We built Pithy after reading 3,000 cover letters in one hiring season.
Six people in six US cities, building the shortest route from a job post to a letter someone finishes reading.
How it started
In 2023 Dana Whitfield ran recruiting for a 40-person freight company in Columbus. One hiring season brought 3,000 applications, and nearly every one came with a cover letter. Most ran past 400 words and never mentioned the job, so Dana read the first two lines of each and moved on.
The letters that led to interviews had three things in common. They were short, they named the role, and they proved one thing the post asked for. Marcus Oyelaran, an engineer Dana had worked with at Brightline Freight, thought software could write that letter from a job post and a resume.
Pithy launched in March 2024 and has written 1.2 million letters since. The median draft is 212 words, and every claim in a draft still has to come from something the writer actually did.
2024
Founded in Columbus, Ohio
6
People on the team
1.2M
Letters written
4.9
Average rating from 12,400 reviews
Three rules every draft follows.
1
Short letters win.
Hiring managers skim. Every draft shows a live read time, and most land between 180 and 250 words, so the case for you fits on one screen.
2
We never invent experience.
Every claim in a draft comes from your resume or something you typed. When a post asks for a skill you have not listed, Pithy flags the gap and leaves the answer to you.
3
Your data stays yours.
Resumes and letters are encrypted, never sold and never used to train public models. Delete your account and everything goes with it within 30 days.
Six people in six cities.
We are small on purpose. Every support email is answered by someone on this list.
Dana Whitfield
Cofounder and CEO
Columbus, OH
Recruiting lead, Brightline Freight
Marcus Oyelaran
Cofounder and CTO
Pittsburgh, PA
Staff engineer, Ledgerly
Lena Sorensen
Head of design
Minneapolis, MN
Product designer, Fernway Health
Jamal Carter
Writing lead
Atlanta, GA
Career coach, Halden State University
Sofia Marchetti
Support lead
Denver, CO
Support lead, Driftwell
Ben Achterberg
Machine learning engineer
Austin, TX
ML engineer, Copperline
We are hiring two people for 2027.
A senior engineer and a second support lead, both remote within US time zones. Tell us what you would fix first in Pithy.
Write to us about a role
