Beardbrand certainly asks for a good amount of effort upfront (or at least more so than the other 100+ places I've applied to this month), requiring a cover letter in the application and then for the second round asks for a paragraph on why their company values resonates with you, all before an actual interview. No big deal of course, I assumed it just meant that the company was a great one and wanted only the best employees. After emailing that info in, I sent a follow-up a week later... and instead of a response, I randomly got a call from the CEO wanting to a do a quick interview right then and there. I was a bit flustered from it, I won't lie. A week after the phone call, I follow-up again. No response. All in all, the company seems to demand quite a bit from their applicants but seems to not respect applicant's time and effort in return. I likely dodged a bullet here.