OptimHire is an HR‐tech / recruitment company that uses AI, automation, and a “pay‐on‐success” model to help employers hire faster and candidates find jobs more efficiently. Pulse 2.0 interviewed OptimHire founder and CEO Larry Kodali to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Larry Kodali’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kodali said:
“I’m a software engineer and 3x entrepreneur with a deep passion for solving complex problems businesses face. Before founding OptimHire, I founded and built two tech companies that were focused on helping companies build IT infrastructure and products. However, at both of these companies, I found a pain point that impacts every company in every industry: a slow, antiquated, and expensive hiring process. This experience, combined with my background as a software engineer, inspired me to create my latest venture, OptimHire, which uses AI to make hiring more efficient and more effective for businesses, while also automating the job search for those looking for their next role..”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kodali shared:
“As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve experienced firsthand the frustrating process of trying to build a team from scratch. Traditional recruiting processes are expensive and inefficient, and in many cases, technology solutions that claim to speed it up often charge businesses for clicks, not candidates. At the same time, I also observed that many potential candidates are wasting their time visiting thousands of companies’ career pages, 50+ job sites daily, to check available jobs and manually apply to them, tailoring their applications for each and every job post. This observation made me realize that both employers and candidates were stuck in an inefficient system that wasted time and resources. Therefore, I wanted to build something that flipped the old model on its head, a solution that transformed the entire hiring process, making it faster hiring times and higher quality candidates, and being zero risk for companies while simplifying the job search for candidates.. That vision led to the creation of OptimHire, a platform that uses AI to screen, match, and deliver qualified candidates in days instead of months. To empower candidates, we also built Job Copilot, an AI assistant that automates job searching and applications, continuously identifying new opportunities and applying on their behalf, reducing their effort by nearly 90% and helping them stay ahead in their career journey..”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kodali explained:
“OptimHire’s core product is our end-to-end AI hiring platform that includes:
- AI Recruiter: An AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS) that handles sourcing, pre-screening, and scheduling.
- Outcome-Based Pricing: Businesses pay for results, not job clicks.
- Faster Hiring: Companies hire on average in 12 days, reducing hiring costs by up to 80%.
- Risk-Free Model: Customers can choose between a 6% flat recruitment fee or approximately $300/month for a full-time AI recruiter.”
- Job Copilot (AI for candidates)
- A personal AI job assistant that helps candidates get hired faster and with less effort
- Job Copilot finds matching roles within and outside of OptimHire’s ecosystem, tracks interview progress, and even adapts based on candidates’ preferences
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Kodali acknowledged:
“Over the past few years, the tech hiring landscape has experienced extreme volatility, from talent shortages to layoffs. Rather than reacting to market swings, we focused on building an adaptable AI infrastructure that works across tech sectors and hiring needs. As a result, we successfully filled 8,000 positions in 2024 alone for companies like Amazon, Google and Dropbox. Now, with recent partnerships with companies like Monster + CareerBuilder amd Nexxt Inc., we’ve expanded our platform to support hiring roles across all verticals, which will help us stay resilient and continue delivering value, no matter the industry.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kodali cited:
“Since launching, OptimHire has achieved several major milestones that reflect both our growth and the value we’re delivering to customers. We’ve grown our candidate database to over 220+ million professionals and successfully filled more than 8,000 roles in 2024 alone. Earlier this year, we closed a $6 million funding round led by Mucker Capital, which is helping to fuel our expansion into new markets and product capabilities. We also just announced two new hires on our team – Veronica Kautz former ZipRecruiter executive, who will serve as our Chief Revenue Officer, and Sam Bhooshi,a former Monster sales leader who joined OptimHire as our VP of Sales. Our latest milestone is the launch of Job Copilot, which marks the completion of our connected AI hiring ecosystem.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Kodali about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Absolutely! One recent example comes to mind. A client named “IT Idealogy”. They were in a high-pressure situation because they urgently needed around 15 Salesforce Developers for a project that had already started. The urgency was so high that, in their words, they needed the candidates “yesterday.” This was a multi-million dollar project with a very reputable client for them. I am proud to say OptimHire was able to deliver those 15 Salesforce candidates in just two days. This was a result of their effort as well. They took 50+ back-to-back interviews in less than two days. By working together, we were able to give them 15 high-quality candidates to save that project.”
Funding
When asking Kodali about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“We recently closed a $6 million funding round led by Mucker Capital, with participation from SparkLabs, Citta Capital, Pitbull Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The capital will drive OptimHire’s expansion into new markets while advancing its platform to meet the evolving demands of a rapidly changing global workforce.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kodali assessed:
“We’re addressing the $180+ billion global recruitment market by lowering talent acquisition time from six months to an average of twelve days and cutting costs by 80%. As more companies demand speed, precision, and ROI from their hiring processes, we see a massive opportunity to redefine the entire recruiting stack with AI.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kodali affirmed:
“Unlike other hiring solutions that require you to pay for clicks or sponsored job posts, with OptimHire, you only pay for interviews conducted with qualified candidates. The benefit to businesses is that the AI tool still screens all of the candidates who applied, but businesses only pay for the qualified leads. Furthermore, the hiring team saves time by only meeting with the top candidates. Our combination of speed, affordability, and zero-risk is unmatched in the market. This ensures ROI, efficiency, and transparency. What sets us further apart is our AI-to-AI hiring model, where our recruiter AI collaborates with the candidate’s Job Copilot. This synergy automates sourcing, screening, and scheduling – making hiring smarter, faster, and more human at the same time.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kodali concluded:
“We aim to expand into new industries, introduce self-service hiring for small businesses, and advance AI-to-AI automation to make hiring nearly autonomous. Our long-term goal is to create the world’s most efficient AI hiring ecosystem, where companies hire without friction and candidates find opportunities effortlessly. Our AI Recruiter (for companies) and Job Copilot (for candidates) interact seamlessly with modern HR tech, allowing our AI to communicate directly with HR systems or other AI tools.”
