A curated referral marketplace where founders, operators, and independent recruiters place exceptional talent at the world's fastest-growing startups. Your network earns. Startups get hired.
Whether you know great people or actively recruit — there's a path that pays.
Founders, operators, and investors already make great introductions — informally, for free. As a Refery Scout, that changes. No recruiting experience needed.
Independent recruiters take on active searches. We handle contracts and invoicing. No BD, no cold outreach. Just recruiting.
Seed to Series B access to scouts and independent recruiters embedded in the world's top VC ecosystems. No retainer. No risk.
No retainer. No lock-in. You only pay when you hire — at half the cost of a traditional agency.
| Hiring with Refery | Agency Recruiters | DIY Hiring | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A call, a pitch, a hope | DIY chaos | |
| Candidate quality | Whoever they're placing | Whoever clicked apply | |
| Speed | 1–3 weeks (maybe) | Initial flood, then silence | |
| Exclusivity | Often required | N/A | |
| Support | Pushy, rarely helpful | None | |
| Upfront cost | Retainer required | Job board fees | |
| Fee on hire | 20–30% + retainer | Your time | |
| Exclusivity | Often required | N/A | |
| Refund policy | Rarely offered | None | |
| Pre-existing candidates | Fee regardless | N/A | |
| Start Hiring → |
50+ placements at startups backed by the world's best investors
Numbers that speak for themselves, and a process designed to be effortless.
Short profile, fast review. No lengthy vetting process required.
Browse open searches from VC-backed startups globally.
Submit candidates. Collect $10K–$25K after 3 months on the job.
Tell us who you need and what great looks like.
Screened candidates from people who know them personally.
10% of first-year salary, on success only. Nothing else.
Refery was founded in 2025 by ex-startup operators, angels, and investors — people at the core of the startup ecosystem for years.
We kept asking the same question: how do you find the best talent, fastest, at the best price? The answer was already hiding in our own portfolios.
When we looked at the top-performing hires across our portfolio companies, the pattern was clear — most came from referrals. From people who knew the industry, who understood what startup life actually demands, and who had worked alongside the candidates themselves.
That network existed. The infrastructure didn't. Refery is what we built to fix that — making the single best hiring channel in the world available to every great startup, at scale.
Say hello → hello@refery.ioPick the right inbox — we'll get back to you within 48 hours.