Trial by Dialogue
Today’s featured startup is betting that job fit is best measured in motion, not résumés.
Project Overview
Take2 is a hiring platform that simulates real-life work situations for sales roles. Companies use it to assess candidates through AI-powered role-play before making hiring decisions.
“Sales roles” in this context include call center agents, retail associates, field reps, B2B salespeople, and any other customer-facing staff.
To set up the simulator, the company defines a list of core competencies and role-specific criteria. Based on this input, Take2’s AI generates a custom training scenario—complete with simulated conversations and AI-powered interviewers.
Recruiters then send the simulator link to candidates who passed the initial résumé screen. After completing the simulation, each candidate receives a performance score. Only those who meet the threshold are invited to the next interview stage.
The result? Hiring time is cut by 2–3x, and retention improves significantly: candidates who perform well in the simulator are 50% more likely to stay beyond the crucial 90-day mark—often because they’re skilled enough to deliver results early and avoid disillusionment.
That’s key, because nearly 30% of new hires quit within the first 90 days.
Take2 graduated from Techstars just four months ago—but already has early customers and recently raised $3 million in seed funding.
What’s the Gist?
While AI-powered conversational training isn’t new, most startups in the space focus on sales training—not hiring.
And that’s a big deal. The U.S. alone has 5.7 million professional salespeople—representing 13% of the workforce.
Take Zenarate, for example. I covered them last year when they raised $18 million to build a full-featured AI training simulator for sales reps.
Or Hyperbound, a Y Combinator alum from last year, which lets companies simulate diverse customer personalities to help staff adapt to different communication styles. They haven’t raised a large round yet, but their idea is resonating.
What sets Take2 apart is their focus on the screening stage—helping companies identify top-performing sales hires before they’re even onboarded.
At first glance, that might seem like a niche. But the sales industry has a 35% annual turnover in the U.S.—meaning over 2 million people change jobs every year.
Each of those job seekers goes through 10–20 interviews on average, and with tools like Take2, each of those interviews could include a simulation.
Do the math: 35% of 5.7 million salespeople × 15 interviews = nearly 30 million simulation runs annually.
That’s Take2’s potential market—and it’s just the beginning.
Key Takeaways
Take2 is tapping into a massive but overlooked opportunity: using simulation tech to assess skills during hiring, not just improve them after onboarding.
Their current niche—customer-facing roles—is only the start. The same approach could work across other high-turnover, skill-dependent fields:
Developers could be asked to refactor or debug real code.
Cybersecurity pros might patch simulated vulnerabilities.
Accountants could process complex transactions in mock systems.
The key is choosing professions with:
High volume
High churn
Clearly testable, on-the-job skills
Questions worth exploring:
Which roles are best suited to simulation-based screening?
What skills matter most in each of those roles?
How can we use AI to create realistic, fair, and role-specific tests?
How do we tailor simulations to reflect each company’s unique needs?
Take2 is answering those questions for sales today. Tomorrow, it could be any job where skill matters more than résumé buzzwords.
Company info:
Take2
Website: take2.ai
Latest round: $3M raised on April 16, 2024
Total funding to date: $3.15M across 2 rounds