Early-stage hiring · Engineering, AI & GTM
Hire people who
build like founders.
A handpicked shortlist of engineers and GTM talent who take ownership, figure things out and ship. Screened for your role, not just the job title.
Self-taught at 12. Sold a bootstrapped scheduling product at 19. Co-founded Fennel, an applied AI company acquired in 2024, and wrote the first retrieval system its customers paid for.
Wants a founding seat again, not a title. Your retrieval problem is the one he solved once at smaller scale.
Product engineering after the acquisition: a nine-person team, the roadmap and every customer escalation.
Production evaluation at your scale, and how he works when he is not the founder.
Our clients are seed to Series B startups backed by
Index Ventures
What Refery is
A startup recruiting network. Built around your next hire.
Refery is a startup recruiting network for VC-backed Seed to Series B companies hiring Engineering, AI, and GTM talent. It combines specialist independent recruiters with referrals from founders, operators, and investors.
Refery screens every introduction and sends a handpicked shortlist with the evidence for fit. Companies pay 15% to 25% of first-year base salary only when they hire, with no retainer, no exclusivity, and a 90-day guarantee.
Why Refery
We know the bar. We’ve lived it.
We’re operators and investors who helped build and scale companies that went on to multibillion-dollar exits. Now we help you find your people.
The network
Great people know great people.
Founders, operators & investors
Our scouts build and back ambitious startups. They introduce people whose work they know.
Early-stage recruiting specialists
We select recruiting partners for their expertise in your role and stage.
You work with Refery. We bring the network together.
How it works
Your bar. Our search. Your next hire.
Tell us what you’re building.
Share the role, the ambition and what this person needs to own.
Meet your shortlist.
We source, screen and explain why each person fits, including what still needs checking.
Co-founder intro · work reviewed
Specialist search · screened
Scout intro · screened
Make the hire.
You interview and decide. We coordinate candidates, feedback and next steps.
Pricing
Pay for the hire.
Scope and fee agreed upfront. No hire, no fee.
No retainer. No exclusivity. 90-day guarantee under the client agreement. See fee details →
Tell us who you’re hiring. We walk you through the rest on the first call.
Recruiters and scouts
Know someone great?
Refer someone great or work a startup search. We handle the client side. You earn on successful hires.