Take2 AI, a unique AI-powered job simulation platform for sales recruiting, has announced a significant milestone. The company has successfully raised $3 million in a seed round led by Reach Capital and SemperVirens, with participation from other renowned Silicon Valley-based venture funds, Techstars, and HR leaders from Visa, Disney, HP, and Google. This substantial funding will fuel the company’s expansion and development efforts, further solidifying its position in the market.
Take2 AI, co-founded by Kaushik Narasimhan and Yaniv Shimoni, aims to transform how companies find talent for high-volume sales positions, which make up 14% of all jobs in the United States. Companies need help to screen applicants and spend many hours evaluating applications thoroughly. Due to this, there is a relatively high short-term turnover rate: three times more salespeople than in any other occupation, or one in three churn annually. The company’s two founders, Kaushik Narasimhan and Yaniv Shimoni, are highly skilled at creating and growing sales teams. They first connected at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Based on insights from Stanford University research on skills-based hiring, they founded Take2 AI.
Yaniv Shimoni, Co-founder of Take2 AI, said:
There has been so much buzz around skills-based hiring in recent years, yet most employers still heavily rely on resumes. In high-volume sales roles, resumes could be more helpful in predicting fit, leading to highly high short-term attrition.
Headquartered in New York, the firm helps companies generate tailor-made simulations of real-world sales scenarios that vet job applicants for skills, behavioural attributes, and culture fit. This enables companies to minimize their mis-hires and improve employee retention.
Esteban Sosnik, General Partner of Reach Capital, stated:
We are very bullish on skill-based hiring. Given the advancements in generative AI, Take2 AI brings a novel approach to recruiting that is scalable and timely. Putting candidates in front of real-world sales simulations results in a better assessment of candidates for companies and a more suitable fit for employees, leading to a win-win and clear ROI for both parties.
Take2 AI’s impact is best illustrated by the success of one of its customers, a large solar energy company. Within just four months of implementing Take2 AI, this company saw a remarkable decrease in the 90-day attrition of their sales representatives, from 58% to 15%. This not only allowed them to build their sales team faster and hit quota but also significantly reduced their time-to-hire by eliminating two rounds of interviews from their recruiting process. Such success stories highlight the platform’s effectiveness and potential ROI for companies.
