As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, recent graduates are facing longer waits to find employment, often settling for positions that don’t match their career aspirations. Addressing this gap, an emerging startup named Drafted aims to streamline the hiring process for early-career job seekers and the companies eager to recruit them.
Drafted differentiates itself by utilizing artificial intelligence and personalized video resumes to effectively match candidates with potential employers, moving beyond standard keyword-driven systems that dominate traditional job platforms. The company has already secured partnerships with over 3,500 businesses across various sectors, ranging from rapidly growing startups to prominent Fortune 500 corporations. Notable companies partnered with Drafted include Google, Amazon, DoorDash, and numerous startups associated with the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program.
To attract and onboard talented individuals entering the workforce, Drafted has established direct partnerships with prominent universities such as UCLA, the University of Miami, Georgetown University, and the University of Chicago, among others. These relationships help ensure a steady flow of young professionals seeking internships and first-job opportunities onto the platform.
Drafted was founded by Andrew Kozlovski, a seasoned entrepreneur, and Rodrigo Pecchio, an experienced software engineer previously at Amazon. Kozlovski had previously started Brainz Power, a nutritional supplement business that generated monthly revenues between $10,000 and $30,000, providing him a path to finance his own education. Despite his entrepreneurial success in consumer supplements, Kozlovski aspired to create broader societal impact.
After working closely with startups and seeing firsthand the challenges faced by both early-stage businesses in finding the right hires and new graduates struggling to find suitable employment, Kozlovski conceived of Drafted as a solution to bridge these gaps. He teamed up with Pecchio, a fellow alumnus from USC, who now serves as CTO and co-founder.
The Drafted platform guides job seekers through an intuitive process requiring them to input basic personal details such as name, institution, and educational background. They then record a short video profile by responding to standard interview questions frequently asked by recruiters, including personal strengths and overcoming professional challenges. These video resumes help applicants express themselves more fully, giving potential employers deeper insight into their communication style and character.
On the employer side, companies can easily search through candidate profiles by filtering for specific universities, skill sets, and other criteria. The interface presents employers with qualified candidates and a compatibility score driven by Drafted’s AI system, reflecting the fit between candidates’ abilities, personalities, and company culture. According to Kozlovski, video resumes drastically reduce hiring timelines, condensing what might have previously taken weeks to complete into a matter of hours.
Kozlovski emphasizes that Drafted’s approach represents a significant shift from traditional resume scanning techniques, which can miss qualified candidates merely due to keyword mismatches. With video, he argues, employers engage more deeply with each candidate and make better-informed hiring decisions.
Currently free to job seekers, Drafted intends to always remain free for individuals searching for positions. While the platform is also presently available to recruiters without charge, the startup plans to implement a subscription-based pricing system in the future, scalable to usage and far cheaper than conventional recruitment agency fees.
Looking forward, Kozlovski aspires to position Drafted as the premier job-search platform for recent college graduates, becoming their primary resource as they navigate landing their first significant roles post-university. For now, growth remains Drafted’s main priority as it continues to onboard students and expand company partnerships.
