Checkr: Background Check Platform with Tomas Barreto

Background checks are a routine part of the hiring process. After a potential employee has made it through job interviews, a background check is administered to look through the applicant’s work history, criminal record, and other available data. Conducting a conventional background check can require manual work–including phone calls for reference checks and going to a courthouse to look up physical records of a person’s criminal history.

The on-demand economy has rapidly increased the volume of workers who are getting hired–and all of them need background checks. Lyft drivers, DoorDash food delivery people, Instacart shoppers–these on-demand workers are being trusted with our lives. We get into their cars, let them into our houses, and eat the food that they hand to us. We want some guarantees about their reputation.

Checkr is a background check platform that allows companies to request background check services via API request. Checkr was started 4 years ago, and has benefitted from the growth of gig economy services like ridesharing and food delivery.

Since the background check API product has found success, Checkr has raised additional capital and invested in other new products: a next-generation background check product based on machine learning, and a mobile app that allows people to instantly background check themselves and find jobs that align with the results of that background screening.

Tomas Barreto is the VP of product and engineering at Checkr and he joins the show to describe how the core Checkr API product works, and the challenges of automating the background check process. We also explored the product development roadmap for Checkr, and the product opportunities that come from building within a specialized vertical such as background checks.

 

Show Notes

Transcript

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