March 19, 2016

Verified Credential Management for the Professional World

The previous post discussed my experience of attending the 9Mile Labs Demo Day or "Milestone9" where participating companies (cohort) present their idea to an audience of investors, mentors, executives, community partners, and the greater entrepreneurial community. 9Mile Labs is an Seattle, Wash.-based accelerator focused on enterprise or business-to-business (B2B) software and cloud technologies. In writing the previous post, I found the notes from my attendance of Milestone9 on May 14th, 2015.

The nine companies participating in Cohort IV include:
  1. Camp Native -- Marketplace to list, discover, and reserve campsites;
  2. Fasterbids -- Remodel pricing in seconds, saving time, saving money;
  3. Kodu Care -- Kodu Care brings patient success management to mental health;
  4. Mowdo -- On-demand app and pricing engine for the 74B lawn care industry;
  5. Pingle -- Verified credential management for the professional world;
  6. Qalendra -- Mine, fuse and structure data from multiple sources to generate predictions and insights for the travel industry;
  7. SalesPrepper -- A salesperson's personal research analyst;
  8. Unoceros -- We turn mobile phones into datacenter-like-instances; and
  9. Variat -- Quality control solution optimized for medium-sized manufacturers with global aspirations.
While each company presented a unique solution to a particular problem, I enjoyed the presentation made by Pingle, Inc. Founded by Kristian Alcaide and RedWolf Pope, Pingle "uses a patent-pending machine learning verification engine to instantly provide credentials for professionals in maritime, construction, medical and other industries," according to an GeekWire article that includes an interview with Mr. Pope.

In his interview, Mr. Pope, who also serves as the company's chief executive officer, explained that "Pingle verifies peoples credentials, lets employers check compliance, and offers renewal options when they expire. So we facilitate communication with workers, employers and schools, but we also verify everyone and each credential, so that trust is added to the equation."

One of Pingle's value proposition is saving time as the current system of verifying credentials is a painstaking manual- and telephone-based process that may take weeks. Saving money is another value of Pingle's service as the "costs of a bad hire or expired credentials can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars," according to the company's website. Moreover, "Current tracking solutions are overly complex, costly and add more work to the HR department."

Given the challenges HR departments may have in maintaining compliance in managing and verifying the credentials of their current or prospective employees, or professionals needing to manage their credentials, there is certainly a market opportunity for a service like Pingle's.

Aaron Rose is a board member, corporate advisor, and co-founder of great companies. He also serves as the editor of GT Perspectives, an online forum focused on turning perspective into opportunity.

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