SeekOut has appointed Sean Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective May 4, 2026. Co-founder Anoop Gupta, who has led the company since its founding in 2017, will transition to Executive Chairman of the Board.
SeekOut’s platform leverages agentic AI across the full recruiting lifecycle, from sourcing and evaluation to screening and personalized candidate engagement. Through SeekOut Spot, it pairs agentic AI with expert recruiters to deliver interview-ready candidates in less than two weeks at significantly lower cost. SeekOut Recruit puts advanced AI directly in recruiters’ hands across more than one billion candidate profiles.
Thompson, a Seattle-based enterprise software veteran, most recently served as President and CEO of NAVEX, a global SaaS leader in governance, risk, and compliance. He previously held senior roles at SAP Ariba and Microsoft and co-founded Nuiku, an NLP and AI company.
“After more than a decade building SeekOut, this is the right moment to pass the baton,” said Gupta. “Sean is the right leader to take what we’ve built and scale it to its full potential. He brings deep enterprise experience and the humility, humanity, and values this team deserves. I’m excited to continue supporting Sean and the leadership team as Executive Chairman.”
“SeekOut is one of the most consequential companies being built in AI recruiting today,” said Thompson. “Anoop, Aravind, and the team have created something rare: a category-defining platform, world-class customers, and a culture that genuinely cares. Talent acquisition is being rewritten by agentic AI, and SeekOut is uniquely positioned to lead that shift. I’m honored to join, and eager to listen, learn, and help SeekOut win the next decade.”
“Anoop has built SeekOut into a category leader with extraordinary customer love and a differentiated AI platform,” said Soma Somasegar, Managing Director at Madrona and SeekOut Board member. “Sean is exactly the leader for this next chapter, a proven operator with the values and instincts to scale SeekOut thoughtfully. SeekOut has a team built to win as AI reshapes how the world hires.”
Co-founder Aravind Bala will continue as CTO, leading product, engineering, and innovation, and will partner closely with Thompson to drive the company’s next phase of growth.
About SeekOut
SeekOut is the agentic AI recruiting platform helping companies hire AI-forward talent with speed, quality, and agility. SeekOut Spot and SeekOut Recruit combine AI-powered search across 1+ billion candidate profiles with inbound evaluation, AI screening, and personalized outreach and engagement, delivering interview-ready candidates at a fraction of the time and cost. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Bellevue, WA, SeekOut is trusted by more than 750 customers, and is backed by Tiger Global, Madrona, and Mayfield.
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones—and thrive on the tech pulse.