As a product designer with the software company, Intercom, Kostya Gorsky was also involved in hiring new team members.
After each interview, he had to write up notes about the candidate, something he found time consuming and the least enjoyable part of the job. Recognising that there had to be a better way, Gorsky put his experience in digital product development to work to create Hirehire, an AI co-pilot aimed at recruiters and designed to save them time and improve the quality of candidate interviews.
Hirehire is not without competitors – mainly general AI notetaking systems – but Gorsky says that while “it’s a crowded space, very few of the current systems actually work decently for recruiting. Most AI notetakers are general purpose tools and it’s basically transcription as a commodity,” he says.
“These systems don’t have any context outside the immediate interview call and, when summarising calls, they remove the details despite the fact that in recruiting the detail is of paramount importance,” says Gorsky, whose co-founders are Viacheslav Panasovets and Mariam Prazyan.
The trio began building the Hirehire platform in mid-2023 and it went live in spring last year.
“Many job interviews now happen over video call and while existing services can transcribe these calls automatically, there’s a catch,” Gorsky says. “For AI to create meaningful insights, it needs context beyond the conversation – things like the candidate’s CV and a job description. We provide this context to ensure interview summaries are actually meaningful.
“AI summaries often miss really key details,” Gorsky adds. “For example, if a candidate mentions a €50K salary expectation, many AI tools would only note that salary expectations were discussed, omitting the crucial number. Our system keeps all of the facts and numbers the candidates share.
“The majority of value in video calls comes from an analysis of the transcription afterwards and it becomes a much more capable tool if it has context and can take job requirements into account for example. Hirehire can be used for any type of job interview based around language and geared towards checking certain competencies.”
Gorsky says the platform “will be of interest to any organisation that cares about its selection process being humane, fair and inclusive”, and more specifically he expects it to benefit in-house recruitment departments, recruitment agencies and solo/freelance recruiters interested in efficiency and identifying quality candidates.
One of the big advantages of a good note-taking system, Gorsky adds, is that it leaves the recruiter free to focus on the person, not on writing down everything they say.
Hirehire is offering its service with two subscription options, Pro or Business. Users can choose to be billed monthly or on a yearly basis with the subscription for the Pro package starting at €21 a month and €42 for the Business option.
The Pro sub includes up to 40 interviews a month. The business subscription is unlimited. The company’s system is currently capable of processing in English, German and Russian and it can be customised to meet other language requirements.
In terms of actual cash investment, Hirehire’s costs have been about €50,000. And since September last year, Gorsky has been on the New Frontiers programme at ATU Sligo which provides a small founder stipend.
Gorsky estimates that if the founders had been paid to do the work they’ve done over the last 18 months, it would add up to something like €360,000 in salaries.
Hirehire’s primary focus is Europe and sales and marketing are mainly conducted online via podcasts, LinkedIn, YouTube and attending relevant conferences.
Hirehire is already revenue generating and Gorsky says there is a temptation to continue bootstrapping the company’s development. However, investment would enable the founders to build out the team and grow the business significantly faster and this is underpinning the founders’ recent decision to raise a funding round of €500,000.
