Meet Colin, Founder of Sheets Resume Builder

I'd like to answer a question I receive pretty frequently:

"Who are you, to tell me what resume format to use? You're not my dad!"

Fair question, son.

By way of intro, I'm Colin McIntosh. My day job is executive recruiting for the top CTO search firm in the US, Riviera Partners. I work primarily within our Venture practice, placing CTOs at the fastest-growing, most innovative, and most interesting startups in the world.

Recovering Founder

Prior to jumping into executive search in 2026, for nearly a decade I was Founder and CEO of my own Techstars-backed startup, an ecommerce brand that made and sold sustainable bed sheets. (I can literally hear the gears starting to click in your brain re: why it's called Sheets Resume.)

I raised millions of dollars, hired and scaled my own team, sold tens of millions of dollars of eco-friendly sleep products, won some awards, and was even featured on Good Morning America a few times. I navigated my company through the COVID supply chain crisis, and then through the recent pointless, destructive, and illegal trade war, and recently exited the company in 2025. Fun times (mostly).

Early Career

Now, prior to that journey... I was also a recruiter. Ha.

After graduating from Emory University in 2012, I started my career at Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund... and was promptly fired in 6 months (best thing that ever happened to me). I then became a recruiter at the agency that hired me there, and placed candidates at massive companies, including some clients in the Fortune 500. I was so good at recruiting that I actually wound up placing myself into an open business development role at one of my clients in Seattle, and that began my startup journey.

Techstars

In 2015 as a fresh-faced 25-year-old, I drove 20 hours from Seattle to Denver on a lark, and ended up going through Techstars Boulder as part of a 5-person founding team with some of my best friends. That summer changed my life, and I realized how much mentorship matters to someone's career success.

One Fateful Morning on Reddit

In 2018, I wanted to pay some of that mentorship forward and asked myself, "What do I know better than anyone else? What knowledge can I share with other people?" The answer that immediately came to mind was: resumes. I had screened tens of thousands of resumes, I had hired dozens of people, I did resume reviews for friends and family, and I knew exactly what got people interviews.

So, one Saturday morning from my Denver apartment, I wrote what would go on to become the most-viewed Reddit post of all time about resumes. Through that post, I have answered tens of thousands of questions over the better part of a decade, and millions of people around the world have used my free resume template.

Resume Reviews

In 2023, I finally found time to begin doing professional 1:1 resume reviews with my old recruiting colleague (now software engineer) Nate Schier. Despite our jam-packed schedules, we made time to help 1-2 people per week. I convinced Nate to do this with me because I couldn't stand receiving horror stories from Redditors who messaged me that, because I had politely declined their request for a 1:1 resume review, they paid somebody else $800 or $1,000 or even $2,000 for a resume review... and still had nothing to show for it. It just boiled my blood, knowing how many predators out there take advantage of job seekers during an extremely vulnerable time in life.

But the reality was that between our full-time jobs and family commitments, we just didn't have time to help every single person who knocked on our digital door. Plus, resume reviews take a few hours, so we still had to charge ~$400 per resume review, which (while on the lower end of the industry) was simply cost prohibitive for a ton of people... especially for those who were long-term unemployed, the most in need of help. So instead of feeling invigorating, it just felt kind of draining.

We almost decided to stop, but the individual success stories always put wind in our sails and kept us coming back.

Sheets Resume is Born

Eventually, in 2024 Nate had the idea to take our best 1:1 resume advice and turn it into an AI resume builder, and I jumped at the idea. I trained our AI personally, designed the builder's UX, and Nate built an astounding piece of software – line-by-line, years before Claude Code was functional – and boom, SheetsResume.com was born. Weirdly named? Sure. Bad for SEO? Also yes. Has Nated lobbied me to change the name almost every day because our users don't get it? Omg, yes. Stop asking so many pointed questions. It's simple, and nostalgic :') at least for me!

Blonde, Brunette, Readhead...

Now with two separate recruiting stints over different eras of employment trends, I feel like I have a PhD in what makes a successful job search. At this point, I read resumes in seconds, like lines of code in the Matrix (blonde... brunette... redhead...). It's a bizarre skill that I have, and I'm just grateful I get to share it with the world in a way that creates such a large and far-reaching impact for so many people around the world in need of trustworthy advice.

Learn more about me

If you're interested (at least one eyebrow raised), feel free to read more about my own career journey on ColinDMcIntosh.com. It's been a weird one, but I've enjoyed it. (Remember, we're all just quarks, gluons, leptons, and bosons arranged in a particular order – don't take your 40-year career too seriously. You're here for a good time, not a long one.)

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn – and if you're a talented person thinking about your next leadership role in tech, please drop me a line! Happy to help you see what's out there in the 2026 landscape.

Good luck!

Like everyone, I'm beyond busy, but most days I make time to work late into the night on Sheets Resume. I just love helping people with their careers! There's nothing like it. If Sheets Resume makes an impact in your job search, please do reach out and let me know – it makes my day every time.

On that note, if you need a personal touch, please just email colin[at]sheetsresume.com, and I'll do my best to assist you, whether with a temporary membership to SheetsResume.com, or with a quick piece of advice for whatever you need. (Definitely read my advice repository, though!)

"This Resume is Touched by God" - actual user, after getting a $20k raise

Try it. You will get more interviews, I guarantee it (Men's Wearhouse voice).

Good luck,

Colin