# Benjamin Encz

> Benjamin Encz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ashby, a San Francisco-based AI-native recruiting platform used by companies like OpenAI, Shopify, and Snowflake. A German-born software engineer turned recruiting-infrastructure builder, he spent 80% of his time on recruiting operations as Director of Engineering at PlanGrid before co-founding Ashby in 2018. Under his leadership, Ashby has grown to 2,700+ customers, 380 employees, and $142.5M in total funding including a $50M Series D in 2025.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-Founder at Ashby
- **Organizations:** Ashby, Y Combinator (W19), PlanGrid (Autodesk), Make School, DATAGROUP SE, Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW)
- **From:** Germany
- **Nationality:** German
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Applied Computer Science, Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Ashby, which reached $2M ARR with only 3 employees in its first year, Led Ashby to $142.5M in total funding including a $50M Series D in 2025, Grew Ashby customer base to 2,700+ including OpenAI, Shopify, Snowflake, Ramp, Notion, and Cursor

## Career timeline

- **2008-2011** — B.Sc. in Applied Computer Science, DHBW, Germany
- **2008-2011** — IBM Co-Op Student (concurrent with studies)
- **2011-2013** — Software Engineer & Project Lead at DATAGROUP SE
- **2012-2013** — Lecturer at DHBW (part-time)
- **2013-2015** — Software Engineer at Make School
- **2015-2018** — iOS Engineer, then Engineering Manager, then Director of Engineering at PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk)
- **2018** — Co-founded Ashby with Abhik Pramanik; joined Y Combinator W19
- **2018-2019** — Raised $3.5M seed round; maintained 3-person team
- **2019** — Ashby hit $2M ARR with team of 3
- **2022** — Ashby public launch (September 2022)
- **2023** — Ashby raised Series C ($30M); 6x revenue growth milestone
- **2025** — Ashby raised Series D ($50M) led by Alkeon Capital; 2,700+ customers; $142.5M total funding

## Achievements

- Co-founded Ashby, which reached $2M ARR with only 3 employees in its first year
- Led Ashby to $142.5M in total funding including a $50M Series D in 2025
- Grew Ashby customer base to 2,700+ including OpenAI, Shopify, Snowflake, Ramp, Notion, and Cursor
- Created ReSwift, a widely-used Redux-like state management library for Swift/iOS
- Speaker at Transform 2025 HR conference
- Led engineering at PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk for $875M in 2018) before founding Ashby
- Accepted into Y Combinator W19 batch

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Ashby raises $50M Series D led by Alkeon Capital, with participation from Lachy Groom, F-Prime, Elad Gil, Gaingels; total funding reaches $142.5M
- **2025-05** — Benjamin Encz speaks at Transform 2025 conference
- **2024-07** — Featured in 'How to Maximize Efficiency in Recruiting' YouTube interview
- **2024-04** — Appeared on #thePOZcast at Transform HR Las Vegas discussing data-driven hiring

## Links

- Website: http://blog.benjamin-encz.de/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminencz/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/benjaminencz
- GitHub: https://github.com/Ben-G
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnGb8nD2OCxyGvG3J6ag4GQ

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/benjamin-encz
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-17