Guide
Guide is an AI-powered interview coordination platform that automates complex scheduling workflows and improves candidate experience for talent acquisition teams at mid-market and enterprise organizations, anchored by its proprietary Aria AI recruiting coordination agent and deep ATS integrations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Guide does
Guide (legal entity IDK Labs, Inc.) is an AI-powered InterviewOps platform that automates interview scheduling and candidate experience workflows for talent acquisition teams. The company's core product, Aria, is described as an AI agent for recruiting coordination that reduces complex multi-step scheduling workflows into single-click approvals and handles panel interviews, intelligent rescheduling, interviewer conflict negotiation, and calendar hygiene maintenance. The platform is delivered through a suite of products: AI Scheduler (scheduling automation and interviewer matching), Candidate Portal (branded candidate-facing hub), Messenger (branded candidate communications with engagement analytics), and Surveys (candidate feedback with a proprietary Survey Response Escrow mechanism designed to elicit honest responses from both hired and rejected candidates). The system integrates deeply with Greenhouse (as a Customer-Preferred integration), Ashby, Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Okta, PagerDuty, and several coding assessment platforms.
The company serves recruiting coordinators, recruiters, talent acquisition leaders, and hiring managers at mid-market and enterprise organizations, with named enterprise customers including MongoDB, Netlify, Notion, Duolingo, Glossier, Klaviyo, Fivetran, Strava, and Glassdoor. Guide operates a subscription SaaS business model with three annual-billed tiers: Guide Hire (candidate experience automation), Guide Scale (adds scheduling automation, team workflows, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager), and Guide Enterprise (adds multi-branding, confidential role support, audit log, custom reports, priority support, and SLA-backed uptime). All tiers include unlimited seats and usage. The go-to-market combines product-led growth (free trials, self-serve onboarding) with an enterprise field sales motion (demos, dedicated CSMs). The company is privately held, headquartered in San Francisco, and has raised an $8 million seed round in March 2022 led by First Round Capital and Spero Ventures; no subsequent priced funding rounds were disclosed in the input data. Troy Sultan serves as CEO and Co-Founder, Austin Cooley as Co-Founder and CTO, and John Ashenden as VP, Product & Design.
Guide firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Guide
- Legal name
- IDK Labs, Inc. d/b/a Guide
- Website
- https://guide.co
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Guide is an AI-powered interview coordination platform that automates complex scheduling workflows and improves candidate experience for talent acquisition teams at mid-market and enterprise organizations, anchored by its proprietary Aria AI recruiting coordination agent and deep ATS integrations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Guide industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Recruiting Operations Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Enterprise Work Management & Collaborative Workflow Platforms (HDAEAHAI)
Keywords
Where Guide is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Guide business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Subscription: Guide operates on a subscription-based SaaS model with yearly subscriptions. Pricing varies based on company size, hiring volume, and desired feature package. All plans include unlimited user seats and usage.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Hire - Core candidate experience automation |
| Subscription | Annual | Scale - Growing teams with scheduling automation |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise - Advanced features for large organizations |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Guide product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Guide is an AI-powered InterviewOps platform that automates complex interview scheduling workflows and delivers a personalized candidate experience. Its suite combines the Aria AI Recruiting Coordination agent, an AI Scheduler, a Candidate Portal, branded Messenger, and candidate Surveys, integrating with ATS systems (Greenhouse, Ashby), calendars, Slack, and Zoom to coordinate interviews up to 7x faster than manual processes.
Product overview
Guide is an AI-powered InterviewOps platform that helps talent teams coordinate interviews faster and deliver a world-class candidate experience. The platform consists of a unified suite of products: AI Scheduler (core scheduling automation), Candidate Portal (candidate-facing hub for interview information and prep), Messenger (branded candidate communications), and Surveys (candidate feedback collection). Guide's AI RC agent, Aria, sits at the center, automating complex scheduling workflows and learning interviewer preferences. The platform is offered across three pricing tiers: Guide Hire (candidate experience automation), Guide Scale (adds scheduling automation and team workflows), and Guide Enterprise (adds advanced security, multi-branding, and SLA support).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- AI Scheduler AI-powered interview scheduling automation that handles panel interviews, intelligent rescheduling, interviewer conflict resolution, and calendar hygiene. Reduces repetitive coordination tasks and finds optimal time slots and interviewers using AI-enhanced matching and preference learning; targets recruiting coordinators and talent acquisition teams.
- Candidate Portal Self-service candidate-facing hub that organizes and delivers interview schedules, interviewer bios, prep materials, and real-time process updates. Supports customizable branding and reduces candidate drop-off; targets candidates of companies using Guide.
- Messenger Branded candidate messaging platform that delivers on-brand communications and real-time engagement analytics to increase candidate engagement and build employer brand. Includes inbox and team task queue capabilities; targets talent acquisition teams.
- Surveys Candidate experience survey tool with Survey Response Escrow that collects unbiased feedback after every interview. Provides higher completion rates and actionable insights for measuring candidate NPS; targets talent acquisition teams.
Quantifiable outcome
- Coordinate 7x faster with AI-first interview scheduling
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Guide
Customer profileNamed customers11 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Guide technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration12 records
AI capability5 records
Feature8 records
Guide partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- GreenhousecoreGreenhouse is Guide's premier ATS integration partner. Guide is a Greenhouse Customer-Preferred integration, enabling seamless scheduling and candidate experience. The integration allows automatic syncing of candidate information, interviewer profiles, interview schedules, and email templates between platforms.
- AshbycoreAshby is another primary ATS integration partner for Guide. Guide connects with Ashby for seamless scheduling and candidate experience similar to Greenhouse integration.
- SlackcoreSlack integration enables auto-syncing of interviewer profiles and provides instant notifications and RSVP options for scheduling within Slack channels.
- ZoomcoreZoom integration enables automatic management and creation of Zoom interview links within scheduling workflows.
- Google CalendarcoreGoogle Calendar integration connects calendars and rooms to power real-time scheduling availability in Guide, including Google Meet and conference rooms.
- OktasupportingOkta integration enables secure SSO (Single Sign-On) access to Guide through organizational identity provider.
- CoderPadsupportingCoderPad integration enables automatic coding interview link creation within scheduling workflows.
- CodeSignalsupportingCodeSignal integration auto-generates assessment links within scheduling workflows for technical interviews.
- HackerRanksupportingHackerRank integration automatically creates technical interview links within scheduling workflow.
- CoderbytesupportingCoderbyte integration embeds dynamic assessment links throughout candidate communications.
- PagerDutysupportingPagerDuty integration automatically syncs engineering team's on-call schedules so interviews aren't scheduled during on-call hours.
- NylassupportingNylas is a third-party service used by Guide to interface with G Suite API for calendar data syncing. They have enterprise-grade security certifications.
- IntercomsupportingGuide uses Intercom for customer support functionality in their help center.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Guide competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- GoodTime: GoodTime is a direct competitor offering AI-driven interview scheduling and hiring intelligence for talent acquisition teams. It targets the same recruiting-coordinator use case as Guide, with overlapping ATS integrations and panel-scheduling features.
- ModernLoop: ModernLoop provides automated interview scheduling, panel management, and candidate experience tools for high-volume hiring. Its product scope and target buyer (recruiting coordinators at mid-market and enterprise companies) overlap closely with Guide.
- Paradox (Olivia): Paradox offers an AI assistant (Olivia) for recruiting workflows including interview scheduling, candidate communications, and hiring automation. It competes with Guide in AI-driven scheduling for talent acquisition, particularly for high-volume and hourly hiring.
- Humanly: Humanly provides AI-powered recruiting automation including scheduling, candidate engagement, and conversational screening. It competes with Guide on AI-driven scheduling and candidate experience workflows for talent teams.
- XOR: XOR builds AI recruiting chatbots and workflow automation, including interview scheduling, candidate engagement, and screening. It targets talent acquisition teams seeking automation in scheduling and candidate communications, similar to Guide.
Broad incumbents
- Greenhouse: Greenhouse is the leading ATS platform and Guide's premier integration partner. While not a scheduling-focused vendor, Greenhouse ships native scheduling and candidate-experience capabilities and could directly compete with Guide in the future.
- Ashby: Ashby is an all-in-one talent platform with built-in interview scheduling, scorecards, and analytics. As Guide's other core ATS partner, Ashby increasingly bundles scheduling features that overlap with Guide's offering.
- Lever (Employ Inc.): Lever is an established ATS and talent acquisition suite with native scheduling and candidate relationship management. It competes indirectly with Guide as a broader platform serving recruiting coordinators.
Emerging players
- Gem: Gem is an emerging talent platform focused on sourcing, CRM, and recruiting operations, with growing scheduling and candidate-experience capabilities. It overlaps with Guide in the recruiting-ops layer used by talent teams.
Others
- Calendly: Calendly is a general-purpose scheduling tool widely used inside recruiting workflows. While not purpose-built for talent acquisition, it represents the incumbent scheduling experience Guide positions against in its marketing.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Guide social profiles
Digital presenceGuide compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Guide financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Guide leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Guide funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Guide M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Guide
What does Guide do?
Guide is an AI-powered InterviewOps platform that automates complex interview scheduling workflows and delivers a personalized candidate experience. Its suite combines the Aria AI Recruiting Coordination agent, an AI Scheduler, a Candidate Portal, branded Messenger, and candidate Surveys, integrating with ATS systems (Greenhouse, Ashby), calendars, Slack, and Zoom to coordinate interviews up to 7x faster than manual processes.
Is Guide a public or private company?
Guide is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Guide founded?
Guide was founded in 2021. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Guide based?
Guide is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Guide make money?
One revenue line is on record: saaS Subscription.
Who are Guide's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are GoodTime, ModernLoop, Paradox (Olivia), Humanly and XOR. Broad incumbents are Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever (Employ Inc.). Gem is listed as an emerging player. Calendly is listed as an others.
Does Guide have an API?
No public API is recorded for Guide.
What industry is Guide in?
Guide's product category is Recruiting Operations Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAHAI, Enterprise Work Management & Collaborative Workflow Platforms. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.