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.
Venture Capital Tracker logo
Venture Capital Tracker

Startup profile · funding coverage

Proven.com funding, valuation and investors

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

Keep track of Proven.com

Save this profile to your VCT watchlist for a quick return.

View watchlist

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 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: https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/17/proven-mobile-jobs/

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

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 Marketplaces

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.
Website All startups Funding news

By Venture Capital Tracker

Last updated:

Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.