Pruuvn (pruuvn.com), a startup empowering organizations and individuals to established trusted relationships through the sharing of verified credentials, was the Judge’s Choice Winner of a $10k grant from Cox Enterprises during Startup Runway Showcase 8.

We had a chat with Bryan Hobbs, founder and CEO of Pruuvn about his experience at Startup Runway. A recorded video of this interview is included at the bottom of the page.

What did Startup Runway do for you, and if you’d recommend it to other founders, why?

Startup Runway was excellent, to be quite honest with you. It has given me a lot of exposure, but one of the things that I really am excited about is that we got to talk with investors. Investors who had not seen your product beforehand, and when they look at what you are trying to pitch, they give you some excellent feedback, and that feedback is invaluable. I’m already making changes at this moment based on the feedback I received. So I definitely enjoyed it and recommend this program for anybody.

Is there anything that made this startup event different than others you have attended?

The first thing would be the virtual piece, being very new for most organizations at the moment, but what made this different were the investors that we talked to. A lot of events that I have been in, we’ve already had a conversation, but these were new investors, which was interesting to me.

Did having this event virtually affect how you were able to interact with investors?

To be honest it did. Having it virtually made it a little bit more comfortable, because a lot of people tend to freeze up a little bit when they are with someone in a room. I have done both virtual and in-person but this was very comfortable to do and I actually prefer it now.

What customers are you looking for?

Right now we are looking for customers who have a high turnover because our platform is designed to reduce costs for employers and for individuals who want to control their career and be able to work for multiple employers. So we are really looking for organizations that tend to bring out a lot of employees and want to reduce their cost in onboarding and recruiting.

What drives you to build Pruuvn?

The 33 million Americans who have recently filed for unemployment. When you think about people who are always looking for work, we need to make an easier way for people to gain that employment. Thinking about those individuals, and a lot of them are people I know, so it drives me to continue to build something that they can utilize.

How can people reach out to you to be customers?

You can reach out to us at www.pruuvn.com and fill out a contact form, or we can be reached at support@pruuvn.com.