Episode overview

One in three job applications in Singapore contains a discrepancy. In Australia it is closer to one in seven. In the UK it is one in five. Daniel Callaghan built Veremark to solve this: a global background screening platform that automates the verification of past employment, academic credentials, criminal records, and financial history, then turns that verified data into a candidate-owned career passport they can carry with them forever.

In this conversation, Daniel talks through the full arc of his career from a French degree he describes as useless, to accidentally becoming an entrepreneur when the 2009 financial crisis closed off investment banking, to building a freelance marketplace for eight years and then pivoting to Veremark. He makes the case that helping people ask for help is the most underrated skill in entrepreneurship, and he explains why a single coffee can do more for employee retention than any virtual onboarding program.

The career passport: owning your own verified data

Veremark’s long-term vision goes beyond background screening. Once a candidate’s credentials have been verified, that data becomes a portable career passport they can reuse across every future job application. Instead of waiting three weeks for a university in Southeast Asia to respond to an employment check, a candidate can toggle on the relevant data points and share them instantly. In a world where hiring is increasingly remote and trust is increasingly hard to establish, Veremark is building the infrastructure for verified professional identity.

The two things that surprised Daniel most as a founder

Building Veremark was his second time as a founder. He was still surprised by two things. First, how hard hiring is: business is a team sport and getting the wrong people is an easy mistake even when you know how important it is. Second, how willing people are to help: founders who ask for help openly find that the startup ecosystem responds with genuine generosity, and being willing to absorb those conversations is one of the most powerful accelerants available to any early-stage company.

Why virtual-only hires fail more often

Steve shares research his team did during COVID: the hires that failed disproportionately were the ones made without a single in-person meeting, not because virtual hiring is wrong but because humans have evolved senses that screens can’t replace. Daniel agrees and points to the data: even when fully remote, a single coffee can do more for onboarding success than any digital program. When companies left people in virtual limbo without ever bringing them into a physical context, the disassociation was swift and costly.

Four generations in the workplace and the personalisation of everything

Daniel’s view on the future of work is that we are heading toward the personalisation of everything: benefits, incentives, working patterns, training, and career paths. Smart companies will cater for this diversity rather than insisting on uniform policies. Background screening becomes more important, not less, in a world of distributed hiring across multiple geographies and generations.