Why Your ATS Should Feel Like a Dev Tool

Most applicant tracking systems were designed for large companies with dedicated recruiting teams. They have complex workflows, approval chains, and dashboards built for people whose full-time job is hiring. If you're a startup founder trying to make your first few hires while also shipping product, these tools feel like overkill.

You don't need a 12-stage pipeline with custom approval gates. You need to know: is this person worth talking to, and how do I get them on a call?

The spreadsheet phase

Every founder starts the same way. A Google Sheet with columns for name, email, role, status, and notes. It works fine for the first 10 applicants. By 50, you're scrolling past stale rows and forgetting who you already replied to. By 100, you've lost track entirely.

The instinct is to upgrade to "real" software. But the options are either enterprise tools that feel like SAP, or lightweight tools that are really just slightly better spreadsheets with a monthly fee.

What dev tools get right

Think about the tools you actually enjoy using — your editor, your terminal, your CI pipeline. They share a few properties:

• Speed. They respond instantly. No loading spinners, no page transitions.
• Keyboard-first. You can navigate, filter, and take action without reaching for the mouse.
• Information density. You see what matters at a glance without clicking through nested menus.
• Composability. They integrate with your other tools instead of trying to replace them.

These aren't just nice-to-haves. They determine whether a tool becomes part of your workflow or just another tab you forget to check.

Applying this to hiring

What would an ATS look like if it was designed with these principles?

Triage view with keyboard shortcuts. Instead of clicking into each applicant's profile, you fly through them with j/k to navigate and m to advance. Like email, but for candidates. Every applicant gets an AI-generated brief so you can make decisions in seconds, not minutes.

AI that works for you. Define what you're looking for in plain English — "has startup experience," "ex-founder," "worked at a YC company" — and every applicant gets evaluated automatically. No manual tagging, no rules engines.

An MCP server. If your team lives in Claude or Cursor, your ATS should be accessible there too. Source candidates, review applications, and add notes without switching contexts.

A careers page that just works. Publish a job and your branded careers page is live. No separate site to maintain, no widget to embed.

The bar is higher now

Founders building in 2026 have used Linear, Vercel, and Notion. They know what good software feels like. Hiring tools should meet that bar.

The old model of "here's a blank pipeline, configure it yourself" doesn't cut it anymore. The best tools are opinionated about workflow, fast by default, and designed for people who are building — not just administrating.

That's what we're building at Loam. An ATS that feels like a dev tool, because that's what founders actually want to use.