00:00 Introduction to Vouch and Founder's Journey
03:58 The Evolution of Vouch: From Concept to Product
06:38 Navigating the Startup Landscape: Lessons Learned
09:30 The Importance of Content Creation in Recruitment
12:39 Building a Seamless User Experience
15:23 Balancing Perfection and Speed in Product Development
18:34 Significant Changes at Vouch: A New Direction
21:07 Navigating Product-Led Growth Challenges
24:25 Shifting Focus: From Freemium to Enterprise
27:38 Understanding the Employer Brand
30:59 The Importance of Transparency in Talent Marketing
34:27 Lessons Learned from Startup Turbulence
39:07 Adapting to a Competitive Landscape
42:09 Integrating AI Thoughtfully into Vouch
45:22 Future Directions for Vouch

Kaga Bryan:

Okay, so I’ll introduce myself first. I’m Kaga, I head up brand and strategy here at Until Now. I’ve been here for about five years, so everything brand-related comes under my wheelhouse. Over to you, Gary.

Gary Zurnamer:

I’m Gary, co-founder and CEO of Vouch. I’ve been lucky enough to know Kaga for about 15 years.

Kaga Bryan:

Probably about 15, yeah.

Gary Zurnamer:

Terrifying but beautiful at the same time.

Kaga Bryan:

It’s been a journey, multiple phoenix moments. Before we get into your founder journey, first—what is Vouch?

Gary Zurnamer:

Like any startup, we’re always evolving. We started as a platform helping teams create video content, then expanded into written as AI allowed us to. Today, we help talent, hiring, and recruitment teams move faster by creating all sorts of content needed to fill roles. Recruiters, hiring managers, and employer brand teams use Vouch to record and build assets—video and written—and publish them across careers sites, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, anywhere candidates engage.

Behind the scenes, Vouch also acts as an AI assistant for recruiters: centralizing policies, files, and docs into a workspace where teams can collaborate, tag, run AI search, and generate content.

Kaga Bryan:

We’ll circle back to that. But let’s go back in time. You mentioned we’ve known each other for about 15 years. I think it’s worth revisiting that journey—back to 2011/2012 at The Iconic.

Gary Zurnamer:

Yep. Back then, I didn’t even have a desk—I was floating around. My career path wasn’t planned toward being a founder. I came out of uni wanting to be a marketer, worked on campaigns at The Iconic, then moved to London agency-side. Later, I joined an Aussie startup called Stackla—less than 10 people at the time. That opened the door to tech, and eventually took me to New York. After that, I came back and joined Canva just as they were building their enterprise motion.

Kaga Bryan:

So you had marketing, sales, and brand-building experience layered with tech. How did Vouch come about?

Gary Zurnamer:

Vouch started at the end of 2021. The thesis: B2B teams need short-form video content but lack production resources. Our wedge was customer testimonials—the most valuable content for sales. The core feature was a link-based, guided recording flow: you send a link, people record with prompts and time targets, and it just works across devices. We built in auto-transcription, tagging, and organization. That’s still a pillar of the product today.

Kaga Bryan:

We worked together in 2022—you already had an MVP, the name, and identity. We helped refine that recording experience and positioning. It was clear the UX had to be seamless, right?

Gary Zurnamer:

Exactly. Recording had to work across browsers, devices, and networks without breaking. Our end users often sent links to their customers—busy executives, CMOs, major brands—so quality and reliability mattered. That’s still what we’re known for.

Kaga Bryan:

How do you balance shipping fast with getting it right?

Gary Zurnamer:

It’s always a judgment call. Early-stage startups don’t have the luxury of holding back forever, but enterprise buyers expect polish. Sometimes we ship with a beta tag, sometimes we delay until it’s solid. Honestly, we’re still figuring that out.

Kaga Bryan:

Then came a big shift in 2022–2023.

Gary Zurnamer:

Yes. We raised capital and built a freemium PLG motion. But when the funding environment changed post-ZIRP, that model became hard to sustain. We had to downsize, reassess, and focus. We found our strongest enterprise traction with employer brand and recruitment marketing teams. Narrowing to that persona transformed our business: bigger contracts, a leaner team, and 70% of revenue now from the US. We’ve also launched a UK team.

Kaga Bryan:

Employer brand is huge—transparency, credibility, and content that shows culture. How do you support that?

Gary Zurnamer:

Two use cases:

1. External candidate marketing: Building large, on-brand content libraries mapped to job ads, careers sites, and social channels. Some customers personalize down to every open role with a team video.
2. Internal comms and retention: Once Vouch is in place, internal comms teams use it for leadership updates, recognition, and keeping distributed teams connected.

Kaga Bryan:

As a founder, you’ve had to pivot. What’s your advice for earlier-stage founders?

Gary Zurnamer:

Start narrow. Solve one clear problem for one persona before expanding. Messaging gets muddy if you try to be horizontal too early. Focus beats breadth.

Kaga Bryan:

And AI?

Gary Zurnamer:

We’re intentional, not gimmicky. Two areas:

• Creation: Use company video libraries, transcripts, and docs to generate on-brand videos and extend them into blogs—condensing workflows.
• Knowledge & search: Centralize recruiting assets with AI-powered search and collaboration.
• We avoid noisy “AI everywhere” UX.

Kaga Bryan:

What’s next?

Gary Zurnamer:

Expanding UK and US presence. On the product side, releasing new modules: dedicated workspaces for recruitment and talent teams to access assets, leverage AI, and collaborate. Plus refreshed positioning and website.

Kaga Bryan:

Perfect segue for a part two. Thanks for joining us, Gary.

Gary Zurnamer:

Thanks, Kaga. Loved it.

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