SkillBank was initially conceived by John Knapp in the summer of 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic. Driven by his concern for the millions of displaced workers, his first efforts were focused on helping job seekers discover new career ideas and identify skill gaps to focus their skill building activities.
“Since the pandemic caused our world to change around us, I’ve had serious concerns for the welfare of the millions of people suddenly out of work. And since we all need to do our part to help solve the pandemic employment crisis, I created SkillBank to help workers and employers gain the insight they need to make good job decisions.”
— John Knapp, SkillBank founder
During 2021, realizing the same core algorithms and data could enhance hiring, he began working on what has become the Competency Insight Platform. The platform was designed based upon market analysis and competitive research.
Along the way, he conceived and built innovations such as the Job Competency Unit which helps employers precisely match competencies used for assessments to the unique requirements of each job performed at their facilities. Another significant innovation is the Job Competency Signal, a unique and standardized applicant scoring system said to be like FICO for hiring.
Also in 2021, SkillBank released the first of their ATS integrations and began forming partnerships with leading ATS providers.
In the first half of 2022, the team and I iterated our GTM strategy to modest success. But the long enterprise sales cycles demanded more capital and resources than we had.