Sleeping in Parking Lots to $250M+ Revenue: How Handshake Built Gen Z's Career Platform, Inside its Fast Growing AI Data Labeling Business, Scaling a Three-Sided Marketplace, How AI Changes Hiring
The Peel with Turner Novak
Turner Novak
4.6 • 11 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2025
⏱️ 97 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Garrett Lord is the Co-founder and CEO of Handshake, the career and social network for Gen Z, connecting a million employers, 1,600 universities, and 18 million students and alumni.
We talk through the explosive growth in Handshake’s human AI data labeling business, how AI is changing the job market and careers, advice for scaling a three-sided marketplace, and Garrett’s approach to hiring executive-level talent.
We also get into the early days of Handshake, tapping out his dad’s retirement account to fund the first years, driving across the US landing the first customers, sleeping in McDonald’s parking lots, sneaking into careers fairs, and inside Handshake’s first fundraise that took over seven months.
Shoutout to Jeff Richards, James Alcorn, Ilir Sela, and Ben Christensen for helping brainstorm topics for Garrett.
Thanks to Ramp for supporting this episode. It's the corporate card and expense management platform used by over 40,000 companies, like Shopify, CBRE and Stripe. Time is money. Save both with Ramp. Get your $250 here.
Timestamps:
(3:44) More Gen Z than LinkedIn
(7:11) Helping frontier labs label AI data
(14:43) Masters and PhD students flock to Handshake
(16:52) Why Handshake will win in AI data labeling
(19:24) Growing to $250m+ Revenue
(21:56) KPIs in recruiting marketplace
(24:45) How AI will change careers
(33:57) How to build a Seal Team Six AI team
(37:06) Interning at Los Alamos
(40:00) Breaking into Silicon Valley from Michigan
(44:19) Helping friends get jobs at Palantir
(48:13) Driving across the US sleeping in McDonald’s parking lots
(54:52) Funding early days with his dad’s retirement account
(57:37) Handwriting letters to get the first six customers
(1:03:06) Early product failures and iterations
(1:11:01) Fundraising, crashing on couches for seven months
(1:17:07) Finally closing a Seed round
(1:20:05) Moving from Michigan to SF with no money
(1:23:38) Importance of sequencing new features
(1:29:10) Handshake’s exec recruiting process
(1:32:01) Building a company with your best friends
Referenced
Try Handshake
Careers at Handshake
Peter Thiel Startup School
Paul Graham’s blog
Follow Garrett
Follow Turner
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | More people use Handshake in our demographic than leaves LinkedIn. |
| 0:03.5 | Really? |
| 0:04.0 | Yeah. It's an unconnected graph. So, like, LinkedIn is very focused on who you know, what you've done. But if you think about young people in America, it's like, we haven't done much yet. Yeah. You know, how do you look cool on the network when you, like, have only ever mode wants like I did? Welcome to the Peel. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. |
| 0:23.9 | Today's guest is Garrett Lord. like, have only ever mode wants like I did. Welcome to the Peel. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. |
| 0:23.6 | Today's guest is Garrett Lord, co-founder and CEO of Handshake. |
| 0:26.6 | We have 100% of the Fortune 500, million companies, 1,600 plus universities, 18 million students and alumni. |
| 0:33.6 | Handshik has spent the past decade building the company for this exact moment. Every one of the labs is spending over a billion dollars a year. |
| 0:41.3 | They need experts to provide data to improve their models. |
| 0:44.3 | We talked to Handshake's human AI data labeling business that has taken off. |
| 0:48.3 | The only durable advantage is actually access to an audience. |
| 0:51.3 | We have 500,000 PhDs, 3 million master students. Revenue will grow as a |
| 0:56.2 | combined entity to be like far over 250 to $7,000 this year. We have more demand that we can |
| 1:02.1 | fulfill. We also talk about how AI is changing the job market and careers. The opportunity in many |
| 1:07.0 | fields is to be the young AI equippedequipped, crapped, employee. |
| 1:11.6 | And getting into the early days of Handshake, tapping out his dad's retirement account |
| 1:15.3 | to fund the first years, driving all across the country to land the first customers. |
| 1:19.1 | McDonald's at like nationwide broadband, sleeping back of the parking lot, sneaking into career |
| 1:24.3 | fairs. And I remember grabbing like passes, you know, I had those lane yards. You grabbed a laneyard under the trash. And then you just like flip the scrap. So they tell about yourself. Actually, no, you tell me about yourself. Handshakes very first brutal seven-month fundraise. And when they keep it telling you no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it really gets top-dab confidence. Moving from Michigan Tech to Silicon Valley. |
| 1:46.0 | It was actually co-founder of LinkedIn's house. |
| 1:48.0 | A device for scaling a three-sided marketplace, what the future of hiring |
| 1:52.0 | looks like, and Garrett's unique strategy for hiring executive-level talent. |
| 1:56.0 | And Jeff said that you do a ton of prep and you help the board members to prep also. |
... |
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