Startup profile for Proven.com: latest funding, latest known valuation, total disclosed funding, investors, status, sources, and why the company is interesting. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.
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Proven.com funding, valuation and investors

Mobile hiring app for small businesses — acquired by Upward in 2019.

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Funding, valuation & investors

Answer-first snapshot

Latest funding

Seed

$1M · July 2013

Latest known valuation

Not publicly disclosed

Total disclosed equity funding

$1M

Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.

Current status

acquired

acquired · San Francisco, CA

Investors in latest funding

Lead: Andreessen Horowitz

Other: Greylock Partners

Sources: latest funding · techcrunch.com Last verified: 2026-07-25

Overview

Proven (Proven.com) built a mobile-first hiring platform for small businesses to post jobs across 100+ boards (Indeed, Craigslist, Simply Hired) and manage applicants from a phone. Pablo Fuentes, Sean Falconer, and Joe Mellin co-founded the company in 2009 while Stanford graduate students; it grew to 1,000+ SMB customers across San Francisco and Austin. Andreessen Horowitz led a $1M round in July 2013 (part of $3.8M total raised) with Greylock Partners, Kapor Capital, and Founder Collective participating. Upward.net acquired Proven in August 2019; founder Fuentes joined Upward as SVP of Marketing while the product expanded Upward's SMB offering.

Why Proven.com is interesting

Pablo Fuentes built mobile-first SMB hiring before Indeed's app matured — a16z and Greylock backed the seed before Upward acquired the decade-old business in 2019.

Product & use cases

Proven offered mobile job posting, multi-board syndication, applicant tracking, messaging, and interview scheduling for SMB owners hiring from their phones — targeting workers without LinkedIn-centric resumes.

  • Small business mobile hiring and applicant sorting
  • Multi-board job syndication from a single dashboard
  • Entry-level and service-industry job applications from smartphones
  • On-the-go interview scheduling and candidate messaging

Key facts

  • Seed follow-on (Jul 2013): $1M led by a16z; $3.8M total raised (TechCrunch)
  • Greylock Partners, Kapor Capital, Founder Collective, 500 Startups among backers
  • Acquired by Upward.net (Aug 2019) — Pablo Fuentes joined executive team (PR Newswire)
  • Mobile job apply thesis: 'hard to imagine most applications won't happen on smartphone' (CEO, 2013)
  • Posted jobs to 100+ boards including Indeed and Craigslist from one mobile workflow

Funding history (newest first)

Seed

2013-07 $1M

Source: Read source · techcrunch.com

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from Proven.com's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

andreessen-horowitz greylock-partners

Competitive landscape

Edge: Mobile-first UX for SMB hiring in 2013–2019 before incumbent job boards fully optimized for phone-based apply flows.

Proven was early on mobile SMB hiring for workers outside the LinkedIn economy. Rather than scale independently against Indeed and ZipRecruiter, it sold to Upward.net in 2019 — a strategic fit for Upward's SMB job-site expansion.

  • Indeed incumbent

    Dominant job board; mobile apps improved over time, reducing Proven's differentiation.

  • ZipRecruiter direct

    SMB-focused hiring platform with broad syndication; stronger brand at scale.

  • Homebase adjacent

    SMB HR suite with hiring modules; broader workforce management scope.

  • LinkedIn incumbent

    Professional network hiring; poor fit for hourly and service workers Proven targeted.

Notable stories

  • Proven began in 2009 as an SMS job-application service while founders were Stanford grad students — CEO Pablo Fuentes argued mobile apply would win because jobs fill before workers reach a desktop (TechCrunch, 2013).
  • At acquisition, Proven had worked with thousands of small businesses over a decade; Fuentes joined Upward.net as SVP of Marketing rather than exiting entirely (PR Newswire, August 2019).

Industries

enterprise-saas marketplace

Market / IPO context

Editorial / static context — not a live quote.

Related funding articles

Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Proven.com's financing or category context.

FAQs about Proven.com

Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.

A mobile-first hiring app for small businesses to post jobs across multiple boards and manage applicants from a smartphone.
Upward.net acquired Proven in August 2019. Founder Pablo Fuentes joined Upward's executive team.
Andreessen Horowitz led a 2013 funding round; Greylock Partners participated. See /fund/andreessen-horowitz and /fund/greylock-partners.
July 2013 — $1M as part of $3.8M total raised (TechCrunch).
Proven targeted mobile SMB hiring for hourly workers. Indeed is the general job-board incumbent with broader reach.
Proven was absorbed into Upward.net post-acquisition; the standalone Proven brand is no longer independent.
Pablo Fuentes, Sean Falconer, and Joe Mellin co-founded Proven in 2009.
CEO Fuentes argued entry-level jobs fill quickly and many applicants lack desktop access — smartphone apply would become default.
San Francisco and Austin, Texas, serving 1,000+ U.S. small businesses pre-acquisition.
Acquisition terms were not publicly disclosed. Upward.net integrated Proven's SMB capabilities into its job platform.
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