In 2000, Catalyte’s founder and executive chairman Michael Rosenbaum was a Harvard economics and law fellow. As an advisor in the Clinton White House, he proposed the theory that underserved urban populations were untapped labor markets. In his view, these areas contained just as many people with the talent to succeed in the emerging field of software development as any other. But, they were overlooked by a system that valued certain cultural markers rather than innate ability.

To prove this point, Michael created the Catalyte Talent Platform, a big data engine that removes the cultural biases from hiring and objectively selects candidates who have the innate potential to become great software developers.

After 17 years and thousands of applicants, the platform continues to drive the success of our people and software outcomes.

We talked with Michael about his initial idea, how he created the Catalyte Talent Platform and how AI and machine learning can be used in skills-based hiring to create better software engineering outcomes.