{"id":3750,"date":"2020-11-19T06:58:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T05:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2020-11-19T07:02:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T06:02:47","slug":"starting-a-business-during-a-pandemic-waina-landauro-mba-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/starting-a-business-during-a-pandemic-waina-landauro-mba-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a business during a pandemic, Waina Landauro MBA 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAfter careful consideration, we regret to inform you\u2026\u201d<\/h4>\n

Most, if not all of us, have read this infamous line after interviewing for a job. Personally, I have failed a lot of interviews. To paint the picture, let me give you some numbers. I estimate that I applied to 62 MBA internships last year, landing 12 interviews, and converted exactly 2, a success rate of 3%. Considering the time it takes to submit an application and go through the interview process, this statistic reflects inefficiency and disappointment.<\/p>\n

Creating Mockmate<\/h4>\n

My name is Waina Landauro and I recently graduated from IESE in May 2020. I\u2019ve always had a knack for fiddling with things, especially with technology, and during the March-June lockdown I created a tool to help my fellow MBAs and I prepare for job interviews. As the pandemic greatly affected the job market, I wanted to try to help people practice interviews and eventually land some jobs. Plus building something in my \u2018garage\u2019 during the lockdown was kind of fun.<\/p>\n

When a local journalist in Belgium discovered my interviewing tool and wrote a story about it, I realized that what I had built could actually have some real-world applications. As I was also graduating during a time of uncertainty, trying to navigate the fairly bleak job market, I decided I would give this company a try. That\u2019s how Mockmate started.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The beginning of something beautiful…<\/p><\/div>\n

Artificial Intelligence + HR<\/h4>\n

What is Mockmate<\/a>? Essentially, it is an artificial intelligence powered job interview simulator.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An automated mock interview tool can quickly and easily offer preparation help to a large number of students, which became our initial target segment.<\/p>\n

However, something that we discovered in the process of finding product-market-fit: Mockmate can be used in the hiring process for companies in the early stages of interviewing.<\/p>\n

According to Glassdoor, only about 2% of applicants that send in their CVs get an interview. This means that 98% of applicants are judged solely by their CVs and cover letters and then overlooked.<\/p>\n

If HR professionals use Mockmate, every single job applicant can have the chance to complete a 15-20 minute interview, answering key questions to enable a better selection. Recruiters no longer have to interview only the strong profiles, they can also interview the \u2018maybes\u2019.<\/strong> This opens the door for people who maybe didn\u2019t attend the ideal university or didn\u2019t work for a powerhouse company to have a chance to give an interview and offer a good impression based on the content of their answers. This gives recruiters the opportunity to greatly widen their talent pool and potentially find those hidden gems in their stacks of applicants.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mockmate doesn\u2019t make any judgement based on someone\u2019s name, gender, education, experience, or CV writing skills. Our product offers a very unbiased and standardized assessment of every candidate by analyzing only the content of the answers to the interview questions. We are building our technology with an anti-bias mindset.<\/strong> Of course nothing will ever be perfect, but our product helps make hiring decisions more quickly, and makes each decision based on the same criteria. Also, digitizing the process allows for heightened accountability, so if there is any discrepancy, the chain of events is entirely traceable.<\/strong> I did not intentionally build the original version of the tool with this goal in mind, but I am very proud that we have found a way to help make the process more transparent and equitable.<\/p>\n

Building a team & some of our successes!<\/h4>\n

Soon after I started Mockmate, I realized I need help to build it. I am the tech lead, but I can\u2019t do everything. So, I simply advertised where I knew the best talent was – IESE Business School.<\/p>\n

I first enlisted the help of my wife Megan (it\u2019s our 3rd time working together, so it is normal for us now), my classmate Francesco Pelazza<\/a>, and Mike Gross<\/a> from IESE MBA 21. At Mockmate we live by our own philosophy of deeply valuing diverse backgrounds and perspectives, from our wild card Mike (a former professional dancer), to Francesco\u2019s killer carbonara (we all eat lunch together), to Meg\u2019s drive and eye for detail, we really have a rockstar team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting a company has a romantic allure, but as entrepreneurs say, it\u2019s not always \u2018sunshine and rainbows\u2019. There have been amazing days, and there have been slow and boring days. It’s been pretty challenging to make sure the product is working, get sales coming in, watch spending, raise money, etc. There is a seemingly endless list of tasks to complete.<\/p>\n

Here, I want to celebrate some highlights we have had in just the last few months:<\/strong><\/p>\n