A 3rd party recruiter reached out to me to schedule a 30 minute phone call. During that phonecall, general questions were asked, high level information was given to me about the company. They asked my salary expectation, which they then informed me was $20k over what they had slotted for the role but that they were 'flexible'. My information was then shared with the hiring manager, who decided to move forward with an hour long call which was scheduled for a few days later. Call went well. They reached out again to tell me they wanted to move forward with me, asked me do an 'exercise' which meant look over a PDF of high level business metrics, and create a mock proposal for a solution to a problem. A week later, I presented to the hiring manager and co-founder. They were friendly enough. I presented on a topic that I have 5 years experience in, I also have 10 years design experience. They did not follow up until I reached out a week later, the recruiter informed me that while they 'Like me', someone else 'Had a better exercise' and they were moving forward with someone else. Overall, the experience was fine. It's strange to ask someone to spend time putting together a formal presentation for an interview, and then not providing direct feedback.