{"id":80,"date":"2021-03-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/startups\/blog\/?p=80"},"modified":"2024-10-15T01:23:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T09:23:04","slug":"astronaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/startups\/blog\/astronaut\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Nigel Hembrow \u2013 Astronaut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Today I am delighted to be talking to Nigel<\/a> Hembrow, the CEO and co-founder of Astronaut<\/a>. Founded in 2015, and based out of Singapore, the team believes that video-selfies will fundamentally change many business processes for the better. Their mission is to help companies make real and significant transformations to the way they get to know candidates, and the way candidates get to know them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily:<\/strong> What’s Your Story, Nigel? Where did it all start for you and Astronaut?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nigel:<\/strong> The idea for Astronaut started in 2015, when I was building the team for a media-industry SaaS platform in India. I was using a number of recruitment process hacks and leveraging the LinkedIn community I’d developed in a prior head-hunting role I had held in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that same time, I also became fascinated by apps like Dubsmash, which leveraged asynchronous video and video rendering on mobile device. And when I discovered that asynchronous video could be used to add significant value to recruitment process improvement, I knew I had to pursue it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, I reached out to Manfred<\/a> and convinced him to take the plunge with me as my CTO and co-founder. And, as we both have family in Indonesia, it was only natural that we built Astronaut to be an Indonesia-first company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n E:<\/strong> Can you tell us more about Astronaut’s immediate product and marketing roadmaps?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n N:<\/strong> Our first revenue came from a subscription to our mobile-only SaaS asynchronous video interview platform. Subsequently our platform has evolved to serve both web and mobile users, with a comprehensive suite of SaaS tools enabling the fastest and most fair recruitment processes. We serve employers and higher education providers in multiple continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2020 we productized our platform as an API\/PaaS to enable greater distribution of our asynchronous video platform. In addition, this has enabled us to support the launch of platforms for skills certification and online learning. And we recently achieved our ISO27001 compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, 2021, is about investing in scale and making our services available globally. It is also about partnering with both the traditional and disruptive players in the Southeast Asia talent ecosystem to innovate together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n E:<\/strong> Who is on your team and why?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n