Founder of RefNow. refnow.com

Automate reference checking. Get references in 36 hours (not 1 week). No more chasing. No more bottlenecks. Fraud detection included. Push completed references to your ATS.

500,000+ references processed. 350+ customers. $1M ARR. Zero funding.

Sign up today at refnow.com.

DM me with any questions.

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Bootstrapped to $1M ARR as Founder.

We help hiring teams eliminate manual reference chasing, speed up hiring by 80%, and catch fraudulent references before they become bad hires.

Before RefNow, I was a Senior Software Engineer at Gamesys and Bally's. Built an automation tool used company-wide that eliminated hours of manual work. Saw firsthand how removing boring tasks transforms people's work lives.

Built community features used by thousands of players daily. Learned that great UX beats powerful features every time.

Started RefNow in 2020 with my co-founders. We're a lean 3-person team building a profitable, bootstrapped SaaS that solves real problems.

I write content for LinkedIn about SaaS growth, automation, and bootstrapping.

Follow me to watch us build a profitable SaaS in public.

Ben Adams

They hired tens of thousands of police officers.

Without checking a single reference.

Let that sink in.

For six years, forces including the Met, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cumbria simply switched off pre-employment reference checks.

The result?

130+ officers and staff went on to commit crimes or misconduct. Including David Carrick, now serving 37 life sentences. And Cliff Mitchell, a serial rapist.

These aren't admin roles. These are officers with powers of arrest. Access to sensitive data. Public trust.

All because someone decided references were optional.

Here's what frustrates me:

Reference checking isn't complicated. It's not expensive. It doesn't take weeks.
But when you're under pressure to hit recruitment targets, corners get cut. And the "boring admin stuff" is always first to go.

Except references aren't boring admin. They're the last line of defence before someone enters your organisation.

If a nursery or care home skipped references, Ofsted would shut them down. But somehow police forces got away with it for years.

This isn't a technology problem. It's a priorities problem.

And until organisations treat pre-employment checks as non-negotiable, we'll keep reading headlines like this.

Founder @ RefNow | Stop Chasing References | Get Them Back in 36 Hours, Automatically

Work experience is cool and all.

But tell me what you do for fun.

As a candidate, I thought the hobby section of my CV was filler. Who cares that I like football, padel, or reading business books?

How does that make me any better at my job?

Turns out, it does.

Hiring is one of the most critical decisions any business makes. Get it wrong, and it costs you months.

Here's what I've learned from the other side of the table:

Skills get you the interview. Culture fit gets you the job.

When I'm reviewing a CV, I read the hobby section carefully.

Team sports? Probably works well with others.

Marathons or triathlons? Likely disciplined and self-motivated.

Reads business books? Curious, invests in themselves, and probably thinks about growth when no one's watching.

None of this is a guarantee. But it's signal.

And when you're a small team where one bad hire can derail everything, signals matter.

If you're a candidate, don't treat your hobbies as filler. Use them to show who you are beyond the job title.

If you're hiring, don't skip this section. It might tell you more than experience ever could.

HR teams spend 6+ hours chasing references every week.

In 2026, that's embarrassing.

I've spent the last few years talking to hundreds of HR teams about their reference process.

Here's what I keep hearing:

"It's all manual."
"I'm constantly chasing people."
"I have no idea where we're at with any candidate."

Sound familiar?

The problem isn't that reference checking is hard. It's that most teams are still doing it like it's 2010.

Emails. Phone calls. Spreadsheets. WhatsApp messages to candidates asking them to chase their own referees.

Meanwhile, time-to-hire stretches out. Candidates get frustrated. And sometimes you lose great people to competitors who moved faster.

Here's what we've learned building RefNow:

Automation isn't about removing the human element. It's about removing the admin so humans can focus on what matters.

When you cut collection time from 2 weeks to 32 hours, three things happen:

Candidates feel valued (not stuck in limbo)
HR teams stop playing inbox tennis
You actually spot fraud before it becomes your problem

The shift from manual to automated reference checking isn't about technology. It's about respecting everyone's time.

Yours. Your candidates'. Your referees'.

Experienced startup operator, investor and advisor on all things revenue and GTM.

Hired 300+ people over the years, created startups that have grown to £MM's in recurring revenue, and led teams of all sizes at the startup - series B phases.

I'm in my comfort zone when I'm working in high-performing and high-trust teams, where we expend the effort to go and visit our customers, understand their worlds and do our best to help them. I'm a deeply empathetic leader who invests a lot of time in my teams. Whether it's working as an SDR, AE, CSM or AM, or the wider organisation, I always lead from the front. And let my teams grow and develop.

Also an angel (seed) investor in a range of UK startups (solo seed and via syndicate) & Venture Fellow on the Newton Venture Program (LBS, LocalGlobe).

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