For years, recruiters have used machine learning to find potential hires by searching for keywords in resumes and LinkedIn profiles. While this method helps narrow the candidate pool, recruiters still must manually review each profile to determine the best fit.
David Paffenholz and Ishan Gupta, who were just 22 and 19 at the time, realized that large language models could find talent faster and more efficiently. They built Juicebox, an AI-powered search engine that uses natural language to analyze professional profiles, personal websites, and other publicly available information to identify the most qualified candidates.
After attending the startup accelerator Y Combinator in the summer of 2022, Paffenholz and Gupta spent a couple more years refining their product. When their AI search engine, PeopleGPT, was ready in late 2023, it was quickly adopted by a wide range of customers, from small startups to large companies like Cognition, Ramp, and Perplexity. In a short period, it was serving over 2,500 customers and achieving more than $10 million in annual recurring revenue.
Recently, Juicebox announced it had raised $36 million in total funding, including a $30 million Series A round led by Sequoia. Sequoia partner David Cahn learned about the company while speaking with an early-stage startup founder who said he uses Juicebox for all his recruiting. Cahn noted that the founder has hired over a dozen people without a professional recruiter, which was previously very difficult.
This positive review piqued Cahn’s interest. Shortly after, he learned that Sequoia’s internal recruiter was also trying Juicebox to help with the firm’s own hiring, which made him even more excited about the startup’s potential. When Cahn eventually met with Paffenholz and Gupta, he was highly impressed. He stated that he had rarely seen a company with only four people reach 2,000 customers with such a small team.
Although Juicebox has since hired eight additional employees, the company continues to attract customers without a sales team. Customers are flocking to Juicebox in part because hiring speed is extremely important for companies racing to build AI functionalities.
What sets Juicebox’s search engine apart is its ability to infer information about candidates much like a human would. The founders explain that the tool helps find new candidates that would not be found elsewhere because their profiles might not contain the expected keywords for regular searches.
The startup’s product is popular not only with small companies that lack a dedicated recruiter but also with talent teams at large corporations. By automating the candidate search, the tool frees up internal recruiters to focus more on building relationships with potential hires. Once Juicebox identifies candidates, its agent can automatically email them and schedule initial calls.
While Juicebox is growing quickly, older talent acquisition startups are also adding AI-powered search functionality to their offerings. Despite this, Cahn is convinced that Paffenholz and Gupta can transform Juicebox into an essential product for every startup’s technology stack. He compared its potential to companies like Stripe, suggesting that Juicebox could become the default tool every startup uses to hire its first employees.