Identified (company)

Identified is a San Francisco-based data and analytics company founded in 2010, that utilizes professional data collected from Facebook to produce the “Identified Score,” a numerical value intended to provide a more accurate pairing between recruiters and job seekers. The professional marketplace connects with a user's Facebook account as a starting point to generate a free score based on his or her educational background, work history, and professional network. The more information users add in these three areas, the higher their Identified score increases. If their score happens to be low, Identified provides tips on how to add more information, such as college major and GPA, to help these users be more marketable to companies.

As of February 2012, the site has over 202 million professional profiles. The Identified Score helps professionals understand how in demand their professional background is to potential employers. The company also assigns a score to companies and schools.

Identified was founded in 2010 by then-Stanford University students Brendan Wallace and Adeyemi Ajao, who launched its search engine beta in September 2011, then publicly launched out of beta in November 2011. Mashable included Identified in its Spark of Genius Series in November 2011, noting that Identified "fixes [the problem of job sites and resume databases not providing any feedback or responses on how people compare to other professionals] by providing a link between professionals and companies, letting people know how “in demand” they are in the current job market."

History

Identified was developed by co-founders and co-CEOs Brendan Wallace and Adeyemi Ajao during their time at Stanford University. In its initial round of funding, the company raised $5.5 million from angel investors, including Innovation Endeavors; Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Tim Draper; William Henry Draper III, founder of Sutter Hill Ventures and Draper Richards; Alexander Tamas, partner at Digital Sky Technologies; Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya; and Stanford University professors Joel Peterson and John Glynn.

In September of 2011, Identified launched a beta version of Identified and had listings for more than 50 million people within six weeks of launch. On November 10, 2011, Identified became open to the public, providing “free and open access for companies and the public to the Identified Scores of over 50 million professionals worldwide.” By February 2012 Identified had over 1.5 million monthly active users and mapped the professional information of more than 202 million Facebook users.

In the week of February 3, 2012, InsideFacebook named Identified as one of the "Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps by Monthly Active Users".

The Identified Score

The Identified Score assigns a numerical index between 0 and 100 that indicates how valuable an individual is in the job market and how attractive he or she is to companies. The Identified score is built by taking information from Facebook regarding a person’s educational background, work history, and professional network. Identified users can then add additional information, such as college major and GPA, to increase their scores and make themselves more marketable to companies. Identified’s scoring system helps professionals reach their desired career paths by acting as a reference check and measurement of what companies are searching for.

Reception

Identified launched to the public in November 2011 and rapidly increased in the number of users, reaching one million users by January 30, 2012. Identified has been named one of the "10 New Websites for Your Job Search" by US News, and featured in major publications including The Washington Post and Forbes Magazine.

CEO Brendan Wallace has appeared on MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX News in Business, and CNBC's Power Lunch to speak about Identified and the rise of social recruiting.