Transforming Job Searches: An Interview with the Founder of Prentus, Rod Danan
Meet Rod Danan: the Founder and CEO of Prentus. Prentus is an all-in-one career success platform designed to streamline the job search process. It leverages AI-powered tools and a supportive community to help job seekers, particularly juniors and recent graduates, navigate the job market efficiently. With personalized application support, job tracking, and preparation resources, Prentus aims to make finding the right job easier and more effective. Let’s dive in!
What inspired you to start Prentus, and what specific problems does it aim to address?
My first job search. As a first-gen immigrant, my parents told me “Get good grades and you’ll get a good job.” It didn’t work like that though. I didn’t understand networking, resumes, and interviews and all I got from the career services department was a resume template. After dozens of rejections, I finally got hired after my roommate shared the unspoken knowledge from his Uncle Bob that got him a job. That experience stuck with me.
A couple of years later I became a Career Advisor of at a tech bootcamp. This time I saw how super talented people job searched for month after month. As much as I wanted to help more people, I was limited by my tools and stuck in spreadsheets.
Once COVID made me shut down my last startup, I decided I’d dedicate the next chapter of my life to making the job search fair, fast, and fun. I tested multiple ideas such as short-term apprenticeships (hence our name) before deciding to build a platform to help make career services a student-first experience in May 2021.
After 2 years of testing the product with bootcamps and optimizing for engagement, we launched Prentus: an all-in-one career success platform for higher ed institutions to boost and track job outcomes. Our approach involves combining AI, community, and gamification to build a job search experience that doesn’t suck for students. For the over 20 schools we work with, it brings together every function of great career services into a single, simple system. And we’re just getting started.
What role does community play in Prentus?
During my exploratory phase, I built a Discord community to help job seekers get hired during dog days of COVID. I saw how being able to chat, ask questions, and attend events helped keep people motivated and crush loneliness. People without social capital could quickly learn the unspoken rules and hear how people really landed jobs.
That’s why I built Community as a core pillar of Prentus’s values and product from day one. Every school we onboard can quickly connect students in a social feed, host events, and share resources. Not to mention a leaderboard for people to compete as they complete job search-related tasks. Job searching is about people — so we keep that front and center.
What sets Prentus apart from other companies in your industry and what unique values does Prentus provide to job seekers in the marketplace?
We give a sh*t about students. Students don’t want to use 10 different platforms. Students don’t want clunky interfaces. Students don’t want to end up lost on what to do next.
That’s why at Prentus, we provide a single, easy-to-use platform for any person to become a great job seeker. It has AI job search tools, a Duolingo-like interface, and a community of peers to lean on when things get tough. No matter where someone comes from, they can use Prentus to land a great job — even if they’re starting from scratch like I did. As a result, the schools we work with get what they want: happier students who get hired faster. We’re flipping traditional career services on its head.
What milestones has Prentus achieved thus far and what do you hope to achieve in the near future?
Bootcamps are the most outcome-oriented schools which made them a natural testing ground. We have grown to 20 bootcamps total including the biggest players like 2U. In total, we have served more than 22,000 students and will serve 5x that number by the end of 2024.
Our main focus now is expanding into forward-thinking universities and colleges. We have already started pilots with the largest community college in the country and the top for-profit university in the space. By the end of 2025, we expect to be in over 100 outcome-focused schools and will hit 1000 in the next 5 years as we become the go-to student-first career success platform.
How did your personal experience with the job search process influence the development and growth of Prentus?
It comes down to two main things. First, when building Prentus, I approached it from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about job searching, inspired by my first job search experience. The question was, can Prentus help me find a job even if I don’t know where to start? That has been a guiding principle in our product development.
Where do you see Prentus long-term?
Our goal is to make job outcomes the priority — not an afterthought. It starts with helping every job seeker get a fair shot at their dream role but there is so much green space. We want to help employers identify rising talent without relying on a resume. We want to hold schools accountable for delivering jobs for the students they serve. We want to help students find the schools that deliver job outcomes. But our guiding mission will always be to make job searching fair, fast, and fun.
Second, and more importantly, the lasting impact of my first job search experience pushes me to have the grit to keep going. Startups are tough, and there are always moments when things get hard, and you feel like quitting. People may even tell you to quit. What kept me going was thinking back to my own experiences and wanting to make sure that I could change that experience for someone. I wanted to ensure that future job seekers in my position have a fair shot at finding a job, landing their dream role, and living out their goals.
What role do you see AI playing in the job search market, and specifically, how is it integrated into Prentus to benefit both students and employers?
One of the misconceptions about AI is that it’s here to replace people. We believe you can never replace humans — but you can make them more efficient. On the advisor side, our platform helps advisors extend themselves with customizable AI for grading resumes, generating cover letters, and coaching students. This helps advisors spend less time in programs and more time with people. Moving forward, we plan to become more AI-first with real-time, proactive feedback from both students and advisors.
Learn more at Prentus’ website here.
