Find a job with Vouch →

Your next great hire,
already shortlisted.

Everyone can find candidates now. Nobody tells you who is actually good. Vouch finds and vets founding engineers and first go-to-market hires for seed and Series A startups. We review their real work, interview them ourselves, and talk to people who worked with them. You meet a short list. You pay only when you hire.

Start hiringSee a sample shortlist
  • Vetted by us before you meet them
  • No resumes to sort, no first rounds to run
  • Only the few worth your hour

Your shortlist

Ready to interview
Found
612
Screened
24
Shortlisted
3
  • Aditya KrishnanH-1BML platform lead, Series B
  • Claire WhitfieldStaff engineer, payments
  • Eric ChenFounding engineer, two exits

Sourced, screened, and written up before it reaches you.

Vouch's sample client page on a phone: a greeting, the week's search as a ring and a funnel from contacted to booked, and a note from Vouch. The company and people are invented.

Why not a search tool or an agency?

How it works

One search, run end to end.

Brief us once and we search every channel, speak with the people worth speaking to, and hand you a shortlist with our verdict on each, on a page you can open any time.

Tell us the role once.

Tell us the role and the bar, and we open the search, work it and come back with people ready to interview, with no software for you to adopt and no sourcing team to build.

A search that never stops running,
and a person who reads every name.

Search · Founding engineer, SF

  1. /brief
  2. “Founding engineer in SF. Has shipped 0 to 1, writes Python daily, wants the earliest stage.”
  3. / Searching our pool, your ATS and the open web
  4. 612 profiles found · 24 match the must-haves
  5. / Screening: a call with each, by a Vouch recruiter
  6. / Shortlist · 3 of 612, written up, on your page
  7. → Wei Zhang · Staff engineer, infra · 4.5
  8. → Emily Carter · Founding engineer · 4.5
  9. → Arjun Mehta · ML platform lead · 4.0

Every name comes with a verdict.

This is how each person on your shortlist arrives, on your own private page, written up by the recruiter running your search.

Sofia Martínez

San Francisco, CAStrong fitInterviewed

Has built the platform this role owns, twice, and hired the team that runs it. The open question is appetite for managing again; worth your first ten minutes.

MeetPass

Career

  1. ML Platform Lead at Tessellate2023 to now
  2. Senior ML Engineer at Harbor Data2020 to 2023
  3. Software Engineer at Quillo2018 to 2020

Education

  • UC San Diego · MS, CS

Against the role

  • Met: Platform ownershipOwns the feature store and model registry
  • Met: 5+ yrs infraAbout 8 years
  • Met: Has led a teamSix engineers, hired four
  • Partly met: Wants to manageOpen to it; asked about IC paths
  • Met: SF in personIn San Francisco
  • Not met: US work authorizationH-1B; needs a transfer
  1. The verdictA tier and a fit out of 5 against your must-haves, and why.
  2. The career at a glanceWhere they have worked and studied, without opening a resume.
  3. Against the roleEach must-have from your intake, met or not, with the evidence.
  4. One click to meetSay Meet and we set up the call, or Pass and we move on.

A higher bar than a forwarded resume.

Our search ends with a few people we have already interviewed, measured against your must-haves and are prepared to put our name to. You meet finalists, and get your weeks back.

Vouch beside an agency and hiring in-house
VouchA typical agencyHiring in-house
Your timeA few hours, spent on finalistsAsk how many first calls stay with youYour team's hours, on sourcing and first rounds
Who screensWe interview every candidate before you see a nameAsk who runs the first interviewsYour team
You receiveA short, ranked list with a written verdict and the gaps on each personAsk what you see before you meet anyoneApplicants and profiles your team sorts
The barScored against your own must-haves; a strong fit is 4 out of 5 or betterAsk how each person is measuredSet by your team
You seeThe whole search on your own page, with our interview notesAsk what the recruiter sharesYour own pipeline
If nobody fitsWe say so, and keep searchingAsk what happens before you signThe role stays open

Compared in full, with sources: Vouch vs an agency · Vouch vs an in-house recruiter

Start hiring

Handled like it is yours.

A search holds people's careers and your hiring plans. These are the rules we run it by.

Read the privacy policy

  • A private page per client

    Your shortlist sits behind your team's own sign-in. No other client can open it, and it is never indexed.

  • A person signs off

    Search and ranking are automated. A recruiter reads every shortlist before you do, and runs every candidate conversation.

  • Nothing sold, no ads

    We never sell your details and show no ads. We measure visits to this site only to make it better.

  • Deleted when you ask

    Email us and we remove what we hold about you within one business day, and confirm that we have.

Guides

Guides for founders

Setting the pay? Read our guide to founding engineer salary and equity.

FAQ

Common
questions

What people ask before the first call.

Still deciding?

Tell us about the role and we will say plainly whether we can fill it, before you commit to anything.

Tell us about the rolefiras@use-vouch.co
How is this different from a traditional agency?

We interview every person ourselves before you see a name, where an agency would forward resumes, and we show our work: a fit score against your must-haves, what is missing, and our notes from the interview, on a private page that updates every week. You say Meet or Pass and we set up the call.

How do you decide who makes the shortlist?

We score each person against your own must-haves, one requirement at a time, with a line of evidence for each and a fit out of 5. Strong means 4 or better, and when nobody reaches it we tell you so and keep searching.

Where do the candidates come from?

Three places at once: our pre-screened pool, your own ATS and network (we will re-engage past applicants with your permission), and the open web. Everything lands in one ranked list with the reasoning attached.

Is a human involved?

Yes. Search, ranking and drafting are automated, and a recruiter reviews every shortlist before it reaches you and runs every candidate conversation.

How fast is the first shortlist?

Usually within a week of the intake call, with a write-up on why each person fits.

Which roles do you work on?

Mostly founding engineers and first go-to-market hires. We also run searches in product, design and data, from senior individual contributor through executive, and we are strongest where the bar is specific and hard to write down.

Which companies do you work with?

Mostly seed and Series A startups making their first key hires, where one person changes what the company can do.

How do you charge?

On success only. There is no retainer and nothing to pay to open a search; a fee is due only when someone you met through us signs. We go through the terms on the first call.

Interview the few worth meeting.

We run the search and the first interviews. You spend your time on the two or three people who could be the hire.

Tell us about the role