Are You a Human is riding a nice wave of success in its first few years. The 2-year-old start-up has landed a sizable venture capital investment, hired a handful of people and is continuing its business plan competition winning streak. Now the firm is looking to hire a few more people as it works to create traction for its technology.
Are You a Human is reinventing
CAPTCHA technology, the squiggly letters used for verification on websites, with simple games. The idea is to make it impossible for computer programs to beat these games so they can't buy bulk items of things, like concert tickets. Are You a Human released the public beta launch of its product late last year and is working to perfect it early this year so it can go mainstream by the end of the year.
"Our big shift, is let's listen to as many people as we can and tweak things the best we can," says Reid Tatoris, co-founder of
Are You a Human.
The downtown Detroit-based company is leveraging a growing staff to make those things happen. It has hired four people over the last year, rounding out its team to seven employees and two independent contractors. It currently has two job openings for web developers and another two postings for interns.
Are You a Human can grow its team thanks to a six-figure investment that was led by
Detroit Venture Partners. It has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in business plan competition wins. The company, started by a small group of University of Michigan graduates, recently won the student portion of the
Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition ($25,000) that it plans to put toward development of its technology.
"I really thought the competition was great," Tatoris says. "It's only in it second year, but I was surprised it got off the ground so quickly."
Source: Reid Tatoris, co-founder of Are You a Human
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com.
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