Yardstik, a cutting-edge background screening platform, emerged as the winner of a competition inspired by the hit show Shark Tank, held at Staffing Industry Analysts’ Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference on Sept. 18.

Four finalists from a pool of 29 nominated firms had five minutes to present their product or service, followed by five minutes to answer questions from a panel of four judges.

Chief Technology Officer Josh Cutler made a splash with his informative presentation on Yardstik’s technology, which makes the background screening process easier, faster and less expensive by reducing unnecessary checks.

“Everyone out here has [to run background checks],” said Jason Heilman, senior VP product – automation and AI at Bullhorn and a contest judge. “Everyone hates it … you’re making it better.”

The Minneapolis-based company has more than 1,000 customers in staffing and gig marketplaces as well as hospitality and healthcare organizations. Yardstik’s “sequential screening” technology can halt the background check process prematurely if a candidate fails during an early stage.

“Customers who utilize our technology run around 10% fewer screens,” Cutler said. “That turns into about 12% cost savings before you negotiate prices with us.”

Cutler’s presentation impressed the panel of industry expert judges.

“Clearly, the feedback with the experience … is really good, based on your metrics,” said judge Jeremy Johnson, co-founder and board member of online staffing platform Andela. “Something is going really right.”

Another judge, Boomerang founder Jeremy Wald, said Cutler gave an engaging and humorous presentation despite the time restraints. Other judges focused on Yardstik’s usefulness.

“This is a challenging situation that you’re solving for,” said Tammy Browning, president of KellyOCG.

Feedback also included constructive criticism. Browning added that Cutler didn’t delve deeply into matters such as backfilling and refilling, though she said he still sold the presentation well.

Cutler told SIA he is excited about the visibility that comes with winning this year’s Shark Tank competition.

“One of the hardest things about being a startup is that no one knows you exist,” he explained. “This is a great forum for us to get our message out.”

Alpharun, an AI phone interview platform, won the audience favorite award with over 50% of the votes.

“Getting the audience vote was … probably the thing that matters most to us,” said Alpharun co-founder Henry Dornier, who represented the company in the competition. “It meant a lot to have the people voting for [our] presentation.”

Last year’s winner, Wolf, saw its sales jump after the competition, CEO Ash Barot has told SIA.

Read more: Growth, deals follow ‘Shark Tank’ wins at Collaboration event

This year’s other finalists were:

• Cents: a payroll platform that enables employers to pay hourly workers daily.
• Glyde: an AI-powered recruiting platform. This year was Glyde CEO Roderick Smyth’s third time as a finalist on SIA’s Shark Tank competition.
• MHAYA.ai: a GenAI talent matching platform. The organization was selected to compete but was unable to participate in the event.

SIA Research Director Brian Wallins moderated the competition.

The Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference concluded on Sept. 19.