Handshake

What Handshake does

Handshake is a three-sided AI-powered career marketplace operated under the legal entity Stryder Corp., founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco. The platform connects roughly 25 million college students and recent alumni, 1,600+ educational institutions covering about 90% of top-ranked US universities, and approximately 1 million employers including the entirety of the Fortune 100. Core technology includes dynamic verified profiles, intelligent job-matching algorithms, FERPA-compliant data infrastructure, and workflow tools for career centers and employers; mobile apps and virtual/in-person career fairs extend distribution. Customers are organized into three primary segments — students and alumni (free, product-led onboarding via university partners), employers (tiered Basic free / Pro at $450/month / Enterprise custom subscriptions with ATS integration), and career centers (institutional platform for events, scheduling, and outcomes tracking). Revenue is generated primarily from employer subscriptions and promoted-job placements, augmented by enterprise ATS integration deals.

Name

Handshake

Legal name

Stryder Corp.

Website

https://joinhandshake.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Handshake operates a three-sided career marketplace connecting 25M+ students, 1,600+ universities, and 1M+ employers, monetizing through tiered employer subscriptions and an AI data-labeling business (Handshake AI Fellowship) serving frontier AI labs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Recruiting Marketplace

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Human Resources Consulting Services (541612)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Internship/Apprenticeship Matching & Work-Based Learning Platforms (EDAFAMAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Mentoring, Coaching, Alumni Networking & Peer Support Platforms (EDAFAMAN)

Keywords

• College recruiting platform
• Talent acquisition software
• AI training data
• Online job marketplace
• Career services platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Employer Subscription Plans: Handshake generates revenue primarily through tiered subscription plans for employers. The Basic plan is free with limited messaging (10 messages/month). The Pro plan costs $450/month for growing teams with 200 messages/month, AI-powered tools, and collaboration features. Enterprise plans are custom-priced with unlimited messaging and advanced features.
2. Promoted Jobs: Employers can pay to promote job listings for increased visibility and faster, more qualified applicant flow. This is a flexible add-on to Basic or Pro plans, included with Enterprise.
3. AI Training Services (Handshake AI): Handshake AI Fellowship program connects AI labs with experts who generate training data for LLMs. The company pays fellows hourly rates ($40-$300/hr depending on expertise) and earns revenue from AI company clients for data labeling and evaluation services.
4. Enterprise ATS Integration: Enterprise customers can integrate their Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) with Handshake, enabling seamless workflow automation and data synchronization.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Handshake operates a three-sided AI-powered career marketplace connecting 25 million college students and recent alumni, 1,600+ educational institutions, and 1 million employers. The platform delivers personalized job matching, dynamic profiles, ATS integration for employers, and career center management tools. Handshake AI Fellowship extends the platform by connecting 100,000+ domain experts with frontier AI labs to generate training data for large language models.

Product overview

Handshake operates as a unified career network platform for the AI economy, comprising a core three-sided marketplace connecting students/alumni, educational institutions, and employers, supplemented by the Handshake AI Fellowship program for AI model training. The platform offers distinct modules for employers (recruiting tools in Basic/Pro/Enterprise tiers), job seekers (job search and career development), and career centers (institutional analytics and management). Recent additions include the Software Engineer Talent Network (via Taro acquisition) and the Codex Creator Challenge partnership with OpenAI. The company has undergone a strategic 'refounding' from a college recruitment platform to an AI infrastructure provider, integrating AI data labeling services with its traditional career marketplace.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Handshake AI: AI Fellowship program that provides paid, remote AI training work for experts and generalists. Connects talent with frontier AI labs to help train and improve AI models.

Products and services

• Handshake Core Platform The primary three-sided career marketplace connecting 25 million college students and recent alumni, 1,600+ educational institutions, and 1 million employers. Powers career discovery, hiring, and upskilling through dynamic profiles, intelligent job matching, and interactive skill-building.
• Handshake for Employers Employer recruiting platform enabling companies to post jobs, connect with verified candidates, build brand presence, and manage the full hiring pipeline. Available in Basic (free), Pro ($450/month), and Enterprise (contact for pricing) tiers with ATS integration capabilities.
• Handshake AI Fellowship A paid remote work program enabling students, professionals, and experts to train and evaluate AI models for frontier AI labs. Fellows contribute domain expertise across 50+ fields including law, medicine, engineering, and philosophy to generate high-quality training data for LLMs, with payouts from $40-$300/hour.
• Handshake for Career Centers Institutional tools for universities and career centers to manage student career services, track outcomes, and facilitate employer partnerships. Includes marketing toolkit, event management, and analytics dashboard showing 3x increase in job postings and 78% student satisfaction improvement.
• Handshake AI Software Engineer Talent Network A specialized talent network designed to bridge the coding talent gap in frontier AI development by connecting software engineering talent with AI labs.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3x average increase in job postings for schools switching to Handshake
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• OpenAIcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to help students create with Codex. Students get free Codex credits to build AI skills and showcase work to employers. Organized the Codex Creator Challenge with 1,500+ participants.
• Top AI Labs (OpenAI and others)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHandshake AI provides training data services to eight top AI labs including OpenAI. The company hires contractors to generate data for LLM companies, positioning itself as AI infrastructure provider.
• Colleges and Universities (1,600+)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOfficial partnerships with 1,600+ educational institutions including 90% of top-ranked US colleges. Universities use Handshake as their career center platform, providing verified student accounts.
• OpenAI (Codex Creator Challenge)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organized the Codex Creator Challenge, a software development competition where students built AI-powered apps using OpenAI's Codex. One student finalist developed BeforeYouSign, an AI app analyzing lease agreements.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Surge AI: AI data labeling platform focused on expert annotation and evaluation for frontier AI labs. Competes with Handshake AI for the same expert-fellow talent pool and AI lab customer relationships.
• WayUp: Direct competitor focused on college students and recent graduates for internships and entry-level roles. Closely matches Handshake's core student-facing value proposition and early-career employer customer base.
• RippleMatch: Early-career recruiting platform using AI-driven matching between college students and employers. Directly competes with Handshake's intelligent matching and employer subscription offerings in the same Fortune 500 customer segment.
• Scale AI: Leading AI data labeling and evaluation provider serving frontier AI labs including OpenAI. Directly comparable to Handshake AI's data labeling, RLHF, and evaluation services for large language model developers.
• Symplicity: Provider of career services and student-success platforms to universities. Closely comparable to Handshake for Institutions, with similar career-center software functionality and FERPA-compliant student data infrastructure.
• 12twenty: Career services platform used by universities and business schools to manage recruiting, job postings, and student outcomes. Competes head-to-head with Handshake for Career Centers at the institutional software layer.

Broad incumbents

• Glassdoor: Jobs and recruiting platform integrated with employer reviews and salary data. Overlaps with Handshake's employer branding and candidate discovery offerings for early-career job seekers researching employers.
• Indeed: Leading global job search engine and recruitment platform. Competes with Handshake's employer job-posting and candidate-matching value proposition, especially for SMB and mid-market employers hiring entry-level talent.
• LinkedIn: Largest professional network and recruiting platform globally. Overlaps with Handshake across job matching, employer branding, and student/alumni recruiting, but serves all professional levels rather than specializing in early-career talent.
• ZipRecruiter: AI-driven job marketplace targeting SMB and mid-market employers. Offers tiered employer subscriptions similar to Handshake's Pro and Enterprise tiers and competes for the same entry-level hiring budgets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/joinhandshake
• Instagraminstagram.com/joinhandshake
• TikToktiktok.com/@joinhandshake
• Facebookfacebook.com/joinhandshake
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/home

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles24 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors19 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A4 records

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Handshake