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

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.

Website Asks 'Whom Would You Rather Work With?'

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?"

Founder: Curiosity, Fun Driving Interest in the Website

But the pair's peripheral project is already well on its way to hitting the mainstream online.

Tens of thousands of people have logged into the site, which is on track to have solid "duel" data for hundreds of thousands of people by the end of the first week, Wright said.

"We're seeing this amazing reputation data for hundreds of thousands of people," he said, adding that if the momentum continues, he and Doppelt may take their "side project" to the next level.

But why does he think people are so drawn to the site?

"Obviously, there's a huge psychological need to know where you are in the pecking order," he said. "There is that huge curiosity there and it's also super light."

For example, in a matter of minutes, you can vote on dozens of duels, not to mention that the whole process is entertaining. Wright also said the site inherently motivates people to share it with others, as they need to invite people to get (and, hopefully, boost) their rankings.

Other websites, such as Honestly.com, let people rank and vote on professional colleagues. But, unlike other sites, Cubeduel doesn't enable comments and restricts voting to people in a user's LinkedIn profile.

Wright said more than half of the site's users have voted on 50 duels and 20 percent have voted on more than 100. Some have even voted on thousands of match-ups.

Wright said someone even sent him a "gloat e-mail," showing him a screen shot proving that he or she was defeated in a duel.

"It's conversation-worthy," he said. "It's pretty cool when you see that you're a high scorer."