Built for the first 20 hires
Personality tests for founders. Hire better. Fight less. Ship faster.
Screen your first 10 hires without gut-feel. Find a co-founder who complements you. Map your team DNA. Same science as Predictive Index — at $0 to $79/mo, not an annual platform licence.
In Brief
JobCannon gives founders and startup operators 164+ free personality and career assessments — DISC for communication styles, Big Five for workplace traits, EQ for leadership potential, Conflict Styles for co-founder compatibility, and RIASEC for career interest mapping. Unlike Predictive Index (annual platform licence), Culture Amp (per employee, per month), or Gallup StrengthsFinder (per person, per assessment), JobCannon starts at $0 for small teams (10 candidate invites) and scales to $79/mo for 80 candidates a month. Founders typically use it for: (1) screening candidates during hiring, (2) testing co-founder fit before incorporation, (3) onboarding week-one personality briefings, (4) mapping team DNA to spot gaps. The tests are self-report, research-validated, and take 5-15 minutes.
How founders actually use it
Four concrete plays that pay back in weeks, not quarters.
The 5 tests every founder should know
Grouped by what you actually use them for.
Why founders switch off PI / Culture Amp
Monthly cost for a 20-person startup
What you get on day one
Founder-friendly pricing
Start free with 10 candidate invites. Upgrade to $79/mo when you cross 20 people. Skip the $15k/year PI contract entirely.
Free
For micro-teams trying the platform
- ▸10 candidate invites/month (resets the 1st of each month)
- ▸All 164+ assessments
- ▸Premium result for every candidate you invite
- ▸Every candidate profile fully open — nothing blurred
- ▸Share link via email or Slack
- ▸Free trial of the coordinator dashboard
Starter
For solo coaches and small HR
- ▸30 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸All 164+ assessments
- ▸Premium report (archetype + blind spots + work-style brief)
- ▸Coach notes per candidate
- ▸PDF export (client-ready)
- ▸Session prep recommendations
- ▸Candidate progress tracking
Team
For startups, teams and HR
- ▸80 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Starter
- ▸Team DNA dashboard
- ▸Compatibility matrix
- ▸Conflict-pattern detection
- ▸Compare 2-3 team members
- ▸Manager prep briefings
- ▸Shared admin access (2 seats)
Scale
For agencies, L&D and scale-ups
- ▸200 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Team
- ▸Integrity + social-desirability scales (fake-good detection)
- ▸White-label PDFs (your logo)
- ▸Full assessment API (start, score, retrieve results)
- ▸Custom assessment builder (beta)
- ▸Admin seats not billed per seat
- ▸Priority email support
Growth
For high-volume screening without a contract
- ▸1,000 candidates/mo included; extra candidates are $2 each
- ▸Everything in Scale
- ▸Invoice / PO billing, not just card
- ▸Named support contact with a response-time target
- ▸Annual billing option
Enterprise
For 200+ person companies
- ▸Candidate volume set in your contract, all assessments
- ▸Everything in Scale
- ▸SLA (99.9% uptime)
- ▸Dedicated Customer Success
- ▸Custom integrations built against your tenant (Greenhouse and Ashby ship today)
- ▸Annual billing, invoice payments
Self-serve checkout via Stripe — major cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link. Cancel anytime; 14-day money-back on every paid plan. Enterprise via the contact form below.
Talk to a real human (usually Peter, the founder)
Tell us what you're hiring for or which co-founder decision is keeping you up. We reply within 24 hours, no SDR.
Three reasons founders actually use them: (1) Hiring — the single most expensive mistake a 5-person startup can make is a bad #6 hire. DISC + Big Five + a 30-min structured interview outperforms gut-feel hiring by a wide margin. (2) Co-founder fit — the #1 reason YC startups die is co-founder conflict; a 20-minute Big Five + Conflict Styles session upfront surfaces risks before they become divorce-level. (3) Speed — a 1-page personality brief turns "1:1s" from awkward small-talk into actual alignment in week one.
Predictive Index is an annual platform licence and requires certified consultants for interpretation. Culture Amp bills per employee per month, which is the wrong shape for a 5-person startup. Both are genuinely good products, but they are built for 500+ person orgs with HR teams. Founders need something they can use today, in 10 minutes, without an onboarding call. Same science, no annual contract.
Yes — but use it as a conversation starter, not a filter. Send DISC (5 min) or Big Five (15 min) after a first-round phone screen. In the interview, ask about the results: "You scored high on Conscientiousness — tell me about the last time that worked against you." Personality tests are weak predictors in isolation; they are powerful when they structure your interview. Never reject solely on a test score — in most jurisdictions that is legally risky.
Both co-founders take Big Five + Conflict Styles + Values Assessment separately, then compare. Look at: (a) Conscientiousness delta — one detail-oriented, one visionary is fine; both high-Openness, low-Conscientiousness is a recipe for 18 months of shiny-object-chasing with nothing shipped. (b) Conflict styles — if both score "Avoiding", disagreements fester. If both score "Competing", every meeting is a fistfight. (c) Values alignment — if one values "Security" and the other "Risk-taking", there is a big fundraising fight coming.
Yes, on the Scale plan ($199/mo). Your logo on PDF reports, your domain on share links (coming soon), and API access to results. VCs, accelerators, and studios use this to give portfolio CEOs a cheap team-building tool without the VC logo everywhere. Contact us below if you want a custom fund-level deal.
Taking a look at the product with your co-founders, your first 1-2 hires, and yourself — 10 candidate invites total. Enough to decide if the framework helps before you commit $29-79/mo. Once you scale past 5 people, you need Starter ($29/mo — 30 candidates a month) or Team ($79/mo — 80 candidates a month).