Smarterer Hits 10 Million Questions

True portfolio company Smarterer announced today an incredible growth milestone and a new round of funding, and we couldn’t be happier for the dynamic co-founding team of Dave Balter, Jennifer Fremont-Smith and Michael Kowalchik.

We first invested in Smarterer in a seed round back in March 2011. I had worked closely with Dave when his social marketing firm BzzAgent did campaigns for True portfolio companies Sphere and About.me (both acquired by AOL), and was eager to support him when he, Jennifer and Michael approached True about funding Smarterer.

Smarterer tests and scores digital, social and technical skills for job seekers and applicants. Using crowdsourced test design and a scoring mechanism based on the one developed to rank chess masters, the Smarterer platform can measure someone’s skill in just about anything in 60 seconds with as few as 10 questions. Smarterer is an exciting platform because, until now, there really has not been a scientific, quantitative way to measure certain skill sets. As Dave pointed out in a recent blog post, there is “an entire ecosystem ripe for disruption, as skills become a critical tool for hiring and candidate evaluations, and for managing our reputations online.”

Over the past year, the number of questions being submitted and answered on Smarterer has grown at an exceptional—almost viral—rate. In January, Smarterer grew by more than 1250% in one week, and users had answered more than 1 million questions in the Smarterer Excel test alone. We were incredibly impressed by the company’s progress, the quality of organizations submitting questions, and the commitment of the Smarterer team. Wanting to support the continued success of Dave, Jennifer and Michael, True led Smarterer’s Series A round, completed just last week, and I joined their Board of Directors.

Smarterer has now grown to 10 million questions answered, developed new features to assist hiring managers, and partnered with About.me so users can link their Smarterer profile and scores to their About.me page. It’s a very exciting time for a company we have now had the pleasure of funding twice, and we want to be the first to congratulate Dave, Jennifer, Michael and team Smarterer. We can’t wait to see what happens next!