Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#1

Post by cfadvan » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 1:31 PM UTC

Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M
techcrunch.com

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#2

Post by codersbrew » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:24 PM UTC

Their website looks horrible.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#3

Post by exhilaration » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

I'm surprised to see that property rentals isn't listed under their "Industries" tab. I guess "Checkr is for every business" except that one.

If anyone's curious, I use https://www.e-renter.com/ for background checks on prospective tenants and https://connect.experian.com/ for credit checks.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#4

Post by alehul » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

exhilaration wrote: post #3

I'm surprised to see that property rentals isn't listed under their "Industries" tab. I guess "Checkr is for every business" except that one. If anyone's curious, I use https://www.e-renter.com/ for background checks on prospective tenants and https://connect.experian.com/ for credit checks.

Though I could be mistaken, I believe it's different as it's enterprise-focused and aimed at checking potential employees rather than tenants.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#5

Post by orange_county » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:48 PM UTC

I used to work in the background screening company before switching careers. The background screening process is very tedious, each state and sometimes counties keep records in their own way. If you are lucky, you can easily just search for the person’s case online, however many times they only allow case searches over the phone. I’m wondering how Checkr handles that since it’s not an easy thing to scale. Even looking at their careers page, they are not even hiring any data entry folks to handle that.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#6

Post by gringoDan » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:50 PM UTC

Checkr is minting money. I doubt they needed this cash infusion, but it could make sense to drive even more growth.

Almost all of the on-demand companies (Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.) use the service to screen independent contractors. The kicker is that independent contractors often sign up for many of these services, so Checkr can turn around and sell the same data that they pull for 1 individual to 3+ companies at ~$15+ a pop.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#7

Post by orange_county » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

gringoDan wrote: post #6

Checkr is minting money. I doubt they needed this cash infusion, but it could make sense to drive even more growth. Almost all of the on-demand companies (Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.) use the service to screen independent contractors. The kicker is that independent contractors often sign up for many of these services, so Checkr can turn around and sell the same data that they pull for 1 individual to 3+ companies at ~…

Depending on regulations of this, I doubt they can resell. Especially if each background check is done days apart from each other. You may run into a scenario where a felony case was recorded in between background checks.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#8

Post by ben_jones » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

orange_county wrote: post #7

gringoDan wrote: post #6

Checkr is minting money. I doubt they needed this cash infusion, but it could make sense to drive even more growth. Almost all of the on-demand companies (Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.) use the service to screen independent contractors. The kicker is that independent contractors often sign up for many of these services, so Checkr can turn around and sell the same data that they pull for 1 individual to 3+ companies at ~…

Depending on regulations of this, I doubt they can resell. Especially if each background check is done days apart from each other. You may run into a scenario where a felony case was recorded in between background checks.

Armchairing but it seems likely that some of the data can be reused, for example historical data like maybe country of origin, residential addresses, etc.

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#9

Post by mooreds » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

alehul wrote: post #4

exhilaration wrote: post #3

I'm surprised to see that property rentals isn't listed under their "Industries" tab. I guess "Checkr is for every business" except that one. If anyone's curious, I use https://www.e-renter.com/ for background checks on prospective tenants and https://connect.experian.com/ for credit checks.

Though I could be mistaken, I believe it's different as it's enterprise-focused and aimed at checking potential employees rather than tenants.

Yes. I talked to them about an adjacent vertical but they were super focused on the potential employees/contractors market. (This was about a year ago, so maybe they've changed their focus a bit.)

Re: Background checks pay for Checkr, which just raised $100M

#10

Post by owenversteeg » Thu, Apr 12, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

The demo on the website is pretty interesting, especially with the amount of information they can get. The "previous salary" was pretty interesting - is that something that companies actually check?

Also, is there a risk of abusing this? What information does Checkr need to run a report, and how do they verify that the person they are running the report on is actually applying for the relevant position?