01
5 minutes
Upload the job and the CVs.
Paste your job description. Drag every applicant's CV onto Plainterview: 10 of them, 100 of them, doesn't matter. We draft 5–8 main questions, the same for every candidate. You edit, swap, or approve.
Plainterview is an async chat interview, tailored to each candidate's CV. They answer on their phone, on their time. You get transcripts, summaries, and a real shortlist in 24 hours, not three weeks.
5 free interviews. No credit card. No demo call. Your first screening can go out tonight.
Now what?
You wrote the job description. You posted it on three boards. Applications started flooding in. Now you have 100 CVs in your inbox and three problems.
The CV tells you almost nothing.Half of them are AI-polished, all of them are written to game keyword filters. You can't tell who actually knows the work from who knows how to write a good résumé.
Calling them all isn't an option.30-minute phone screens × 100 candidates = 50 hours of your week. You'll end up calling 8 of them, half-randomly, and hoping you guessed right. The other 92 get a generic “we'll be in touch” and never hear back.
Your competitors are faster.While you're reading résumés, the candidates you'd have wanted have already accepted somewhere else.
Plainterview gives all 100 a real chat. You skip the 95 phone screens and call only the 5 worth calling.
Reading the results is later, and on your schedule.
Paste your job description. Drag every applicant's CV onto Plainterview: 10 of them, 100 of them, doesn't matter. We draft 5–8 main questions, the same for every candidate. You edit, swap, or approve.
Plainterview emails every candidate a personal link with your name on it. Or we hand you a CSV with name, email, and link columns, paste into your own mail tool. You set the window: 3, 7, or 14 days.
As candidates complete, transcripts appear in your dashboard. Each one comes with an AI summary, the full chat with timestamps, and the CV they applied with. Side by side. Skim over coffee, shortlist, call only the candidates worth calling.
Generic interviews compare apples to apples but miss what's specific. Fully custom interviews are unfair: one candidate got easy questions, another got hard ones, and you can't tell who's actually better.
Plainterview does both. Every candidate gets the same main questions, so you can compare. Follow-ups adapt to what's on each candidate's CV, so the depth matches the candidate.
If a candidate gives a vague answer like “I led a great team and we delivered results,” the AI follows up: “Walk me through a specific situation. What does ‘led’ mean in your day-to-day?”
The candidates who really did the work shine. The candidates with padded CVs get caught at the depth-check.
The two objections we hear from every owner.
Most candidates prefer it to silence. And we make ChatGPT cheating harder than it is in a phone screen.
Compared to what? Right now, 95 of your 100 applicants get rejected without anyone reading them carefully. A 12-minute chat on their phone, on their schedule, where they get to share more than what fit in a CV, that's not disrespectful. For most of them, it's the first real chance they've had.
Some will try. We block the easy version: paste is disabled, so the copy-question / paste-back loop doesn't work. We measure typing cadence and flag answers that arrive at reading speed. And the AI probes for specifics. Generic AI answers fall apart when asked for a date, a name, a moment from last month. We won't catch every cheater. But we catch more than a phone screen does.
It's a chat. It says hello, explains what's happening, thanks them at the end. Candidates regularly tell us it was better than expected, they got to actually talk about their experience without the pressure of a live call.
That's the actual problem.
If you're getting 100 applicants for a role, here's roughly what's happening today.
This is not because you're a bad hirer. The math doesn't work. 100 phone screens is 50 hours. You don't have 50 hours.
Plainterview gives the 95 a chance to be heard. Not as a corporate gesture, but as a useful filter. The candidate with a weak résumé but six years of relevant experience gets to demonstrate it. The candidate with a beautiful résumé who can't talk specifics gets exposed.
Better hires for you. Real respect for every applicant. One product, two simultaneous wins.
We hand you transcripts, summaries, and a suggested shortlist. The decision is always yours. We never auto-reject anyone, every candidate's full interview is available for your review.
Use Plainterview to skip the 30 first-round phone screens. When you have your top 5, you still call them. The deciding conversation is still you and the candidate.
Some AI hiring tools score candidates on facial expressions, voice tone, or “cultural fit signals.” We think that's both technically dubious and legally risky. Plainterview is text only. We surface what candidates said about their experience. That's it.
You only pay when a candidate actually starts talking. Uploads, emails, link clicks, all free. Interviews count the moment a candidate sends their first message.
The math.At Starter ($29), you're paying about $1.16 per screened candidate. One bad hire costs an SMB an average of $14,900 in productivity, training, and replacement. Screen 25 candidates properly to avoid one bad hire and you've spent $29 to save $14,900.
No per-seat fees. No setup fees. No annual contracts. Cancel anytime from your account settings.
10–15 minutes on their phone, on their time. We tell them upfront. Completion rates are typically 60–80% within the window you set. Candidates appreciate the predictable time commitment.
You see their status in your dashboard: invited, started but didn't finish, completed. You can send a reminder, extend the deadline, or move on. Candidates who never engage usually self-select out.
In our experience, yes, usually more than okay. Right now, most submit a CV and never hear back. A 12-minute chat where they get to talk about their experience is a step up, not down. They appreciate not having to schedule a call, not having to be “on” for a live conversation, and getting a fair chance to share what they couldn't fit in a CV.
Some will try. Paste is disabled. We analyze typing patterns and flag suspiciously consistent response speeds. The AI probes for specifics. Generic AI answers don't survive follow-ups asking for specific dates, names, and situations. We won't catch every cheater, but we make it harder than a phone screen where you'd never know.
Yes. The main questions are the same for every candidate applying to a given job, so you can compare fairly. But follow-ups adapt to each candidate's CV. Someone who managed a 3-person team gets different probes than someone who managed 30. Same fairness, different depth.
Roles where written communication matters and where you'd otherwise do a phone screen first: sales, customer service, admin, ops, account managers, marketing coordinators, junior-to-mid engineers, project managers. Less ideal for roles requiring live demonstration (chefs, performers, hands-on technicians), though even there it's useful before an in-person trial.
The moment the candidate sends their first message in the chat. Not when you upload their CV. Not when we send the invitation. Not when they click the link or land on the welcome page. Only when they start talking. You never pay for ghosts.
In most regions, yes. Plainterview gives you information; you make the decision. We're not an automated decision system, we don't auto-reject, and we tell candidates clearly that AI is involved. AI-in-hiring regulations vary (NYC, Illinois, Colorado, EU). For high-stakes regulated roles, consult your local employment counsel.
English and Bahasa Indonesia at launch. The AI auto-detects from the candidate's first message. Email us if you need another language.
Yes. CSV export on Starter and above. ATS-compatible CSV on Growth and above.
One product builder in Jakarta. You'll get a direct response if you email, usually within a day.
And nobody gets ghosted.
Your next job post can go up tonight. The first transcripts land in your inbox tomorrow.
5 free interviews. No credit card. No demo call.