Textio
Facts
- HQ
- Seattle, Washington, US
- Sectors
- Software Development
- Founded
- 2014
- Type
- Corporation Seattle business license
- Employees
- 104
- Registered name
- Textio Inc Seattle business license
- Stage
- startup
- Total raised
- $28M SEC Form D filings Total of this company's SEC Form D filings
- Last round
- $1000K · Oct 2021 SEC Form D
- Founders
- Jensen Harris, Kieran Snyder
AI House hosts Demo Day in Seattle with 25 startups pitching to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado and the Bay Area
AI House hosted a demo day in Seattle where 25 early-stage startups—many outside the incubator’s portfolio—pitched to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado, the Bay Area and other cities to increase outside capital for local founders. Organizers aimed to showcase diverse Seattle startups, from revenue-generating companies to ambitious technologists, and attracted both national and local venture investors.
Microsoft names Silvia Candiani corporate VP at $2.5B Frontier Company; Kevin Frey joins Microsoft Elevate as VP and chief impact officer; AWS promotes Alexis Bateman
Multiple tech companies announced senior hires and promotions: Silvia Candiani named corporate VP for Worldwide Telco & Media at Microsoft Frontier Company; Kevin Frey appointed VP and chief impact officer of Microsoft Elevate; Anne Linge promoted to director of communications at Microsoft; Alexis Bateman promoted to director of global sustainability at AWS; Gradial named a CMO; Yoodli and Kestra each appointed a vice president.
Former Microsoft CVP Jigar Thakkar Named VP of Amazon Quick Suite as Chartis and Supio Announce New Leadership
Jigar Thakkar, former Microsoft corporate vice president, has joined Amazon Quick Suite as vice president, focusing on agentic AI platform development. Additionally, Sara Vaezy returned to Chartis as chief product and technology officer, and legal-tech startup Supio named new executives following a $60 million funding round.
Textio Lays Off 15 Employees Amid Restructuring to Invest in Sales and Product Marketing Roles
Textio, a Seattle-based augmented writing startup, laid off 15 employees in a restructuring effort to invest in roles supporting its growing Feedback product, following earlier layoffs in 2023 and March 2024. The company, founded in 2014 and known for its AI-driven workplace language tools, is shifting focus toward sales and product marketing to meet increased demand for coaching and performance management support.
Kieran Snyder Finds In-Person Tech Teams Show Higher Engagement and Growth Than Remote Ones in 2024
Kieran Snyder analyzes data comparing remote and in-office work, finding that in-person teams have more constructive disagreement, higher participation especially among women, and better growth signals in startups. Despite the popular benefits of remote work, her data suggests in-person collaboration may yield stronger business outcomes.
Textio Lays Off 14 Employees (16% of Staff) to Shift Focus to Bias-Reduction Product
Textio laid off 14 employees, 16% of its workforce, to restructure and focus on its Textio Lift product, which helps reduce bias in workplace language. The company, which has 71 employees and notable clients, has raised $42.5 million and recently underwent leadership changes.
Ada Developers Academy Cuts 45% of Staff Amid Tech Hiring Slowdown, Slows Expansion Despite $10M Grant
Ada Developers Academy laid off 45% of its staff, about 34 employees, due to a tech industry hiring slowdown and fewer internship opportunities for students, impacting its mission to diversify tech. The Seattle-based nonprofit also plans to reduce student enrollment and halt expansion efforts initially funded by a $10 million grant from the Equality Can’t Wait challenge.
Textio Restructures with 15 Job Cuts to Support Growth and Emphasizes Growing Role of Generative AI
Textio, a Seattle-based augmented writing startup, restructured its team by eliminating 15 roles and realigning others to support growth in its two products following last year's launch of a performance management tool. CEO Kieran Snyder emphasized the increasing importance of generative AI in enhancing their writing platform as market expectations evolve.
GeekWire surveys Seattle-area VCs to name Pacific Northwest startups they predict will become unicorns in 2022
GeekWire surveyed more than a dozen Seattle-area venture capitalists for their picks of Pacific Northwest startups likely to reach unicorn status this year, compiling a list of candidate companies with reasons for each selection. The piece notes rising valuations nationwide and excludes VCs' own portfolio companies to reduce bias.
Sarah Bird departs Moz after 14 years and seven-plus years as CEO following June acquisition by iContact (J2 Global)
Sarah Bird is leaving Moz after 14 years at the Seattle SEO software startup, including more than seven years as CEO; Moz was acquired by iContact (a J2 Global subsidiary) this past June and Bird transitioned to EVP and chief revenue officer of the Moz Group before announcing her departure. She plans to take the winter off to rest and has no firm next steps yet.
Karat raises $110M Series C at $1.1B valuation to scale remote technical interviewing
Karat, a Seattle startup that runs technical interviews through a vetted network of interviewers, raised $110 million in a Series C at a $1.1 billion valuation while more than doubling revenue and customers year-over-year.
Humanly raises $4.3M led by Zeal Capital Partners to scale automated hiring tools; total funding $5.3M
Seattle HR startup Humanly raised $4.3 million led by Zeal Capital Partners (bringing total funding to $5.3 million) to expand its recruiting software that automates candidate screening, scheduling, initial communications and reference checks, and claims sixfold revenue growth over the past year.
Textio integrates inclusive-writing guidance into LinkedIn for enterprise customers, CEO Kieran Snyder says
Seattle startup Textio is integrating its augmented writing and inclusive-language guidance directly into LinkedIn, enabling enterprise customers and employees to get real-time suggestions while composing posts and comments on the platform. The move extends Textio’s post-2020 product expansion aimed at improving diversity, equity and inclusion across company communications and external social media.
Outreach names Melton Littlepage CMO and adds Stefan Schulz to board; ShelfEngine hires Kane McCord; Kaskada promotes Charna Parkey
Seattle sales enablement company Outreach (valued at $4.4B) named Melton Littlepage as CMO and added Stefan Schulz to its board; ShelfEngine hired Kane McCord as president and CRO after a $41M Series B; Kaskada promoted Charna Parkey to VP of product. The article lists several executive moves across Seattle-area startups and tech companies.
CoderPad acquires Seattle startup AdaptiLab’s technical interviewing platform as founders James Wu and Allen Lu launch a new developer-focused company
Seattle startup AdaptiLab has sold its technical interviewing platform to CoderPad; terms were not disclosed. Founders James Wu and Allen Lu, who raised $1.8M in a 2019 seed and $2.2M total, are launching a new developer-focused company later this year with existing and new investors.
GeekWire names winners at 2021 Awards; SeekOut wins Startup of the Year after $65M raise
The 2021 GeekWire Awards returned as a virtual event honoring over 60 finalists across 14 categories from the Pacific Northwest tech community, featuring celebrity cameos and performances. Winners included SeekOut as Startup of the Year, and among 16 winners eight were women and five were people of color and/or immigrant entrepreneurs.
Charna Parkey, PhD and former Textio applied scientist, joins Seattle startup Kaskada as data science lead
Charna Parkey, a PhD in signal processing and former Textio applied scientist, is now data science lead at Seattle startup Kaskada, where she focuses on building product-centric tools to help data scientists and data engineers collaborate on enterprise ML applications.
Clearbrief raises $1.2M from Sequoia, Madrona and Avvo founder to commercialize AI legal-writing tool
Seattle startup Clearbrief raised $1.2 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Madrona Venture Group and Avvo founder Mark Britton to commercialize AI-powered legal writing software that checks sentences against supporting evidence and integrates with Microsoft Word and the cloud.
SeekOut raises $65M Series B led by Tiger Global at nearly $500M valuation after 10x ARR growth
Seattle recruiting startup SeekOut raised $65 million in a Series B led by Tiger Global at a near-$500M valuation to expand its Talent 360 recruiting software, after growing ARR 10x in 21 months and remaining profitable.
OfferUp names Niti Bashambu CPO after $120M raise and $1.4B valuation; Flyhomes appoints Amy Sellers VP of Marketing
OfferUp hired Niti Bashambu as chief product officer after raising $120 million and reaching a $1.4B valuation; Flyhomes named Amy Sellers VP of marketing as it expands across five markets. Promethean also hired Chris Hand as chief revenue officer.
Madrona leads $2.6M seed round for OthersideAI to build GPT-3–powered automated email composer
OthersideAI, founded months ago by Matt Shumer, Miles Feldstein and Jason Kuperberg, raised a $2.6M seed round led by Madrona to build a GPT-3–powered tool that automatically composes email drafts; the company is testing a Chrome extension with ~100 early users and a ~10,000-person waitlist.
Textio launches 'Textio for Employer Brand' to infuse DEI language across corporate messaging
Textio launched Textio for Employer Brand, an augmented-writing tool that guides companies to use more diverse, equitable and inclusive language across corporate messaging beyond job listings. The product, now exiting beta, aims to update guidance continuously and apply DEI-focused language suggestions to pages like 'About this company' and culture blog posts as firms rebuild and rehire after the pandemic.
Amazon names Anne Toth director of Alexa Trust; Zillow adds Claire Cormier Thielke to board; Lockstep exits stealth
Amazon hired Anne Toth as director of Alexa Trust to lead privacy, security, accessibility and ethics efforts for Alexa; Zillow added Claire Cormier Thielke to its board and Lockstep, a Seattle accounting-software startup founded in 2019, emerged from stealth with a founding team drawn from Avalara, Globys, e2b Teknologies and Winshuttle.
Humanly raises $800,000 from TMD Ventures, Gusto and Kinetica CFOs to expand AI hiring tools
Seattle startup Humanly raised $800,000 from investors including TMD Ventures, Gusto CFO Mike Dinsdale and Kinetica CFO Dean Neese to expand its AI recruiting tools that screen candidates, schedule interviews and run reference checks amid COVID-19–driven hiring changes. The company says automation and bias-reducing features help employers manage larger applicant pools while improving inclusion.
Leg Up and Seattle tech HR leaders publish employer guide to support working parents during COVID-19
Seattle startup Leg Up and local tech HR leaders released a new guide to help small and medium-sized employers support working parents and caregivers during COVID-19, offering resources, policy suggestions and executive insights. The guide compiles parent experiences, discounts and HR program changes and complements other toolkits like Madrona Venture Group’s Back to Work Toolkit.
People
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Jensen Harris Founder, Co-Founder & Board Member, CTO Emeritus, Executive Officer, Director
