ACCEL-KS Profile: Planetary Talent
As you’re probably well aware, we were awarded a grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce to support early-stage founders in Kansas. With that funding, we designed the ACCEL-KS Proof-of-Concept Grant, a program that provides up to $25,000 to help Kansas founders take their projects from idea to commercialization. Our program includes wraparound services with ecosystem partner support from across the region. We received far more applications than we expected, and after a rigorous review process, we selected 20 grant recipients. Now, we’re going to share more about the projects they’re working on. We asked each founder the same set of questions, and over the coming weeks, we’ll publish their answers.
Up next? Jacob Schlittenhardt and Planetary Talent
Company name? Planetary Talent
Planetary Talent Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Jacob Schlittenhardt at the ACCEL-KS launch event.
What gave you the idea for your product or startup?
We were building a narrative RPG that stitched “story chunks” from multiple LLMs into one coherent arc. When we needed to hire an engineer, we realized recruiting is the same problem: every role is a story, every candidate a character, and AI can be the glue. We began turning role data into a “role story,” candidate signals into a “talent story,” and measuring affinity between them—Planetary Talent was born.
What makes your product stand out?
We’re a human-first, AI-accelerated hiring platform that meets founders in their native channels and delivers evidence-rich candidate stories fast. The system spans intake and LLM scoring, subscription/EOR billing, and a customer portal—designed for speed, traceability, and trust. Unlike job boards or traditional recruiters, we combine storytelling with an event-sourced backbone and recurring “role subscriptions” for global access.
What have you learned so far on your journey?
Founders need clarity and speed more than tools—clear role definition up front, less calendar ping-pong, and concise, validated profiles. If we can reduce the hiring friction and provide qualified candidates quickly, we will win the hiring race.
How are the ACCEL-KS grant funds helping you reach the next stage of development?
The ACCEL-KS funds will help us reach two rapid proof-of-concept milestones: application intake and LLM fit scoring and automated subscription billing via Stripe. This de-risks the platform spine and readies commercial pilots.
What kind of support do you need from the startup community?
Warm intros to founder-led companies (5–100 employees) who are rapidly growing and would be willing to try a new method of sourcing talent. Additionally, introductions to VC funds would be very helpful as we look at raising a seed round in 2026.
What is something interesting we should know about you or your project?
Our brand lives in a retro-futurist “Planetary Talent Universe,” inspired by the tech optimism of the 1960s and 70s. We built our brand this way because recruiting is storytelling. We use that narrative lens to make complex global hiring feel human, optimistic, and memorable while our real-world platform handles the hard parts at scale.
