This article was taken from the May 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
If someone at work asked what you thought about a one-night stand, you'd probably call HR
But what if it's HR asking? Saberr, a London-based startup, aims to help businesses find out whether potential hires will fit in. "Sixty-five per cent of the startups that fail do so because of people problems," says Alistair Shepherd, Saberr's cofounder and CEO. "Surely there's a way we can solve that through data?" In asking how to predict a good relationship, Shepherd turned to online dating.
He studied the patterns and matches that characterised successful relationships; his team then devised a questionnaire.
Saberr's algorithms come up with a "pairwise score", which predicts how employees will get on, and a behaviour chart (it's good for a company to have a spread of behaviours). Shepherd used it to predict the best performing teams at 21 startup incubators, claiming a 95 per cent accuracy. Saberr plans to work on a bigger stage. "Startups are part of it, but we're much more effective in large corporations. We're Moneyball for business."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
