GREENHOUSE

Daniel Chait and Jon Stross met at a startup and bonded over how broken the hiring process was at most companies. Resumes got lost.

Interview feedback was inconsistent. Hiring decisions were made on gut feeling.

The whole thing felt like it was designed in the 1990s.

They founded Greenhouse in New York in 2012 with the mission of making hiring more structured, fair, and data-driven. The original product was an applicant tracking system (ATS), but it evolved into a full hiring platform with scorecards, structured interviews, and analytics.

SaaS subscription based on company size. Greenhouse charges annual contracts to mid-market and enterprise companies.

The platform covers the full hiring lifecycle from job posting to offer acceptance. Revenue comes from subscription fees and premium add-ons like onboarding and sourcing automation.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) — structured hiring workflow from job posting to offer. Structured interviewing — scorecards and interview kits that reduce bias.

Onboarding — automated new-hire onboarding workflows. CRM — candidate relationship management for talent pipelining.

Analytics — hiring funnel metrics, time-to-hire, diversity reporting.

Greenhouse grew through the startup ecosystem — early adoption by fast-growing tech companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, and Lyft created credibility. As these companies scaled and their alumni moved to new companies, they brought Greenhouse with them.

Strong content marketing around structured hiring and reducing bias also drove organic growth.

Competition from legacy ATS providers (iCIMS, Lever, Workable) and new entrants like Ashby. Also, hiring volume is cyclical — when companies freeze hiring (as many did in 2022-23), ATS revenue drops because the product is tied to active recruiting.

Riverwood Capital led the Series D. Earlier investors include Benchmark, Social Capital, and Thrive Capital.

Total funding of approximately $110 million.