Eric Li has had an impressive resume, beginning as an engineering intern at IBM and 20 years later co-founding LinkedIn and serving as its first CTO, before going on to start a number of companies, including his latest, KarmaCheck, which uses AI-driven technology to make background checks easier.
Ly sat down with Becca and Dom at Found to talk about how they came to start KarmaCheck and how much technology has changed since they launched decades ago. For example, background checks were traditionally a manual process involving people filling out forms and bringing in physical records. Today, the process is largely automated.
“Being able to hire quickly is really important to them,” Lee told TechCrunch, adding that speed is now a key metric for companies looking to hire effectively.
He also spoke about his early days at LinkedIn, recalling a time before people had online identities and saying that even back then, in the early days of the internet, it was impossible to predict that the world would be in the state it is today. Some of the big differences he has noticed include how the role of the CTO has changed as technology has changed, and how the venture capital raising process has become globalized.
“When I started LinkedIn 20 years ago with my other co-founders, the investment industry was much smaller,” he says, and you had to live in the Bay Area to have access to investors and have conversations with them. “What's happened in the last 20 years is that VC has really become a global phenomenon.”
After LinkedIn, Ly worked on developing apps to facilitate networking and built a now-defunct blockchain project that he calls the precursor to KarmaCheck.
“What I realized was that in each of these cases, there was a fundamental problem of how people connect with each other, how they build trust, and how more interesting interactions can happen,” he continued. He said he found starting a company addictive and wanted to be a founder from a young age.
“My father was also an entrepreneur,” Lee says. “He started his own company in the civil engineering and construction business and it was very successful.”
Listen to our conversation with Ly to learn more about the lessons he's learned over the years building his company and his plans for expanding KarmaCheck.