Eqo has grown significantly over the past few years, transitioning from a small startup to one of the most exciting companies in the employee referral space. A key factor in their growth is the introduction of Eve, their AI-powered referral assistant. We’ve seen Eve capture referrals made on applications outside of Eqo and reduce manual load by cleaning up profiles, like matching misspelled names to the right employee. The AI can also send reminders to employees still using older referral methods, pointing them towards the new text-to-refer process powered by Eqo.

Another thing we like about the tool is its focus on frontline employee engagement. That’s always been front and center in its product development philosophy, which is why most of its features are geared towards being simple and easy to use for frontline employees.

During our review, we were impressed by its frictionless, text-based experience, which allows employees to access the referral portal, see all bonuses, and make referrals without any app downloads or email logins. The platform also supports targeted SMS campaigns, enabling recruiting teams to reach specific departments or locations more effectively.

While we think Eqo is headed in a great direction, we do see a few drawbacks in their offering. Currently, they only support US-based organizations, which makes sense considering how much the product relies on SMS, but it’s not crazy to imagine a future where they’re able to adapt their offering to other markets. That said, another thing to consider is that they don’t offer a free trial, but we were told they can accommodate pilots for certain teams.