Guide

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.

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

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

• Interview scheduling software
• Candidate experience platform
• Recruiting coordination tools
• AI recruitment automation
• Talent acquisition software

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. 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

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core 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

Named customers11 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

AI capability5 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• GreenhousecoreTechnology or IntegrationGreenhouse 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.
• AshbycoreTechnology or IntegrationAshby is another primary ATS integration partner for Guide. Guide connects with Ashby for seamless scheduling and candidate experience similar to Greenhouse integration.
• SlackcoreTechnology or IntegrationSlack integration enables auto-syncing of interviewer profiles and provides instant notifications and RSVP options for scheduling within Slack channels.
• ZoomcoreTechnology or IntegrationZoom integration enables automatic management and creation of Zoom interview links within scheduling workflows.
• Google CalendarcoreTechnology or IntegrationGoogle Calendar integration connects calendars and rooms to power real-time scheduling availability in Guide, including Google Meet and conference rooms.
• OktasupportingTechnology or IntegrationOkta integration enables secure SSO (Single Sign-On) access to Guide through organizational identity provider.
• CoderPadsupportingTechnology or IntegrationCoderPad integration enables automatic coding interview link creation within scheduling workflows.
• CodeSignalsupportingTechnology or IntegrationCodeSignal integration auto-generates assessment links within scheduling workflows for technical interviews.
• HackerRanksupportingTechnology or IntegrationHackerRank integration automatically creates technical interview links within scheduling workflow.
• CoderbytesupportingTechnology or IntegrationCoderbyte integration embeds dynamic assessment links throughout candidate communications.
• PagerDutysupportingTechnology or IntegrationPagerDuty integration automatically syncs engineering team's on-call schedules so interviews aren't scheduled during on-call hours.
• NylassupportingTechnology or IntegrationNylas is a third-party service used by Guide to interface with G Suite API for calendar data syncing. They have enterprise-grade security certifications.
• IntercomsupportingTechnology or IntegrationGuide uses Intercom for customer support functionality in their help center.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct 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

• Xx.com/GuideDotCo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/guidedotco

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors12 records

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Guide