When Pedro Pinto and I started Lytmus two years ago, most of the world’s knowledge was already available for free to anyone with a cell phone. But we realized that with all of the wonderful ways for people to learn the practical things that would make them better at their jobs, there was still no systematic way for them to show what they know.
We decided to focus on the credentialing problem for hiring. We asked ourselves: how do you know if someone really understands how to build software? Or how good a financial analyst is at working with complex models? Indirect tests, like brainteasers and unidimensional coding challenges are woefully inadequate. Put simply, if you ran an airline, would you hire a pilot based on the results of a multiple-choice test? If you were a pilot would you want to be evaluated in this way? Pilots need to be evaluated flying planes, and that’s why we have flight simulators. That was the insight that got us going.
Lytmus has developed the flight simulator for digital skills. Like a flight simulator it is powerful and measures a range of skills together. A system administrator gets to fix a crashed server; a web developer uses Angular and Bootstrap to make a website more responsive, and a financial analyst uses real data to project revenues in Excel. Assessments designed in a realistic setting that mirrors what one does IRL provides a much better signal to the employers. This allows the best people to be hired regardless of what their resume says or where they come from. It allows companies to source candidates from a much larger pool than they currently draw from. It greatly shortens the interview process and makes it more unbiased. And it makes the world more fair.
Building the Lytmus Platform has not been easy. Pedro and I have been joined by an exceptional group of engineers to make it happen. Today we’re proud to announce that we are launching publicly with a $7.2M Series A round from NEA and Accel, both terrific firms with an exceptional track records of success. Board member Greg Papadopoulos from NEA used to be the CTO of Sun Microsystems and knows more than a thing or two about hiring great engineers. We are delighted to be working with Vas Natrajan (see what he thinks of Lytmus) and his partners. In addition, Jeff Rothschild who built up the Facebook backend team as VP Engineering, and led the effort to scale the service, is a personal investor and is on our board.
In the next decade, many if not most jobs will require digital skills. All of us at Lytmus are thrilled to provide the credentialing platform for these skills. As we like to say: “It’s not where you are from, it’s what you can do”. To find out more about us check us out at Lytmus.com and sign up to receive updates on our progress. Also, check out this post for more details on the platform.
— Abhay Parekh, Co-Founder & CEO
