Senseloaf AI, Making Recruiting Less Miserable - CEO Prakhar Arawal

About this episode

In this episode of Austin Tech Connect, Thom Singer talks with Prakhar Agrawal, CEO of Senseloaf AI, an Austin based startup using AI agents to make recruiting faster, more human, and less frustrating for both candidates and hiring teams.

Prakhar shares his path from mechanical engineering to entrepreneurship, and how a broken job search experience in 2017–2018 pushed him to build an "automated matching" approach long before AI became a buzzword. He explains how he reunited with his cofounder, an early NLP practitioner, and tells the origin story behind the name Senseloaf, "making sense of data" with recruiting as the first "slice" of a bigger vision.

The conversation dives into what Senseloaf actually does, from intelligent candidate matching beyond keywords, to a 24/7 conversational agent that engages applicants, to AI powered screening and interview workflows that scale without removing humans from decision making.

Prakhar also discusses the realities of building an AI company in a market filled with hype and mistrust, how the business survived COVID by evolving its model, and why the team is moving toward a value first approach by opening the platform so companies can test it before committing. The episode wraps with a candid look at why Austin attracted him from Boston, what the city does well (and where it can improve) for founders, plus a bigger discussion about the rise of "engineer entrepreneurs" as risk and barriers to building have dropped.

To learn more, visit senseloaf.ai or connect with Prakhar on LinkedIn.

Thank you to the sponsor of the Austin Tech Connect Podcast.... Calavista Software.