Handshake
Handshake operates a career network used by 20 million knowledge workers, 1,600 educational institutions, and 1 million employers, including all Fortune 500 companies. The company has raised $495 million in funding.
About
Handshake provides a platform connecting students, job seekers, and employers for career discovery, hiring, and skills development. Its network spans freelance AI training gigs, internships, and full-time roles across industries.
The company has scaled to serve millions of users and every Fortune 500 company since its 2014 founding. With $495 million in funding, Handshake has built a substantial presence in the career networking space.
Founders and leadership
Engineering is Handshake's largest function, accounting for 61 of the analyzed profiles. The company employs between 501 and 1,000 people, based on self-reported data.
The Handshake org chart
Garrett Lord (CEO - Co-Founder) leads 59 mapped leaders with 10 direct reports. Click +N to expand a team; names link to the person’s public profile.
Talent flow
Handshake recruits heavily from tech giants, with Google, Outlier, Amazon, and Scale AI being top sources of talent. Many alumni move to public professional profile platforms and major tech companies like Google and Salesforce.
Most common previous employers of Handshake staff: Google (25), Outlier (19), Amazon (17), Scale AI (17), LinkedIn (15), Deloitte (12). Former Handshake employees most often moved to LinkedIn (10), Mercor (9), Google (7), Salesforce (7), Amazon (6), HR Acuity (6).
Alumni worth knowing
The Handshake mafia
Handshake alumni have founded 44 companies, including Persona, Nourish, Anduin Transactions, VivaCity, and Flo. These startups collectively employ thousands of people across various industries.
45Jason Hreha, was Vice President of Product until 2016Stephanie Liu, was Software Engineer until 2019Eliot Hodges, was Advisor until 2017Bradley Ericson, was Sales Manager, Named Accounts until 2023Katherine Allen, was Account Management & Customer Support Intern until 2017
David Shull, was Senior Director, Skills Partnerships until 2022
Katie Williams, was Director, Education Success and Operations until 2021
Tom Pae, was Director, Sales Operations & Enablement until 2019
Asif Makhani, was Chief Technology Officer until 2023
Anu Vora, was Product Marketing and Customer Success until 2016
Kamal Nahas, was Technical Consultant until 2021
Collin Barnwell, was Software Engineering Intern until 2014
Rocque Perez, was Campus Marketing Consultant until 2018
Sean Pritchard, was Employer Partnerships until 2020
Jason Young, was Advisor until 2021
Estefania Martinez Pardo, was Consultant until 2021
Ibrahim Noon, was Software Engineer until 2026
Neek Zanfack, was Designer(Kleiner Perkins Fellow) until 2018
Davis Schneider, was Senior Director of Product, Jobs & Self-Service until 2024
Jason Webster, was Regional Vice President of Enterprise Sales until 2023
Jackie Chen, was Investor until 2025
Guillermo A. Fisher, was Director of Engineering, Infrastructure until 2021
Elizabeth M. Sage, MBA, CMP, was Head of Conference Strategy and Production until 2023
Venkata Ramana Reddy Duggempudi, was AI fellow until 2025
Johnpaul Mbagwu, was Data Scientist and Red Teaming Domain Expert AI Trainer until 2026
Nehemiah Green, was Business Development Manager, Employer Product Team until 2018
Neriah Okolo, was AI & ML Researcher until 2025
Ashraf S., was AI Trainer - Cybersecurity Expert until 2025
Celes Buffard, was AI Contractor — Handshake AI until 2026
Melanie L., was MOVE AI Fellow - QA Tester until 2026
Kyle Hatfield, was MOVE Fellow – AI Research & Model Validation until 2025
Timothy Liu, was AI Fellow - Finance Expert until 2025
William Cormier, M.S., was AI Training Data Specialist until 2026
Hugo Bolivar W., was AI Training Contributor until 2026
Andrew Denta, was Full Stack Engineer until 2019
Ryan Kent, was Early Member until 2016
Patrick Morgan, was Mid-Market, Account Executive until 2024
Abhishek Mynam, was AI Engineer until 2025
Chanaka Navarathna, was AI Trainer until 2026
Samhita Karnati, was Product Manager until 2023
Kaajal Baheti, was Principal Product Manager, Employer Growth until 2025Hiring now
Web traffic
Traffic mix: 70% direct, 24% search, 0% social, 0% paid.
Where the team actually sits
Handshake people are concentrated in California, United States (97), San Francisco Bay Area (62), United States (41), New York, United States (39).
Search footprint
Handshake attracts about 629,500 organic search visits a month, traffic worth roughly $2M a month if bought through ads. It gained 51,386 ranking keywords and lost 33,429 in the last period.
What employees say
- Compensation
- 3.20 / 5
- Career opportunities
- 2.80 / 5
- Senior management
- 2.50 / 5
- Work-life balance
- 3.70 / 5
Frequently asked
Handshake has raised $495M in total, most recently a Series Unknown round in May 2026.
Handshake was founded in 2014 by Garrett Lord, Luke B..
Garrett Lord (CEO - Co-Founder) sits at the top of Handshake's reporting structure, with 10 direct reports.
The most common previous employers of current Handshake staff are Google (25 people), Outlier (19 people), Amazon (17 people).
Former Handshake employees most often move to LinkedIn (10), Mercor (9), Google (7).
At least 44 companies have a founder who previously worked at Handshake, including Persona, Nourish, Anduin Transactions.
Handshake attracts about 629,500 organic search visits a month, worth roughly $2M a month in equivalent ad spend.
Handshake staff are concentrated in California, United States (97), San Francisco Bay Area (62), United States (41).
Computed from 576 current and 886 former Handshake profiles, as of September 2026. Source: Crustdata.
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