Pandemic drove growth for video-hiring platform Wedge

Technology allows job applicants to create pre-recorded video submissions with resumes

RACHEL WATSON

GRAND RAPIDS — When remote hiring and technology adoption accelerated in human resource departments nationwide, Grand Rapids-based Wedge got a huge boost.

Matt Baxter was a junior at Hope College in Holland when he witnessed HR employees physically calling candidates to screen them during the hiring process. e process was a time-consuming step Baxter knew could be eliminated with the help of technology.

He founded the video-screening platform Wedge in 2015. Now the company has a team of 14 remote workers and an o ce Baxter leases in the Grand Rapids Innovation Park. e platform allows job applicants to create pre-recorded, one-way video submissions to supplement their resumes and give hiring managers a better sense of applicants’ personalities and quali cations.

With a $159-$199 a month subscription, HR departments can invite job candidates to upload a video at no cost. e software integrates with many of the applicant tracking systems that HR managers already use and provides feedback and tracking.

Since its founding, Wedge has raised about $6 million in investment funding from Michigan Capital Network, Michigan Rise, Northgate Holdings and other private investors.

e company is in talks to close another funding round with an undisclosed investor.

“We’ve been growing a lot, which has been a blast,” Baxter said. “It’s really expanded to a broader, robust hiring platform beyond just video screening — but certainly still with an emphasis on video.” at was three years ago. Since then, Logan said, his company has nearly doubled its headcount because Wedge saved Immaculate Flight’s HR team time during the screening process.

Brett Logan, owner and CEO of Grand Rapids-based Immaculate Flight, is one of Wedge’s investors.

Immaculate Flight cleans and details private aircraft in 10 states. Logan thought of Wedge two years after seeing Baxter make a pitch at a Grand Angels meeting Logan attended to explore becoming an angel investor.

“We were going through a lot of growth in our company and trying to do a lot better, and I told my HR director, ‘I think maybe we could use their o erings to help us get through candidates quicker,’” he said.

Logan met with Baxter and ended up becoming both a customer and an investor.

Logan also appreciates that Wedge integrates with his company’s JazzHRapplicant tracking system.

“ e more they integrate with, the more it will be easier for clients all over the place to start using the service,” he said.

Pandemic-related growth

Wedge especially took o during the pandemic, when companies were shifting to remote work and adopting new technologies at an unprecedented rate, Baxter said. He said Wedge saw about 500 percent growth per year over two years, although he didn’t disclose revenue gures.

“Quite frankly, I think (the pandemic) was like one of the biggest ‘spur-ons’ for our business because everything shifted toward remote, which was obviously huge. ...it sort of forced the function of a lot of organizations that were hesitant, that said, ‘Oh, we didn’t use video before, but now we need to use video.’ So, we certainly saw growth — a spike that’s continued and de nitely hasn’t plateaued in any capacity,” he said.

Interest in Wedge has “forced” the company to move fast, even as companies begin returning to the o ce because the software can save HR teams time during pre-screening.

Over the past year, Wedge started signing global and franchise clients like Goodwill Industries and Chick- l-A.