The engineers you want, already wanting to talk.
We’re the hiring partner for venture-backed startups, Seed to Series C. The engineers in our pool have opted into a move, and the first profiles land in your Slack within days of the call. Every week that role stays open costs you a sprint.
Start a request
Tell us what you’re hiring. We take it from there.
- About two minutes: roles, level, timeline
- Paste your job links and we read them before we talk
- Your recruiter replies within one business day to set the call
No deck, no hard sell, nothing shared anywhere.
The problem
Engineering hiring is mostly noise.
The inbox doesn't help
The engineers you actually want aren't applying through your job post. What lands is the wrong stack, the wrong level, and contractors looking for six months.
Agencies bury you
Most send everyone they can find, then bill against your team's interview time. You sift twelve CVs to find three people worth a call.
In-house takes months
Building the network, calibrating the bar, doing the vetting. That's a quarter of full-time work before the req is even open, and the role sits empty the whole time.
What we do
A short list of engineers who want to talk to you.
A pool that opted in
Software engineers in SF, New York, and other major US hubs, new grad to staff, who dropped a CV with us and told us what they want. They came to us. Nobody got scraped.
A short list, not a flood
Three to five people per role, each one read against your stack and your stage. You spend your time interviewing, not triaging.
Names only when they're in
A candidate's name reaches you after they've said yes to your role. Every person you meet already wants the conversation.
Paid when the hire sticks
The placement fee is due when someone we introduce signs, with a ninety-day replacement guarantee behind it. We are measured on the hire that lasts, not on volume. Exact terms on the call.
Wherever you are
The hire that matters changes with the round.
We sort the board by newest openings, with funding recency as a signal on each role, so we already know what stage you’re hiring into, and who wants a seat there.
Your first engineers set the ceiling.
You need generalists who own the whole stack and move without a spec, the people who want to build something from nothing. A wrong hire here costs you a fifth of the team.
What we bring. Three or four senior generalists who already want an early seat, not thirty maybes, each vetted to your bar before they reach you.
Five engineers to twenty, bar intact.
Every hire still has to clear the line you set, and hiring can quietly eat the whole quarter you meant to spend building.
What we bring. A steady read of senior ICs calibrated to your bar, so the pipeline keeps moving while you ship. Interview time goes to people worth interviewing.
The roles get specific.
ML infrastructure, platform, security, your first engineering managers. The people who can do them are rarely looking, and never on a public board.
What we bring. Specialists and leads sourced by hand, the ones who only move for the right conversation. Quiet searches when you need them, with a replacement guarantee behind every placement.
What you'll get
Three to five people a week, not a hundred CVs to triage.
What other agencies send
Matched
What we send
Staff Backend Engineer
9 yrs · payments + distributed
ML Infrastructure Lead
Ex-Meta · LLM serving
Senior Platform Engineer
12 yrs · scaled to 100M users
How it works
From your roles to a signed offer.
Tell us the roles
Two minutes in the form above. Paste your live job links and we'll read them in, so we already know the role before we talk.
We bring the people
On a 15-minute call we get your bar exactly right. Then the first profiles land in your Slack, or your inbox, within days: real names, real fit, already interested.
You interview, we close
We introduce the people you want to meet and stay in it through the offer. Every placement carries a ninety-day replacement guarantee.
Where candidates show up
We meet you where you work.
No recruiting dashboard to learn, no portal you forget the password to. Candidates arrive in the tools your team already lives in, and you respond the way you already respond.
In your Slack
A shared channel with your recruiter. Each candidate arrives as a message: react to move forward, ask a question in-thread, or pass in one tap. No new tool to learn, no logins to chase.
Or your inbox
Same profiles, same detail, delivered to email. Forward them to whoever interviews, reply to move. Useful when the hiring loop spans people outside your workspace.
The client portal
The live view of your searches whenever you want it: every candidate, every stage, one page. It is there when you need the overview, and stays out of your way when you do not.
Recent placements
seed-stage devtools
signed in 11 days
Series B fintech
hired after a 3-month in-house search
Series A
their first senior hire after the raise
Series C
4 intros, 2 offers, 1 hire
seed stage
niche inference stack, 2 weeks to offer
How we take risk off you
You pay for the hire, not the search.
Fee on the hire
The fee is due when someone we introduce signs an offer, not before. We walk you through the exact structure on the intake call, out loud, before anything starts.
3 in 14 days
At least three engineers who match the stack, seniority, and location in your written brief, each with confirmed interest, within 14 days of the intake call. We usually deliver in 7.
90-day guarantee
If a placement leaves inside the first ninety days, we run the search again at no charge. We are measured on the hire that lasts, not on volume.
FAQ
Straight answers.
How does the fee work?
You pay when someone we introduce signs an offer, and every placement carries a ninety-day replacement guarantee. We walk through the exact structure on the intake call, before anything starts, so there are no surprises in writing you have not already heard out loud.
How do we receive candidates?
Wherever you work. Most clients take profiles in a shared Slack channel with their recruiter: each candidate arrives as a message you can react to, ask about, or pass on in one tap. Prefer email or the client portal? Same content, your choice.
What's the delivery guarantee?
We present at least 3 engineers who match the stack, seniority, and location in your written brief, and who have confirmed interest, within 14 days of the intake call. We usually deliver in 7.
Who's in the pool?
Software engineers at every level, new grad to staff, concentrated in SF and New York with strong coverage in Austin, Seattle, remote, and other US hubs: backend, ML infrastructure, applied AI, platform, security, and the rest of the IC track. Some are interviewing now. Some would move for the right role.
How fast will I see candidates?
The first call is about getting your bar exactly right. From there, first named introductions usually land within a few days, faster on stacks we already cover deeply.
Do I have to paste my job links?
No, it's optional. But if you drop your job links, we read the JD live and come to the call already knowing the role. It makes the conversation sharper.
Do you run stealth searches and sign NDAs?
Yes, routinely. If you're hiring quietly, we keep it quiet.
Tell us what you’re hiring for.
Two minutes now, a 15-minute call next, and people worth meeting after that. No deck, no homework on your end.
Or browse the public feed: roles.cc