I noticed two trends within the marketplace that I thought
represented a strong opportunity to create a business that
could sell a valuable product to a large marketplace. First,
video is becoming more and more prevalent within organizations.
Second, the current video in hiring solutions – video
résumés and video interviews – didn’t seem to be catching
on; no major organization was adopting them.
So Vipe (www.vipepower.com) was born and developed
an on-demand video management system for organizations
of any size to add video as a standard part of their hiring
and recruitment process. Our product was designed to not
only add a significant amount of efficiency to the hiring
process, but also to work within the statutory regulations of
this space. Our customers are using video for recruitment
and screening of candidates, communication with hiring
managers, and even for onboarding.
Since our product launch at the beginning of 2008, we
have been working with several staffing and recruitment
companies, HR at organizations large and small, and we
were also selected by Oracle to integrate into their nextgeneration
human capital management system.
2. How does using your system or video
platform work?
The complexity for us as a business is to make online
video in hiring as simple to use as possible. That simplicity
comes in many forms. First, our product is on-demand so
users don’t have to install any software or involve their IT
departments; to use Vipe all you have to do is login online.
Second, we have taken great pains to make our “clip on”
product seamlessly fit into the existing process companies
already have in place. Third, and to save the best for last,
we make it as easy as possible to get videos into our
system. Our system accepts video not only from a webcam
but also from a digital camera or even a mobile phone.
Webcams are really not that prevalent among consumers in
the United States, but almost everyone has access to one of
the devices we allow.
I believe the reliance of most video résumé and video
interview companies on a webcam is one of several
reasons why they haven’t become mainstream. For
example, we recently did a pilot with a Fortune 500 company that asked senior-level people all across the
country to answer a couple of questions in a short video as
a pre-cursor to the first round interview. One hundred
percent of the videos were created using the “movie
mode” on a standard digital camera!
3. What are the benefits to organizations, candidates,
managers and recruiters?
The benefits of Vipe to all parties involved revolve
around seamlessly adding efficiency and value to the hiring
process in a way that maintains compliance. Managers and
organizations benefit because they can reduce the number
of candidates to interview in person. Imagine if you are
supposed to interview 10 candidates and can view a short
30-second video of each candidate before scheduling the
interview. You would be able to prioritize the top three
candidates and potentially save 70 percent of the time you
would spend interviewing. Consequently, this benefit trickles
down to the candidate as Vipe allows them to make the
most of their time by only interviewing when they have a
high probability of being hired.
Recruiters, by e-mailing a hiring manager a link to a
short video in addition to the résumé, gain significant benefits.
When presenting a more well-rounded view of a candidate,
a recruiter will get a more qualified response – the
candidate is a match for the position and will move directly
to an interview or the candidate is not a match so neither
party will spend time scheduling an interview. Either way,
the recruiter saves a significant amount of time.
4. How would video technology increase the
competitive edge of an organization?
Vipe’s video management system allows companies to reemphasize
their corporate brand by adding video to the hiring
and recruitment process. At the recruiting stage, if a company
sends a personalized video to a candidate telling them how
excited they are to meet them, the company is increasing its
potential for the candidate to choose them as a prospective
employer. Furthermore, a company can also send a video to a
candidate between making an offer and the start date for the
candidate. At this onboarding stage, a candidate is likely
New in the Market
VIPE, Inc.
An Interview with Adam Peterson, CEO
40 DECEMBER 2008/JANUARY 2009 • IHRIM.link • www.ihrim.org