Snyder describes co-founding Textio with her husband, Jensen Harris, whose user experience background complemented her work in language and statistical modeling. She says their trust and distinct strengths helped them build together, though their relationship made some investors hesitant at first.
Textio
Speaker
Kieran Snyder, co-founder and CEO of Textio, explains lessons from building the company at the Seattle Female Founders Conference, hosted by Y Combinator.
Textio began with a Kickstarter predictor, which showed that language and presentation could predict project outcomes. The founders focused the broader idea of augmented writing on job posts, where Snyder had relevant relationships and companies had both recruiting challenges and performance data. That focus helped Textio prove value in a specific market while building toward its wider vision.
A 2016 rebrand changed both Textio’s visual identity and how the team described its product. Snyder says customers cared more about outcomes, such as filling jobs two weeks faster or bringing 23% more women into engineering pipelines, than ease of use alone.
Textio first sold individual seats for about $59 a month, but enterprise customers could share a few seats instead of adopting the product broadly. The company shifted to a flat fee based on open jobs, allowing unlimited users and encouraging wider use. Snyder says revenue rose after the change and customers no longer had to limit access.
Early press coverage focused heavily on bias, while Textio’s broader ambition was to improve workplace writing. The team expanded its story to include writing and company culture, using examples such as Amazon job posts being 33 times more likely to contain “wickedly.” Snyder says the broader framing helped establish augmented writing as the category Textio wanted to build.
Takeaways
- Choose a co-founder whose skills complement yours and whose judgment you trust.
- Start with a focused customer problem where your team has a credible advantage.
- Explain the measurable outcome your product delivers, not only how easy it is to use.
- Design pricing around customer value and the adoption pattern that makes the product work.
- Update your company’s story as it grows, so early coverage does not define its full ambition.
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What was claimed 17
- metricTextio: $29.5 million raised
“We’ve raised $29.5 million so far.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- ceo ofKieran Snyder CEO of TextioCEO
“the CEO of Textio”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- foundedKieran Snyder founded Textio
“We were founded in late 2014.”
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- previously atKieran Snyder previously at
Microsoft“I was at Microsoft for about eight and a half years.”
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- previously atKieran Snyder previously at Amazon
“I did a study when I was at Amazon.”
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- featureTextio: Analyzes writing patterns to identify language associated with audience engagement.
“your engine can find the patterns: which words, formats, and constructions get one group to engage”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- builtTextio built Kickstarter predictor
“The very first thing we built... was a Kickstarter predictor.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureKickstarter predictor: Predicted whether a Kickstarter project would make money; reached 97% predictive in minute one of a project.
“We got to 97% predictive in minute one of a project.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role atJensen Harris is CTO at Textio
“Jensen Harris, our CTO”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- foundedJensen Harris founded Textio
“I started the company with Jensen Harris, our CTO.”
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- metricTextio: 65 employees
“we’re still only 65 people”
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- featureTextio: Product use can result in 23% more women entering the pipeline for engineering and technology roles.
“get 23% more women into the pipeline for engineering and technology roles”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureTextio: Companies using the product can fill jobs two weeks faster.
“companies using the product fill their jobs two weeks faster”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureTextio: Enterprise pricing is a flat fee based on the number of open jobs, with unlimited users during the subscription term.
“a flat fee according to the number of jobs you have open... and you can add as many people as you want”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureTextio: Customers who share outcomes data pay less to use the platform.
“If they’re data partners, they pay less to use the platform”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricTextio: 350 million jobs with outcomes attached in its job engine; adding about 10 million a month
“about 350 million jobs with outcomes attached, and we’re adding about 10 million a month”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureTextio: Gender-neutral job postings at Expedia were associated with jobs filling three weeks faster.
“when Expedia's jobs are gender neutral, they fill three weeks faster”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
