Tungl is a software startup addressing the challenges in technical recruitment across the globe with a practical solution. Since their foundation in 2014, their tech assessment platform has reached more than forty countries worldwide, adequately transforming the tech hiring process and enhancing the candidate experience one company at a time.  

Company name: Tungl
Founders: Mike Rohan & Phil Brown
Based in: UK
Launched: 2014

In simple terms, what does your startup do? 

Tungl is a tech assessment platform. We help hiring managers and recruiters assess, select, and hire tech talent.

What problem/s do you seek to solve or help? 

Making a good tech hire is hard. Let’s deconstruct how most organisations ‘do’ tech recruitment. 

Typically, a company will advertise a role and receive a stack of CVs, which are essentially claims about what a candidate believes they are good at. Most people are poor when it comes to self-evaluation, and broadly speaking, humans generally fall into two pots: those who underestimate their own skills (perhaps because they are too modest) and those who overestimate their skills (I am sure you’ve all worked with people like this in the past!)

From that limited slice of available data, a recruiter (or hiring manager) will make a call on suitability, probably based on factors like University grades, the skills someone claims to have, and the places they have worked before. Factors such as years in education and number of years experience are poor predictors of someone’s ability to perform in a role. 

Next, an organisation will probably want to understand if a candidate is as good as they claim. They’ll want them to ‘walk the talk’ via some form of a technical assessment. In the 21st century, the number of companies who rely on pen and paper tests, whiteboard exercises, or massively labour-intensive technical phone screens, is crazy. It’s like technology and automation have just passed by this part of the process.

“Hey, we’re a super cool fintech start-up, in order to work for us, you need to come to our offices and write code with a pen and paper… Then we’ll stick you in front of a whiteboard with a technical challenge which we’ll expect you to solve in real time whilst a posse of hiring managers distract you and ask questions…”

Even companies who arrive at a good end-product (successful hires) probably do it in a way that is time consuming, costly, and delivers a terrible candidate experience all-round. 

We help organisations create bespoke assessments in a candidate-friendly online format that is packed with essential elements to give hiring managers confidence. Employers can interview with confidence and candidates can showcase their skills—everyone wins with Tungl!   

Are you funded, and how? 

We are VC-backed, with our last raise in October 2018.

What were you doing before you started Tungl? 

Phil had been a recruiter before moving into design and Mike had worked for a FTSE 100 tech company in Sales and Marketing roles.

What inspired you to start Tungl? 

Most company’s recruitment processes are broken, and if organisations are going to succeed in the digital world, they need to think differently in terms of how they identify and assess potential talent. That’s why we created Tungl, to streamline the recruitment process and help organisations build high-performing teams. 

What are your goals over the next five years? Where do you see Tungl?

Since we started in 2014, we’ve built up a loyal following and now have customers in over 40 countries worldwide. We’ve moved the needle in terms of both the technologies we cover and the way we’re able to shine a light on tech talent. 

We recently changed our company name from ‘Technically Compatible’ to ‘Tungl,' partly with one eye on the future as we wanted an international brand that could help accelerate our expansion into new territories. 

As a team, we’ll continue to unlock value for our customers, solve exciting challenges, and scale the company together.

Images courtesy of Tungl. To learn more, visit the Tungl website.

Stay tuned for more of our UK startup features. Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for the latest updates. Need software developers for your startup? Learn more about how Cloud Employee works—talk to us, or check out our Developer Pricing Guide.