Anoop Gupta co-founded SeekOut in 2017 and has led the company as CEO ever since. After 10+ years building the company, he’s stepping into a new role.
As he shared, while he’s still excited and driven by the question, “what else can I build?” he finds himself increasingly asking a new one: “what else should I make time for, while I still can?”
Starting May 4, 2026, Anoop will move into the role of Executive Chairman of SeekOut, and Sean Thompson will take over as CEO. Anoop will remain involved as Executive Chairman helping where useful, as the company moves forward under Sean’s leadership.
Anoop expressed strong confidence in the transition, sharing: “Sean is exactly the kind of leader SeekOut needs now. He brings experience, judgment, and a genuine understanding of what makes this company special.” He added, “We feel great confidence handing over our SeekOut baby into his care.”
Meet Sean Thompson, SeekOut’s new CEO
Sean is an enterprise software leader based in Seattle. He most recently led NAVEX, a global SaaS company focused on governance, risk, and compliance. Before that, he held senior roles at SAP Ariba and Microsoft, and earlier in his career, he co-founded an NLP and AI company called Nuiku. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Over the past year, Sean stepped away from operating roles and spent time on a ranch in Montana. He wasn’t planning to return, but after seeing what the SeekOut team was building, he decided to come back.
“SeekOut is one of the most consequential companies being built in AI recruiting today,” says Sean. “Anoop, Aravind, and the team have created something rare: a category-defining platform, world-class customers, and a culture that genuinely cares.”
He added, “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.”
What made Sean stand out in the search
When Anoop and co-founder Aravind Bala evaluated candidates, they looked beyond experience scaling enterprise businesses. Sean stood out for how he leads. Anoop pointed to his humility, his focus on people, and the values he brings into the room.
Sean also brings deep experience in AI. SeekOut is moving beyond AI-assisted tools toward agentic AI, where the technology can take on larger parts of the recruiting workflow end to end. This shift requires a leader who understands both the technology and how enterprise teams adopt it.
“Anoop has built SeekOut into a category leader with extraordinary customer love and a differentiated AI platform,” says 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.”
Where SeekOut is headed
SeekOut has been investing heavily in agentic AI recruiting, with two offerings at the center of that work.
SeekOut Spot is an AI recruiting service that combines agentic AI with expert recruiters to deliver interview-ready candidates in under two weeks, at a significantly lower cost than traditional approaches.
SeekOut Recruit is an AI recruiting software that brings AI directly into recruiters’ workflows, helping them source, evaluate, and engage candidates across more than one billion profiles.
Companies are trying to find the right people, and those candidates are often harder to surface than they should be. SeekOut is focused on closing that gap with more speed and precision.
Through this transition, the broader leadership team at SeekOut will remain unchanged. Aravind Bala will continue as CTO, leading product and engineering, and will partner closely with Sean in this next phase.
What this means for customers and partners
Leadership transitions can raise questions from the outside, but this one has been planned with continuity in mind. Anoop will remain closely involved as Executive Chairman, and Sean will step in with a clear understanding of the business and where it’s headed. The team building and supporting the product will stay the same, and the work already in motion will continue without interruption.
Our mission hasn’t changed either. SeekOut was built on the idea that talent across backgrounds and experiences should be visible and accessible. That’s still what drives this company, and it’s in good hands.
