In a candid and cosmic conversation with Wichita Life, Planetary Talent co-founders Mark Janzen and Jacob Schlittenhardt sat down to tell the origin story of how a voice-activated sci-fi fitness game accidentally launched a global hiring company.
What started as an AI-powered storytelling experiment turned into a revelation: hiring is storytelling. Every open role is a mission. Every candidate is a character. And where their stories align—that’s where the magic happens.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- Mark’s Journey: From farming in Newton Kansas to a tech IPO in Seattle, Mark shares how selling two startups (at once!) shaped his perspective on scalable teams and what brought him back to Wichita.
- Jacob’s Path: A branding mind turned gaming founder, Jacob reflects on the fall of a crypto startup and how mentorship over coffee laid the foundation for something bigger.
- The Origins of Planetary Talent: What began as Lost on a Planet, an AI-driven sci-fi gym game, evolved into a full-blown reimagining of how hiring should work—narrative-first, human-centric, and planetary in scale.
- Why Wichita?: The founders explore why the city is more than home—it's a launchpad for founders, a hub of possibility, and a place where optimism is catching fire.
- Rethinking Global Talent: Instead of labor arbitrage, Planetary Talent focuses on affinity—the measurable narrative fit between a person and a role, no matter where they live.
- The Role of AI: Not as a replacement for people, but as a tool to enhance humanity—surfacing the right stories faster and more precisely.
- The Future of Work: From Star Trek metaphors to Martian tax teams, the crew paints a bold, hopeful picture of work in 2084—and what it means to build that future from Earth, today.
“The next Einstein is statistically on the African continent,” Mark says, reinforcing Planetary Talent’s founding belief: talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not—until now.
Whether you're a founder, futurist, or someone simply curious about what happens when storytelling meets AI and global hiring, this episode is a wild ride across ideas, industries, and interplanetary dreams.
Listen to the full episode and join us on the mission to make Earth’s most talented workforce universally accessible.
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