Badge

About Badge

Badge is a hiring tool that uses AI agents to collect anonymous peer reviews from past colleagues and converts them into a portable proof of work and a Trust Score. Job seekers can build a verified professional reputation, while hiring managers get a 30-second reference check based on feedback from people who actually worked with the candidate.

Review

Badge launched this week in response to two trends: AI-generated resumes that mask real performance, and LinkedIn recommendations that often feel generic. The tool sends an AI agent into a user's contact book to request reviews, verifies them through work email, and distills the responses into a single score. It's an attempt to give recruiters a signal that's harder to fabricate than a traditional CV.

Key Features

• AI agent scans your contact book to identify past coworkers and autonomously requests reviews from them
• Reviews remain anonymous and get verified via work email to confirm both parties worked at the same organization
• Reviewers answer role-specific questions (e.g., about code quality for engineers) and interpersonal skill questions, guided by the agent
• Trust Score aggregates feedback on communication, collaboration, and delivery, not just listed skills
• Writing a review for someone else boosts the reviewer's own Trust Score and gives their profile a 24-hour visibility lift in recruiter searches

Pricing and Value

Badge is currently listed as free on its Product Hunt page. There are no paid plans or publicly announced pricing details at this time.

Pros

• Anonymity encourages more candid feedback than public LinkedIn endorsements
• Work email verification reduces fake or exchanged reviews
• AI agent handles follow-ups when reviewers don't respond, so users don't chase people manually
• Trust Score travels with the professional across jobs, unlike internal performance reviews locked in old HR systems
• Recruiters can quickly scan a candidate's score and review themes before committing to a full interview cycle

Cons

• On iOS, users can select a subset of contacts, which may introduce selection bias despite the agent's broader reach
• A Trust Score built from only 2-3 reviews might not hold up if a single difficult project or outlier response skews the picture
• Not well suited for professionals who work largely solo or have few former colleagues willing to engage with the platform

Badge fits roles where collaboration is frequent and peer feedback is meaningful-software engineers, product managers, designers, and consultants, for example. Recruiters who want a fast, pre-interview integrity check might find it useful, though the signal's reliability likely grows with the number of reviews a candidate accumulates.