Vouched, an app that launched last week from Tysons-based startup
Pipevine, is working to create a professional endorsement system that improves on the one built into LinkedIn.
The app, which went from concept to launch in less than three months, allows users to build a crowdsourced profile of their strongest character traits by the people who know them best professionally.
"Vouched is like Klout for character," explains Keith Cooperman, president and founder of Pipevine. "Smart companies realize that when they are [evaluating] multiple candidates, they should hire for character and train for skill." When a company is hiring, they typically ask for one or two references, and those are selected by the candidate. "If 50 people have vouched for a candidate's integrity, you get recommendations from 50 people, rather than two."
LinkedIn's current system of endorsement allows anyone users are connected to to "endorse" that user for a particular skill (e.g. this reporter was recently endorsed for "editing" by someone whose children attended the same preschool as her children, even though the two have never worked together). That's " a big problem that most LinkedIn users have experienced," Cooperman says, but it's part of a larger problem. "I remember when it was a big deal to ‘connect’ with someone. Now it’s like giving out a business card. By introducing 'Connection Strength,' Vouched makes it possible to give greater weight to the insights of the people who know you best."
Vouched uses LinkedIn's API to import a user's first-degree connections (people you are directly connected to). Users then privately rate how strongly they feel connected to that person, rating up to five bars for a close colleague or one bar for an acquaintance they met once at a conference, for example.
Users then click on up to four of eight core character traits—professionalism, integrity, communication, innovation, productivity, adaptability, leadership and teamwork—to vouch for their connection. Users are limited to vouching for ten people per day.
Vouched is free and available to download on
iOS and
Android. Cooperman says an enterprise desktop version, with full analytics, is in the works. The company is building integrations with Facebook, Twitter, G+ and users' contact lists, and is "in discussions with investors and accelerators."
"When people ask, 'Are you a good leader? Do you have good communication skills?' quantifiable data carries more weight than a bold assertion," Cooperman says.