Aug. 30, 2021
By Michaela Althouse, Technical.ly
Just months after reaching unicorn status, McLean-based identity verification company, ID.me isn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. The company raised its total valuation to $1.5 billion after closing a $100 million Series C round earlier in the year. Notable investors such as CapitalG, Viking Global Investors, Morgan Stanley, and more are betting on the company’s bright future and innovative technology.
Growing at a rapid pace has meant needing to increase the workforce by a large amount in a very short time. CEO Blake Hall said he has added about 1,400 employees and contractors in the second quarter alone.
Growing such a large amount while working remotely, Hall said, means there are a lot of different factors when it comes to maintaining company culture among such a huge group. And it starts with hiring. For one, he said ID.me has very specific cultural values that follow through in hiring, like avoiding anyone that the company views as a pessimist, and moving towards people that will create a positive work environment.
“We’re very deliberate about screening for the intellectual capacity for a given job using analytics skills and testing, and then we have a structured interview process that evaluates personality and behaviors against our company values,” Hall said. “That’s how we’ve been able to scale to over 1,400 people, but do it using the scientific method to make sure that our culture got stronger as we grew.”
