Daniel Yanisse, CEO of Checkr: "Europe and Switzerland need more innovation and tech companies"

EPFL alumnus Daniel Yanisse is the CEO and co-founder of Checkr, the first automatic software to perform background checks on employee candidates. The US based software company now employs over 750 people and boasts over 100,000 customers.

Daniel Yanisse is not afraid to put himself into challenging situations, and his propensity to take calculated risks and solve problems has paid off again and again.

In 2014 alone, just two years after obtaining a master’s degree at EPFL, Yanisse quit his job, founded the software company Checkr in Silicon Valley,the first automatic software to perform background checks on employee candidates, raised a whopping 9 million USD, signed his first big contract, and being French on a US work visa, almost got deported.

“I love the whole learning process. I loved learning at EPFL. I loved learning at Y-combinator for launching a start-up. I love learning business. At Checkr, I’m learning every day,” says Yanisse. “There are brutal parts too. There are problems everywhere. Things break. Customers risk leaving. There’s chaos. Reliability issues. Human resource issues. It’s intense and high pressure. But there’s the opportunity to make a difference in the world.”

Yanisse also loves that you can become a CEO as an engineer in Silicon Valley. “The opportunities are not the same in Europe where you must climb the ranks to become a CEO. In Silicon Valley, if you’re an engineer and have a good idea, you can start your own company,” says Yanisse.

From EPFL, NASA, to launching a business

From Le Mans in France, Yanisse was naturally drawn to engineering, robots and computer science. He pursued his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in microengineering at EPFL from 2007 – 2012, while working part-time for the biotech start-up Phonak Acoustic Implants. Between his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Yanisse landed an internship at NASA.

“I learned at Phonak that Medtech is a super slow industry. At NASA, I worked with the intelligence robotics group, but the space industry is also slow and long,” says Yanisse. “The best part of that internship was discovering Silicon Valley, the tech ecosystem. The place is amazing. It’s fast moving. I realized that I needed to develop skills in computer science. So I focused my master’s degree at EPFL on computer science in partnership with Cisco. I wanted to maximize my CV before returning to San Francisco.”

After graduating from EPFL, Yanisse returned to San Francisco as a software developer for various start-ups. He stumbled upon the slow, manual and expensive process of performing background checks on employee candidates that led him to found Checkr.

The Checkr adventure

Checkr is the first API (application programming interface) that does background checks on employee candidates with the help of artificial intelligence. Checkr now has over 100,000 customers and collaborates with government agencies.

“2013 was the beginning of the gig economy and on-demand employees, where workers have temporary gigs or seek supplemental income. Gigging was an innovation because it highlighted contract work,” explains Yanisse. “Part-time work and gigs now make up 50% of the American market.”

Yanisse knew that Checkr was a good idea when he received his first 10K USD cheque from a French angel investor. To launch a start-up in the US, Yanisse needed 200K USD in a US bank account. The challenge was to find 190K more to apply for a visa and secure residency in the US.

“I knew I’d raise the remaining funds because I had already pitched my idea to Y-combinator, the best start-up accelerator in the world, and had been accepted into their summer program,” recalls Yanisse. “Y-combinator gave me 120K, and some other alumni committed by writing more cheques. But I still had to beg my employer at the time to help me finalize my visa transfer on time and avoid the risk of deportation.”

Yanisse joined forces with French colleague Jonathan Perichon and in May 2014, they had quit their jobs, raised 200K in two weeks, and by the end of the Y-combinator summer program in September 2014, got 250 out of 500 investors on board to fund Checkr, raising 9 million USD and skipping the usual seed funding rounds.

“The craziness continues,” says Yanisse with a big smile. “In September, Checkr was announced by TechCrunch. The next thing we know, the VP of Uber has sent us an email. They need background checks for two to three million drivers. We negotiate hard, and by December sign a contract with them. We went live in January 2015, from 4 people in the company to 30 overnight.”

Fostering entrepreneur culture in Europe and SwitzerlanD

“Now we perform background checks globally. We’ve focused on North America and we’re planning to expand in Europe and Asia,” says Yanisse, who plans to bring his business experience to Europe. “I’m excited to help European entrepreneurs start companies. Europe and Switzerland need more innovation and tech companies. We have amazing talent here, but the entrepreneur culture is not yet anchored here. I want to help people build something meaningful and bring it to the world, encourage them to take risks and tackle the US market. Dream Big. Go Big,” says Yanisse.

References

Podcast by Marcel Salathé featuring Daniel Yanisse.

Author: Hillary Sanctuary