San Francisco startup AI Nooks is making an engineering push in Seattle
Nooks is based in Seattle.
The San Francisco-based startup, which builds AI software for sales teams, is expanding its engineering space in Seattle — growing from zero to six engineers recently and hiring additional platform and product engineering roles.
The company plans to open a Seattle office and was working on Tola Capital’s Seattle space when it came up, CTO and founder Nikhil Cheerla told GeekWire.
Cheerla said the company’s initial hiring in Seattle was intentional, aimed at tapping a “fund of talent” — engineers with experience building risky systems who want to join a fast-growing startup and pilot the next wave of AI-powered software.
Nooks’ Seattle is moving amid a broader conversation in the region about the drain on talent — from founders moving to San Francisco to executives weighing their next steps as Washington debates new tax proposals. In that context, Nooks is making the opposite bet: that Seattle’s depth of engineering talent, especially at major tech companies, makes it a strong hub for building applied AI.
Other San Francisco companies, from software startup Binti to major AI players including OpenAI and xAI, have also recently expanded into the Seattle area.
Cheerla and her co-founders at Nooks jumped headfirst into 2020 with a virtual classroom tool in the time of COVID. Later they ventured into a virtual partnership product – and discovered the pain (and art) of marketing while trying to find customers themselves.
Nooks now focuses on building AI-driven productivity software for sales teams. Its products aim to reduce the tedious work involved in outbound sales: researching accounts, writing emails, handling dialing/voicemails, summarizing calls, and recommending next steps – while keeping people in the driver’s seat to make decisions and build relationships.
Nooks competes in a crowded market for commercial software, which includes players like Seattle-based companies Outreach and Highspot (which recently announced a merger with Seismic). Cheerla said Nooks differentiates by combining both data and intelligence with execution. He said this creates a feedback loop: by making the work happen in the same workspace, Nooks can learn from what the reps are doing and refine the system over time.
This week, Nooks is launching what it calls Agent Workspace — a system where salespeople and AI agents collaborate in one place to perform tasks such as prospecting, follow-up, dialing and LinkedIn following. Nooks says the system can learn a group’s best behavior and use that learning to scale.
Nooks raised a $43 million Series B round in October 2024. Since then, the company says its revenue has grown 6X. The company employs about 200 people, up from 90 last year. Its clients include HubSpot, Rippling, ZoomInfo, Toast, Postman, Vanta, and others.
Tola Capital’s managing director, Sheila Gulati, said the company stood out by pushing AI directly into revenue operations.
“Nooks is a company that improves the sales experience with AI,” said Gulati. He added: “I’m excited to see Nooks expanding in Seattle and deepening its impact throughout our world.”
Nooks and Tola are also hosting a Seattle event on Feb. 26 focused on domain-specific AI agents used in production, featuring speakers including Cheerla, and Chinmay Barve, VP of engineering at Nooks, Arm’s Sharbani Roy, and Pulumi’s Joe Duffy.
