Allen. He’s a blockchain pioneer and one of those hidden gems in the space, a la Nick Szabo. His work on the decentralization of online identity is a strong influence on what we’re doing.

What are some good resources for beginners who are looking to “get smart” in the space?

That’s easy. Everything by Andreas Antonopoulos. His YouTube channel is where serious beginners get started. Also, Andreessen Horowitz published what they call a crypto canon a while ago.

What are some problems that virtual currency platforms are currently facing that need to be solved?

Generally, the most talked about problem is scalability. There’s so much enthusiasm for new platforms like ours, so everybody’s figuring out how to scale properly. We think it’s a good problem to have.

Who are some of your favorite YouTube influencers (if any)?

Toni’s TED talks and other appearances are great.

Here at HBUS, we pride ourselves in transparency and trust as our core values. What are some of your core values? How does this translate into your company culture?

I think transparency and trustworthiness are values we all share in the blockchain space, that’s fundamental. Another big one for us is attention to detail. We want to innovate in ways that bring precise solutions to the problems people face everyday with their online identities.

HBUS is launching soon and will only be open to U.S. residents. What are some unique aspects around communicating with the U.S. audience that you have come across (if any)?

The US audience likes accountability and it likes to see results. Being a California-based company, we’re always focused on our community and focused on delivering.

What was your favorite class in college? Did you have a nickname growing up?

I think I’ll go with Statistics. And no, I can’t recall any particular nickname that stuck.

Lastly, who are some other Founders that you respect that you think we should interview next?

You should talk to Mark Jeffrey from Guardian Circle. They’re doing a great job with emergency services on the blockchain and found SpringRole’s protocol to be very useful to them.

Also, WorkCoin’s Fred Kreuger would be great. They’re doing great things for freelance work. We partnered with them recently to allow freelancers to offer services directly from their SpringRole profile.

Disclaimer: HBUS News is not an “arm,” “subsidiary,” “division,” or any type of “affiliate” of Huobi. None of the views stated in HBUS News are related to the core operations of HBUS. Nor is HBUS to be referenced as “Huobi US” or any variant thereof. HBUS is the “exclusive US strategic partner of Huobi,” and Huobi is “the world’s leading provider of virtual currency related services.”

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