SalesDraft (Lindon, Ut), an AI-based recruiting automation startup, raised $3 million in just three weeks, rebounding from early setbacks to rapid growth serving direct-to-consumer home services. The round was led by Tower Research Capital. FrazierVC and Marc Jones participated.
SalesDraft, a recruiting automation startup based in Lindon, Utah, has raised $3 million in a funding round led by Tower Research Capital (New York), with participation from Frazier VC (Lehi) and Marc Jones (New Orleans) — who sold SunPro Solar to ADT Inc. in December 2021 for $850 million. The deal came together in just three weeks, underscoring a sharp rebound for the company less than a year after losing its largest customer and half its revenue.
"As early-stage venture capital investors, we speak with numerous customers and prospects during diligence," said Jared Young, Director of Venture Capital at Tower Research Capital. "The feedback on SalesDraft was overwhelmingly positive — the team has clearly identified a critical pain point that their AI solution is uniquely positioned to solve."
“I was impressed that they chose the hard road—owning the entire recruiting workflow instead of bolting onto a bloated HR platform,” said Kendall Frazier, Managing Partner at Frazier VC. “Selling a platform is harder than selling an add-on, but it’s what was required to really move the needle. I spoke with a customer who doubled weekly hires with the same inbound. Easy yes on our end.”
From missions to startups
Co-founders Ethan Whitehead (CEO) and Garrett Franklin (CTO) first met while serving LDS church missions in Oklahoma and Texas. “We liked working together a lot,” Whitehead said. “We weren’t companions, but we spent enough time together to know we clicked — and probably enough to know we’d drive each other crazy living together.”
Whitehead’s career in solar and roofing sales operations exposed a persistent headache: recruiting field sales reps was messy, manual, and a major growth bottleneck. At Encōr Solar and its sister software firm Solo, he began building custom recruiting tools with Franklin’s help.
The spin-out and the hit
In late 2023, Whitehead left Encōr with Franklin and two engineers to launch SalesDraft, taking Encōr as their first and largest customer. “It was a nerve-wracking conversation,” Whitehead recalled. “I told my boss, ‘I want to quit, take some people with me, and have you be our first customer,' and he supported it."
The plan unraveled when Encōr folded three months later after a financing round collapsed, wiping out 50% of SalesDraft’s revenue. “We were working out of our basements, taking turns, insane hours,” Whitehead said. “We floundered for about nine months.”
Finding the real need
Initially, SalesDraft offered a recruiting analytics tool and a basic automation service. The founders soon realized the market needed more. “Ninety percent of the recruiting headaches, especially in sales, are just logistical crap,” Franklin pointed out. “Scheduling, follow-ups, reminders, routing candidates — all of it can be automated so humans can focus on conversations.”
The turning point
In November 2024, industry veteran Jared Biesinger — co-founder of both Encōr and Solo — joined SalesDraft as Chief Revenue Officer and its third co-founder. “We pulled him out of retirement,” Franklin joked. “He started pre-selling SalesDraft, and sales took off.”
All of the company’s growth so far has come via word of mouth. “Jared talks to friends, who talk to friends, who talk to friends,” Whitehead said. “We’re only now starting to do SEO, PPC, and real outbound marketing.”
Who they serve
SalesDraft focuses on direct-to-consumer home services — solar, roofing, windows — where sales teams drive hiring needs. Smaller customers often lack dedicated HR, leaving recruiting to the sales team. Larger organizations face friction between HR and revenue leaders.
“What SalesDraft does is put sales in the driver’s seat for recruiting while giving HR the compliance and oversight they need,” said Whitehead. “Then HR is pumped because they can focus on HR work, not chasing sales contractors.”
Funding details and next steps
The $3 million round moved unusually quickly. The founders opened the raise in early July, met with Tower Research (New York) and Frazier VC (Lehi) in mid-July, and signed a term sheet with Tower about 21 days later. “It was fast — from first meetings to signed term sheet in about three weeks,” Whitehead said. “It says a lot about how serious they were.”
The funds will go toward hiring, product development, and marketing. “We went from launching in November 2024 to $1.4 million in revenue — honestly, we could barely come up for air to raise,” recalls Whitehead.
The company now has ten employees, up from four at launch, and recently moved from a cramped coworking space into its own office on Main Street in Lindon. Upcoming trade show appearances include the “Win the Storm” roofing conference on August 21 and 22 in Dallas, and the massive RE+ renewable energy show in Las Vegas, September 8-11.
For more information visit salesdraft.io.
