Intervue: A Shark Tank Pitch Analysis

Intervue, a brand founded by Rahul Arora & Pushpender Singh Rautela, recently featured on Shark Tank India Season 3, aiming to secure investment for their newly established business of conducting technical interviews remotely through their own designed “Hiring Rubric” model. This analysis delves into the details of Intervue, encompassing its establishment, ownership structure, business model, products, and the Sharks' decisions regarding their pitch.

Background

Intervue, a startup founded in 2019, aims to make the job interview process easier for both businesses and job seekers. They use AI & technology to help companies find suitable candidates. Intervue has completely streamlined the technical interview process. According to Intervue, 70% of the candidates they recommend are chosen by the hiring companies.

Ownership and Establishment

Intervue, a brand founded by Rahul Arora and Pushpender Singh Rautela, with the company name Instaintervue Collaboration Private Limited specializes in conducting online technical interviews for different companies. The company was incorporated in June 2019. Rahul and Pushpender are software engineers and they have in the respective for about 5 years. Both of them became friends when they were working in the Paytm. Pushpender has the ability to grab any new technical thing as Quick on the uptake whereas Rahul always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Business Model

Intervue operates on a SaaS (Software as a service) model providing a platform for conducting technical interviews for hiring. The current recruitment process faces a problem. Firstly, at least 25 candidates are interviewed for filling the vacancy of one technical position. Second problem is the unavailability of the interviewer since he may be busy with his own product. As a consequence the third problem arises i.e. interviews doesn't take place on time. To resolve this problem, “Intervue” provides a platform where an interviewer can take interview of a candidate for some other client company. The candidate information and resumes are not shared with the interviewer. Also to add, “Intervue” has it's own coding platform which substantially reduces the time of the interview. More than 500 interviews can be planned for a single day and even on off days. “Intervue” has a specially designed “Hiring Rubric” model. It is one of the world's fastest coding environments and importantly “Intervue” can identify the cheaters. Once the interview is done, a detailed report of the candidate is prepared within 5 minutes and the best part is that interviewer receives payment of the interview conducted within a minute.

Products and Services

“Intervue” is a SaaS platform which provides its services to the companies who have a less bandwidth for taking interviews but the number of candidates is much larger. It enables companies to scale down the time taken for filling a technical position by outsourcing candidates to interviewers of other companies. A detailed interface of their service can be found at: https://www.intervue.io/

Shark Tank Pitch and Decisions

Intervue presented their pitch in Shark Tank India seeking an investment of 1 crore 50 lakhs for 1% equity, Valuation 150 crores.

• Aman Gupta: Aman likes the work and was appealed by the functioning of the brand. He calls Rahul “Rocket Singh” seeing his tireless efforts in explanation and the enthusiasm which he shows during the pitch. He initially offers 1.5 crores for 2% equity (valuation 75 crores). Later on during the pitch, he came up with a collaborated deal with Deepinder offering 5 crores for 10% equity (valuation 50 crores) wherein Aman's share would be 1.5 crores. But when Rahul tried to counter the deal to keep the valuation same as before, he lost the combination deal and eventually finalized with Aman's initial offer i.e. 1.5 crores for 2% equity (Valuation 75 crores).
• Namita Thapar: Namita was unconvinced with the business model. She argued that the HR of any company should appoint the employees himself because it's the HR only who knows the culture and working of the organization. Hence, she didn’t extend any offer to the founders.
• Vineeta: Vineeta was impressed by the presentation and how Rahul explained every component and working of their software with crystal clarity. She wanted to extend a helping hand to the founders but unfortunately didn't because technical aspects are not her area of interest. She mentions Rahul as one of the sharpest pitchers ever in Shark Tank.
• Deepinder Goyal: Deepinder showed interest in the company from the initial stage. He still spends 90% of his time in the technical field. Technical work captivates him. He extended an offer in collaboration with Aman for an amount of 5 crores for 10% equity (valuation 50 crores) wherein Deepinder's share would be 3.5 crores. They sought to have 10% stake to provide guidance and direction for future operations. Deepinder was impressed with the vision to create a billion-dollar global company. He even quoted that Rahul shared similar qualities like his. Rahul negotiated the deal to keep the valuation same as before i.e. 120 crores. Consequently, Deepinder took his steps back and didn't further extend any investment avenues.
• Anupam Mittal: Anupam appreciated the work and the positive market dynamics. But found out the problem in the valuation of the company. As per his insights, the actual and fair valuation of the company should be around 40-50 crores whereas it was currently at 120 crores. He mentioned that the company needs guidance in technical work and hence offered a deal of 1.5 crores for 3% equity (valuation 50 crores).

Analysis of Shark Decisions

The Sharks' decisions reflect several key considerations for Intevue:

• Analysis of Shark's Decisions: The Sharks' decisions reflect several key considerations for Intervue: Overvaluation: As per Anupam, the company is being overvalued. Its fair valuation should range around 40-50 crores while the company was being valued at 120 crores which shows overvaluation concerns. Positive market dynamics; This SaaS company was providing something different and advantageous for other technical companies and employees as well. This would drastically reduce the time taken to fill one technical position. Hence, the market dynamics for the company is positive and indicates future growth and expansion for non-technical companies as well.

Some key strengths and weaknesses of Intervue:

Strengths:

• First mover advantage: The service provided by the Intervue is a completely new platform in India which can provide them to uphold the first mover advantage.
• Less competition: This is a pioneering service and currently their segment doesn't have any competitors in India.
• Efficiency: Intervue provides qualified technical personnel through their network of standardized market of interviewers of different companies.
• Effective: Intervue reduces time to 7-8 days for filling technical positions in the company which would otherwise take 45 days. Additionally, their platform can schedule more than 500 interviews for a single day which results in increased bandwidth.
• Tested results: Intervue has its own coding platform where interviewers can check live coding of the interviewee. It has set standards for every type of technical position.

Weaknesses:

• Global competition: Intervue has one international competition namely Kara, which is a US billion-dollar company (in valuation). Currently, it couldn't keep pace in India due to its high charges (US$250).

Future of Intervue

The future of Intervue can be projected in terms of expansion in other areas of non-technical. The founders of the company vision to make it a global brand where all the companies can conduct their interviews to hire people. The company promises a flourishing nature through their unparalleled SaaS service.

Conclusion

The appearance of Intervue showcased how problems faced in corporate and professional life can result in a different product/service. Their brand highlights the growing demand for streamlined and efficient hiring processes, especially in technical fields. Their long-term success depends upon their strength of increasing their interview bandwidth and diversification into other areas as well. Ultimately, it will culminate into a transnational brand.

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