This is a subscriber-only article.

Save 20% on Entrepreneur+ during our Spring Growth Flash Sale

Use code SPRING20 at checkout.

Subscribe Now

Already have an account?

Sign in
Entrepreneur Plus - Short White
For Subscribers

How This Startup Is Aiming to Make HR Easier GuideSpark, a video platform for employees, has sparked investor interest.

By Brittany Shoot

This story appears in the June 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Gabriela Hasbun
In for the assist: Keith Kitani of GuideSpark.

Onboarding, training and employee retention are big expenses for companies of all sizes. To facilitate those and other HR functions, Menlo Park, Calif.-based GuideSpark helps companies create video content and web seminars on more than 100 HR-related topics, including benefits, compensation and healthcare. In addition to a loyal customer base, the company has racked up $42 million in venture capital.

GuideSpark CEO Keith Kitani began his career as an electrical engineer designing semiconductors in the 1980s. He founded his first startup, e-learning company Presedia, in 1999 and sold it to Macromedia in 2003. Kitani became senior director and entrepreneur-in-residence at Adobe after the computer software corporation acquired Macromedia in 2005.

Part of Kitani's role at Adobe was to scale up software-as-a-service enterprise products. It was an exciting challenge, he says, "but I realized I wanted to try and start a company one more time."