Former SAP VP launches AI interview prep platform for tech leaders

By AI, Created 12:03 AM UTC, May 19, 2026, /AGP/ – Crush Interviews has launched an AI-powered preparation platform for technology leaders from manager to C-suite, aiming to cut senior interview overhead from hundreds of hours to a reusable workflow. The company says the product is built for executives facing tougher hiring conditions and costly coaching alternatives.

Why it matters: - Senior candidates are facing tighter hiring loops and more structured executive interviews after AI-driven restructuring and slowdown in tech hiring. - Crush Interviews targets the time sink around executive prep, which the company argues can be cut from 200 to 400 hours to a smaller, repeatable system. - The platform is designed to help leaders reuse preparation work across roles instead of rebuilding everything from scratch.

What happened: - Crush Interviews, a product of Centractive LLC, launched an AI-powered interview preparation platform for technology leaders from manager through C-suite. - The product is available now at more information for $99 per month. - Crush Interviews offers a 14-day free trial that does not require a credit card.

The details: - The platform analyzes a résumé against a target role and flags gaps that can cause level mismatches. - It captures structured career stories through a voice-guided session. - It researches target companies and interviewers. - It helps candidates align answers to company culture and interview frameworks. - It includes AI-guided mock interviews with instant feedback. - The product is built to preserve and reuse preparation materials across future opportunities. - Crush Interviews says it will not use customer data to train AI models. - The company is based in San Francisco, California.

Between the lines: - Founder Vivek Ranjan built the original process after failing an Amazon Director interview loop in 2022 despite deep operational experience. - Ranjan later prepared for a Google interview by building a bank of more than 100 career stories, organizing them into repeatable frameworks, and working with a peer mock-interview network. - He spent nearly two months preparing while working full time, then passed every round before the role was closed during Google’s 2023 restructuring. - Ranjan said the goal is to remove preparation overhead, not replace the candidate work needed to perform well in interviews. - Ranjan has more than 25 years of engineering leadership experience and most recently served as Vice President of Engineering for Applied AI at SAP. - His time at SAP ended in January 2026, and he turned the interview system he had developed for himself into the product. - Existing senior-level options often mean expensive executive coaching or mass-market tools built for early-career applicants.

What’s next: - Crush Interviews is betting that senior candidates will adopt a reusable prep workflow as executive hiring stays competitive. - The company’s next test is whether technology leaders will pay for AI-assisted preparation that keeps the human interview work intact while reducing the time spent on research and setup.