The 2.2 GPA that became an unfair advantage
Jacob Jacquet graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a 2.2 GPA — the kind of number that gets a resume thrown away. Instead of accepting that, he learned exactly how applicant tracking systems parse and score resumes, and wrote his own to beat them. It worked: despite the GPA, he landed interviews at companies like Google and Goldman Sachs.
Most people would have taken the corporate job. Jacquet did the opposite. In May 2015, he turned his resume knowledge into a product, starting with the humblest possible version: Microsoft Word resume templates sold on a WordPress site. The name Rezi positioned it as the tech-savvy alternative to expensive career consultants.
The lesson hiding in this origin story: Jacquet was his own first customer, and his problem was real, painful, and measurable — interviews or no interviews. He didn't need market research. He had lived the before-and-after.
In a Starter Story interview, Jacquet put numbers on the journey: the product had been used by over 2.6 million job seekers and was doing $215K in monthly recurring revenue at the time — all from a founder who started by selling templates. The interview's most telling detail was his answer on competition: while rivals treated AI as a feature to bolt on, Rezi had rebuilt its core workflow around it, which is why the GPT-3 integration shipped in weeks, not quarters.
Built in Seoul cafes between English classes
Six months after starting Rezi, Jacquet made an unusual move: he relocated to South Korea. He first arrived at 23 to teach English in Icheon, a small countryside city, working 10 AM to 6 PM — then built Rezi in cafes before and after work.
The move was strategic, not romantic. South Korea was the third-largest English-speaking market after China and India: a huge population of English-speaking college graduates working at global companies, all of whom needed resumes. It was also a market where a foreign founder could access government support. Rezi got into the Seoul Global Startup Center, a government-sponsored co-working space for international startups, and after missing the K-Startup Grand Challenge once, won it the following year — taking home roughly $30,000 in prize money.
Building a global product from a secondary market is an underrated playbook. Lower burn, less competition for attention, and a government that actively wants you to succeed. Rezi's early years were funded by English-teaching wages and Korean startup grants, not venture capital.
The Korea years also shaped Rezi's product philosophy. Building for non-native English speakers forced the team to make the interface radically simple — if a Korean college student using it as a second language could build a great resume, anyone could. That simplicity became a competitive moat when the product expanded globally; competitors built for power users, Rezi built for everyone.
First to GPT, two years before ChatGPT
Rezi's defining bet came in December 2020, when it became the first resume builder to integrate GPT-3 into its workflow. At the time, GPT-3 was a research curiosity — API access was limited, and nobody knew if large language models would matter for consumer products.
When ChatGPT launched in late 2022 and every resume tool rushed to add AI features, Rezi was already the established leader. It had two years of iteration, user data, and brand association with AI-powered resumes. Being first to a platform shift doesn't guarantee winning, but it compounds: every month of lead time becomes training data, UX refinement, and SEO authority that latecomers can't buy.
The numbers tell the story of what followed. Rezi grew to over 2.6 million job seekers using the product, 11,000 paying subscribers, and $3.2M in ARR — with users landing interviews at Airbnb, Spotify, Google, and Microsoft. The product expanded beyond resumes into cover letters, AI interview prep, and job search tools.
The freemium mechanics deserve attention too. Rezi gives away enough value free — a few resume downloads, basic ATS scoring — that millions of users enter the funnel, while the paid tiers unlock the AI features that actually get interviews: keyword targeting, unlimited AI credits, and tailored cover letters. With 5 million users and 11,000 paying subscribers, the conversion math works because the top of funnel is enormous and the free product is genuinely useful, not a demo.
What's next: from tool to marketplace
Rezi is now expanding beyond resume creation. The company is introducing mobile apps and building tools that connect candidates directly to hiring companies — moving from a document tool toward a two-sided marketplace.
It's a natural evolution. Rezi already knows which candidates are serious (they paid, they optimized, they applied) and what employers are looking for (the keywords, the scores, the ATS data). Sitting between those two datasets is a powerful position.
Eleven years after selling Word templates on a WordPress blog, Jacquet is building the company the original product always implied: not a better resume, but a better way to get hired.
Media validation followed the numbers. Forbes named Rezi a top pick among AI resume builders, and the product accumulated thousands of positive reviews from users who credit it with landing jobs. For a company that started with zero venture funding and a founder teaching English to pay rent, the trajectory from WordPress templates to a multi-million ARR category leader is a case study in patience compounding.
The playbook
- Be your own first customer — Jacquet's ATS knowledge came from fixing his own 2.2-GPA resume. The product was the solution he already knew worked — no validation needed.
- Build where competition is thin — Seoul gave Rezi cheap burn, government grants, and a huge English-speaking market that US competitors ignored.
- Bet on platforms before they're obvious — Shipping GPT-3 integration in December 2020 — two years before ChatGPT — bought Rezi an unassailable head start in AI resumes.
- Start embarrassingly small — Word templates on WordPress validated willingness to pay before a single line of app code. Revenue first, product second.
- Expand along the value chain — Resumes → cover letters → interview prep → job matching. Each step monetizes the same user deeper instead of chasing new ones.