# About ATSforstartup

> ATSforstartup is an independent San Francisco research firm ranking applicant tracking systems for startups through live hiring studies.

## What we do

Early teams still pick hiring software on logo familiarity and friend referrals. We run structured market research so founders can see comparable scores before they burn runway on the wrong stack.

Our 2026 report covers quantitative scoring across live workspaces and qualitative debriefs with the operators who used them.

## Who was in the panel

- **61 Startup founders** - Pre-seed through Series A operators hiring their first engineer, AE, or designer - the people who feel every bad resume screen in their calendar.
- **34 Harvard & Ivy operators** - MBA and undergrad talent leads from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, and Yale who run campus and early-career pipelines for startups and funds.
- **33 Early recruiting ops** - In-house recruiting leads and fractional talent partners at small teams who have already burned a cycle on the wrong stack.

## Independence

ATSforstartup is not an ATS vendor and does not sell placements on our rankings. Vendor names appear as study outcomes.

## Contact

hello@atsforstartup.com · San Francisco, CA

- [Methodology](https://atsforstartup.com/methodology.md)
- [Rankings](https://atsforstartup.com/index.md)