Lucena got the idea for Mappa after trying to build a marketing team but continually feeling like she had made the wrong hires.

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Sarah Lucena, CEO of Mappa, shares how repeated bad hires while building a marketing team inspired her to create a behavioral intelligence platform that uses voice AI to assess candidate compatibility in under 60 seconds. Rather than relying on resumes or gut instinct, Mappa analyzes speech biomarkers to determine whether a candidate's behavioral tendencies align with a given role and environment. Lucena's core advice for early-stage founders: prioritize compatibility from the start to avoid the costly cycle of hiring, firing, and rehiring.

How to avoid bad hires in early-stage startups

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