Cubeduel: Rank Your Co-Workers, See How They Rank You

Website lets you vote for favorite co-workers and see how others rank you.

ByABC News
January 14, 2011, 11:48 AM

Jan. 14, 2011— -- Chances are you've already sized up your co-workers in private, so why not have some fun with it online?

At least that's what the new website Cubeduel wants you to do.

The new site, which launched Thursday, ranks your current and former co-workers by placing them in head-to-head match-ups and then letting you vote for your favorites. If you vote on enough duels, the site also reveals how others have rated you.

"It's a light, fun way to express feedback on people that isn't necessarily mean," said co-founder Tony Wright, a Seattle-based former start-up CEO who built the site with fellow Seattleite and entrepreneur Adam Doppelt.

To access Cubeduel, you sign into the site with your LinkedIn information. The site then uses your work history to create the duels between current and former colleagues. (It doesn't, however, alter anything on your actual LinkedIn profile or permanently display your LinkedIn information on Cubeduel.)

As you click on your favorites, the site combines your votes with those from other users to assign rankings to everyone on the site.

Once you've voted on 20 pairs, Cubeduel reveals how many duels you've won and shows you the top scorers from each of the companies or organizations listed on your LinkedIn profile.

And if you're worried about getting in trouble with the boss, don't be. The founders say all voting is absolutely anonymous.

Wright said he and Doppelt started hatching the idea about six weeks ago, while both were between projects and on the "coffee circuit." (Wright recently stepped down as CEO of the start-up RescueTime and Doppelt recently sold the restaurant site and iPhone app Urbanspoon.)

As someone familiar with the hiring process, he said, "It's really hard to get a sense of people, whether they're bada** or not."

Resumes, references and interviews give anecdotal information about a potential hire but, as "geeks and data guys," he said, they wanted more.

"It would be really awesome if you could survey everyone they've worked with and say, 'Would you work with this person again?'" Wright said.

So, he said, they launched the site as a side project, to give people an easy way to answer the question, "Whom would you rather work with?"