Bristol-based technology startup acquires Geektastic

Bristol-based technology startup Deazy has continued its growth and expansion by acquiring Geektastic, which provides customisable, peer-reviewed technical assessments that generate deep technical insight to allow enterprises to quickly identify the best developers.

Deazy works with enterprises such as the RAC and Popeyes, helping to address the problem of accelerating digital delivery by bringing the best global development talent to a challenge. Developers are selected from Deazy’s curated community of 85 global development partners and managed by their highly experienced, in-house product and delivery experts, who provide the support and resources to guarantee success. 

The acquisition of Geektastic – with its mixture of technical assessments and code challenges - means Deazy can now readily demonstrate the skills and quality within its developer community to potential customers.

“We’ve worked with Geektastic since 2022 and saw such positive returns that it made perfect sense to bring them into the Deazy family,” said Andy Peddar, CEO, Deazy. "We always aim to make digital delivery easier for our clients by giving them access to the best developers and full product delivery teams, and Geektastic helps us achieve that. We know how good our developers and teams are, but we can now be 100 per cent transparent about that quality and communicate that to clients.”

“We can also now take ownership of vetting and quality within our community from a holistic perspective, vetting for code quality and soft skills, such as communication, cultural fit, and the ability to work in a team.” 

Geektastic provides both pre-built and bespoke code challenges on demand. Its customisable platform allows customers to build their code challenges and review guidelines integrated into their HR Platforms for streamlined recruitment.

Geektastic is the only technical assessment platform to offer a fully managed human review process to provide deeper insights into candidates' coding skills. Using a network of expert peer reviewers – the Ubergeeks – comprising 300 of the world’s greatest technical minds from companies such as Google, Amazon and Accenture, they streamline the assessment process, reducing time to hire, freeing up valuable internal resources from the recruitment process and increasing the likelihood of hiring the best developers. 

“Every single tech leader in an enterprise will be only too aware of the challenges in finding the right talent to deliver their product roadmaps and projects quickly and effectively,” continued Andy Peddar, Deazy. “I have seen so many digital projects in the past struggle due to a poor cultural fit or a lack of soft skills in delivery teams, and that type of vetting will be an integral part of our proposition later in 2024. It’s a better customer experience and removes a potential barrier for people using Deazy’s services.”

Part of the acquisition will see Geektastic co-founder and CEO Rick Brownlow join as Vetting and Quality Lead, bringing his experience, know-how, and approach to Deazy. One of his primary objectives will be to integrate the measurement of soft skills and cultural fit into the assessments, as he explained:

“Our methodology and proposition are a wonderful fit with Deazy. Enterprises have an almost insatiable need for high-calibre experts in software engineering, machine learning AI, and data engineering to complement the gaps in their teams, but some perceive working with external developers as risky. We remove that risk entirely and will be expanding the offering to include soft skills and cultural fit assessments later this year.”

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