Pymetrics

Join Frida Polli and other thought leaders and compelling speakers to explore The Future of Work at Stanford on August 30.

Whatever you do, don’t call Frida Polli a cute science girl. Sure, she’s a slim blonde with baby blue eyes, but this New York–based neuroscientist’s been up since 5:30 a.m., tasked with running Pymetrics, the startup she co-founded that blends artificial intelligence with neuroscience to reframe the hiring process. Instead of recruiters battling their unconscious biases when sorting résumés, applicants are directed to complete a series of cognitive games that map out their personality traits and suggest career trajectories — think of it as a love child of Tinder and LinkedIn. Polli’s motivation was to improve diversity in hiring and give people greater opportunity — needs that played out in vivid terms during her fundraising rounds. “In a business competition, we were the only startup that had revenue, and they called us the cute science girls,” she says. “There were many times we were discounted.”

Race and gender discrimination in hiring is not a new problem. A 2014 study showed African-Americans were 16 percent less likely to get called in for interviews, and 79.8 percent of Fortune 500 board seats are held by white men. But implementing change is hard. Today, the American recruiting industry’s annual revenue stands around $28 billion, and a high number of hires come from in-house referrals — basically, white dudes suggesting other white dudes. Bringing neuroscience into the mix is one way to level that playing field, letting companies widen their candidate pool while sourcing specific skill sets — helpful for that all-important culture fit. Psychometric testing is not a new concept, but today’s batch of tests differ because they integrate AI, using machine learning to help both sides of the table.

“When I started, I thought this was a crazy idea,” Polli says. “I’m 38, I’m a single mom, I don’t fit Mark Zuckerberg’s profile.” Prior to Pymetrics, she studied neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and MIT before joining up with Julie Yoo, a former MIT peer, to launch Pymetrics in 2013. /.../