78. Meet Genie

Founders: Nicky Badenoch, Nick Grime and Bonnie Harold
Founded: 2019
Website: meetgenie.co

In 2019, three entrepreneurs looked at how companies were hiring talent and saw significant room for improvement. Nicky Badenoch and Nick Grime, along with Bonnie Harold, recognised that the hiring process could be combined with the latest in AI deep learning to target top talent, in a way that hadn’t been attempted before. That’s when GENIE was born.

Previously, finding the right person to hire was heavily focused on that chance meeting, that spot of luck in connecting with the creatives that can elevate a company to new heights. So much so in fact, that it’s an undeniable truth that heaps of talent often slip through the cracks.

It was the vision of GENIE to use leading AI tech to make these chance encounters less random, to give companies the tools they need to find talent that works.

No more endless scrolling through Google, or hopeful posts on social media – GENIE aims to shrink the talent acquisition process with technology.

Described as the “talent agent from the future”, GENIE uses its proprietary machine learning algorithms to match freelance creatives with companies by creating exciting briefs for both. Then, a little bit like a dating app, it matches compatible profiles together by analysing how a company and talent might mesh. No more endless scrolling through Google, or hopeful posts on social media – GENIE aims to shrink the talent acquisition process with technology.

What we find most exciting about GENIE though, is its focus on giving companies and creatives the space to do whatever it is they do without the usual interruptions. The platform automates things like essential paperwork, so talent can get paid automatically, for example.

It has an excellent AI bot too which, according to GENIE, communicates with “humour and humility, treating people like human beings by learning the user’s likes and dislikes, and builds a 1-2-1 relationship.”

Our GENIE AI bot communicates with humour and humility, treating people like human beings by learning the user’s likes and dislikes, building a 1-2-1 relationship.

Just this year, GENIE raised a further £1.75m – proof that investors see real potential in its tech-drive approach to meaningful hiring. Here at Startups, we’re thrilled to include GENIE in our Startups 100 list, as we think it’s fair to say we’d all like to see a world in which creative talent and companies can more easily connect with each other. Watch this space!