This week on TechCrunch’s podcast aimed at founders, Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen hosts Sarah Lucena, the CEO and co-founder of Mappa, a behavioral intelligence platform that utilizes voice AI to interpret human behavior in under 60 seconds.

Lucena conceived the idea for Mappa while attempting to assemble a marketing team but consistently felt she had made poor hiring choices. “I was incredibly frustrated because I was recruiting for what I believed were the appropriate skills. It appeared impressive on paper but didn’t translate to real-world success,” Lucena stated.

She discovered through experience that hiring often relies on success indicators such as educational qualifications, prior job experience, and intuition. However, she believed there must be a more effective approach. Thus, she created Mappa and invested years in developing a unique dataset derived from hundreds of interviews, enabling her team to examine behavior through biomarkers identified in individuals’ speech patterns. Throughout this endeavor, the Mappa team realized that to secure the right hire initially, a candidate must not only excel on paper but also be a suitable match.

“No characteristic is inherently good or bad; it’s more about the environment in which you place that individual, and which roles better align with their tendencies and styles. This is how we’ve been conceptualizing compatibility,” Lucena remarked during the podcast discussion.

Mappa is driven by a wholly Latinx team that understands the frustration of being disregarded due to superficial biases or a deficiency in the “correct” experiences. She describes them as underdogs who personally relate to this challenge.

“All of us are underdogs. We are all individuals who have experienced some degree of being overlooked. This makes it even more essential for us to be the ones developing this,” Lucena explained. “Having people like us creating this technology, at the level we are, with the caliber we can achieve for the market and serving our clients as we do. It also paves the way for others to come in and recognize that there are still various methods of building technology.”

Lucena’s key advice for early-stage founders in the hiring process is to take your time and ensure compatibility is established from the outset to prevent the complications of hiring, firing, and rehiring for the same position.

Isabelle Johannessen is the host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Morgan Little leads Audience Development. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.