Basic Information

Our tagline:

Knack uses the power of AI, games, and predictive analytics to connect people to opportunity. 

Our pitch:

Talent is distributed across the world and is everywhere. Opportunity is not. There are millions of people around the world who lack opportunities to better their lives through education, skilling, and jobs. 


Knack is a talent platform that allows people to discover their talent, skills, and potential through mobile games. The Knack team has experts in sciences (brain, behavioral, game theory), technologies (machine learning, gamification, AI) and come with significant experience in business growth and transformation. We have developed a highly innovative engine that can help understand individual behaviors showing high potential.These games are very rigorous psychometric assessments that also eliminate bias according to gender, age, race, and ethnicity.


Knack allows individuals to authentically signal their talents, skills, and potential, allowing them to access skilling and job opportunities. For employers, they will be able to identify the best possible employees regardless of demographics or education credentials. Knack will change the world by guiding people to their potential and creating more efficiency in the labor market. 


Knack Impact:

Global Bank Impact Study

Using their internal success metrics, this Global Bank examined the differences in Knack’s AI-powered talent identification and purely human-driven evaluation and selection. The inclusion of one of Knack’s 10-15 minute games produced The following outcomes:

  • 139% increase in the percentage of high performing hires

  • 100% decrease in poor performing hires

Global Financial Firm Impact Study:

Using internal productivity metrics, this Global Financial Firm compared the differences in call center hires using Knack versus purely human driven evaluation and selection. The results show Knack data enabled the employer to identify and hire stronger-fit talent and thus transform productivity and business outcomes:

59% increase in employee productivity 




Watch our elevator pitch:

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

New Haven, CT, USA

The dimensions of the Challenge our solution addresses:

  • Upskilling, Reskilling, and Job Matching
  • Inclusive Supply Chains
About Your Solution

What makes our solution innovative:

We use a combination of sciences (brain, behavioral, game theory) and technologies (machine learning, gamification, AI) to reach out to opportunity youth and specific target groups in an unbiased manner. 

How technology is integral to our solution:

The 3 Knack mobile games engage players in a psychological state of 'flow' (optimal psychological experience) and create an incredibly immersive and engaging digital experience. Playing a game involves about 2500 micro-behaviours per game, including active and passive decisions, actions, reactions, learning, exploration, and more. As individual plays, Knack’s neural and behaviour science based algorithms process this micro-behavioural data stream to measure the strengths of the person’s behavioural skills, traits and potential.

Basis this framework, Knack has developed predictive data models that measure 35 specific traits, abilities, and skills and 90+ career potential.


Our solution goals over the next 12 months:

5x the number of people, businesses, governments, schools, and colleges we work with. Also, on-board more skilling opportunities so people can connect to best-fit educational opportunities (we will soon be listing courses through edX and Salesforce Trailhead throughout our platform).

Our vision over the next three to five years to grow and scale our solution to affect the lives of more people:

Scalability by deploying tactics (single user/one phone, multiple users/single device, non-smartphones for bulk aggregation)

Distribution - Direct (enterprise, education and skilling, social impact projects, Government) and Business partnerships (staffing firms, aggregator platforms, etc.); combination of B2B, B2C and B2B2C. 120 countries, enterprises in top 20 out of 50 high growth markets. All organic and by pull.

Essentially, we want to create a talent ecosystem within Knack where schools, skilling organizations, individuals, and employers can access talent/opportunities. 

Our promotional video:

The key characteristics of the populations who will benefit from our solution in the next 12 months:

  • Female
  • Urban
  • Rural
  • Lower
  • Middle

The regions where we will be operating in the next 12 months:

  • Europe and Central Asia
  • US and Canada
  • East and Southeast Asia

The countries where we currently operate:

  • India
  • Italy
  • Mexico
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United States

Where we plan to expand in the next 12 months:

  • Canada
  • Indonesia
  • Peru
  • Philippines

How we will reach and retain our customers or beneficiaries:

We do not have a sales staff, so our in-bound leads are all through pull. We try to make the technology as accessible and easy-to-use as possible, which means that it can be easily deployed. Knack also has a proven ROI and one sign of our value is through repeat business. 

How many people we are currently serving with our solution:

Knack has reached 120k people in 120 different countries across all walks of life. We also work with governments (State of Illinois, City of Berlin, Indian government), enterprise (AXA, Generali, BCG, RBC, etc.), schools (African Leadership University, Michigan State University, Lewis & Clark College, LUISS, Virginia Tech), foundations (Michael and Susan Dell Foundation), and many small/medium-sized businesses. They use Knack to improve their human capital including recruitment, talent development, diversifying their workforce, and connecting disadvantaged people to opportunities.

How many people we will be serving with our solution in the 12 months and the next 3 years:

In the next 12 months, we want to serve 2.5 million people and 10 million people in the next 3 years. We aim to use technology innovation to tackle the most pressing social and economic challenges of our time: create pathways to education and employment opportunity, alleviate poverty, reduce inequality, and foster inclusion. Knack's technology makes all of this a reality and as we bring in more stakeholders and partners, we are able to connect more people to opportunities and create an equitable talent market. 

About Your Team

How our solution team is organized:

For-Profit

How many people work on our solution team:

14

How many years we have been working on our solution:

3-4 years

The skills our solution team has that will enable us to attract the different resources needed to succeed and make an impact:

The Knack team has experts in sciences (brain, behavioral, game theory), technologies (machine learning, gamification, AI) and come with significant experience in business growth and transformation. Our team members also bring top domain expertise in innovation strategy, data science, software engineering, game design, user experience design, corporate human capital, and higher education.

Our revenue model:

Enterprise-level pricing for yearly Knack subscriptions (based on volume of data)

Self-service pricing starting at $1 per Knack (data point) per candidate

We also develop custom data solutions for organizations called Ultraknacks.

Our self-service model gives us nearly unlimited potential for expansion as Knack is an affordable solution that provides cutting-edge technology to businesses and organizations of all sizes. 




Partnership Potential

Why we are applying to Solve:

Solve can help Knack accelerate our growth into a variety of sectors and would also allow us to explore opportunities with a well-resourced research university. This collaboration would also allow us to connect to a community of dedicated social entrepreneurs to get feedback about Knack.

The key barriers for our solution:

-Communicating the value proposition of Knack to the public (particularly the science and ROI/impact)

-Build data-centric impact reports that highlight the impact of Knack. The opportunity to generate more impact validation reports is really integral to gaining buy-in for Knack.

The types of connections and partnerships we would be most interested in if we became Solvers:

  • Peer-to-Peer Networking
  • Connections to the MIT campus
  • Impact Measurement Validation and Support
  • Debt/Equity Funding

Solution Team

 
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