Kieran Snyder stepping down as CEO
SEATTLE —- Textio, the AI platform purpose-built to help companies hire and develop remarkable teams,announced Kieran Snyder has stepped down as CEO. Jensen Harris, co-founder and CXO, has been unanimously appointed as CEO by the board, effective immediately. Kieran will take the role of Chief Scientist Emeritus and retain her board seat. Jensen’s former role as Chief Experience Officer will be retired.
“When Jensen and I started Textio, our founding intention was to build software that helped people have better experiences at work. We especially wanted our software to create opportunities for people who usually don’t have them. Nine years later, it’s amazing what Textio has achieved,” said Kieran Snyder, co-founder and Chief Scientist Emeritus at Textio. “I spent a lot of time at the end of last year reflecting on whether I’m the right CEO to take Textio into this next wave. Textio is my company, and its impact and success are deeply personal for me. If I’m being honest, nine years in, I need some time to recharge. Textio’s success is much too important to me to show up with only part of the energy required to effectively lead. Through it all, Jensen has been my top partner at Textio and in life. I can imagine no better CEO for the next chapter of Textio’s journey.”
Kieran and Jensen co-founded Textio in 2014, building on Kieran’s years of academic research in language biases and Jensen’s expertise in user experience design and productivity software engineering—culminating in the launch of Textio Loop for inclusive recruiting. This product pioneered the use of generative AI in the workplace and created the category of augmented writing software.
Since then, Textio has become one of the most trusted sources in HR on language and AI technologies, expanding beyond inclusive recruiting to launch Textio Lift in 2022, an AI tool that helps people managers deliver fair and effective feedback to build high-functioning teams. In 2023, Textio Lift revenue grew 7x, with 100% of existing customers renewing. Companies using Textio Lift have seen problematic language in performance feedback drop by 50-100%, leading to higher performing teams and businesses.
Together, Kieran and Jensen’s leadership has helped more than 1,300 customers use Textio to write more inclusively, impacting more than 30 million employees at these companies. The company’s learning hub, Textio U, has certified thousands of leaders on interrupting bias in hiring and equitable performance feedback.
Textio is now at an inflection point, one focused on rapidly bringing Textio Lift to more customers looking to scale effective performance feedback across their teams, building on Textio’s reputation as the most trusted vendor of generative AI in the people space.
“I’m so honored and excited to have been given the opportunity to lead Textio as CEO. And, as Kieran’s co-founder, her colleague, and her husband, I’m also excited for her to be able to take a step back from the grind of leading a company to decompress and recharge from everything she’s accomplished,” said Jensen Harris, co-founder and CEO of Textio. “As I look ahead to leading Textio, I’m energized to accelerate the company beyond this current inflection point. To date, Textio Lift has been our fastest growing and most successful product by every key metric—sales growth, user adoption, customer satisfaction, net retention and growth—you name it. This product transforms the way managers and employees communicate, along the way creating fairer and more effective organizations. The year ahead will be laser-focused on taking Textio Lift to the next level. It’s rare to see a new product take off with this kind of momentum!”
“Under Kieran’s leadership, Textio has become one of the most influential organizations on language bias and AI technologies, and the company is now a multi-product powerhouse. Kieran built a passionate team who developed a remarkable platform that has impacted millions of people for the better,” said Stacey Bishop, partner at Scale Ventures and Textio board member. “As co-founder, Jensen has supported and guided every decision alongside Kieran and we’re confident he will continue the work they started together. We’re excited for the next phase of Textio’s growth and we’ll be with Jensen and the team every step of the way.”
