Refery wrote this guide and is one of the options listed. Every statement about another provider comes from that provider's own website, checked on September 19, 2026, and is labelled where pricing is not published. Nothing here is a ranking by placement counts or speed, because no provider publishes comparable data.
Start with the model, not the logo
Startup recruiting platforms fall into six models. The model decides who does the work, where candidates come from, and how you pay. Pick the model first, then the provider.
| Model | Who does the sourcing | How you usually pay | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral network | Specialist recruiters plus people who know the candidate | Success fee on hire | The role is defined by ownership and you want context per introduction |
| Recruiter marketplace | Many independent recruiters in parallel | Success fee on hire | You want sourcing bandwidth on a stable brief |
| Fractional recruiter | One recruiter embedded with your team | Hourly or monthly | You have several roles and no in-house recruiter |
| Contingency firm | A boutique's own team | Success fee on hire | A narrow, specialist profile the firm knows well |
| Fixed-fee service | The provider's own sourcing | Flat fee per hire | Predictable cost matters more than search depth |
| Startup job board | Inbound applicants and self-serve sourcing | Free to low monthly | Top-of-funnel volume alongside another channel |
Referral networks
Refery
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, and one Refery contact screens each introduction and coordinates the search.
- Published terms: 15% to 25% of first-year base salary, paid only on hire, no retainer, no exclusivity, and a 90-day guarantee under the client agreement (fees).
- Best for: founding and senior engineers, AI and forward-deployed engineers, and founding GTM hires where the brief is still being calibrated. Two anonymised search stories show what that calibration looks like in practice.
- Not for: volume hiring across many role types, or roles outside Engineering, AI, and GTM.
Recruiter marketplaces
Paraform
Paraform describes itself as a platform where "expert recruiters and custom AI agents work together to fill your most important roles," with a network it states as "10k+ expert recruiters." Its site lists early stage, growth stage, and enterprise companies, and specialties including forward deployed engineer, software engineer, go-to-market, and legal. It also runs a Connectors programme that pays referrers "$10,000 per hire."
- Published terms: company pricing is not stated on the site; request a proposal.
- Best for: running several searches at once with many recruiters working each role.
- Refery's side-by-side is at Refery vs Paraform.
Dover recruiting partners
Dover pairs a free applicant tracking system with a marketplace of recruiters. Its pricing page states the ATS is free with "unlimited users and jobs," a premium tier at "$199 per month," and that marketplace "recruiters set their rates."
- Published terms: ATS free or $199 per month; recruiter rates set individually and not published.
- Best for: adding hourly recruiting capacity to a team that wants to own its own pipeline.
BountyJobs
BountyJobs is a marketplace for managing agency search firms. Its site states "fees are under your control," that its contract "guarantees refunds, not replacements," and that it handles "invoicing, distribution of funds to the recruiter."
- Published terms: agency fees are negotiated per search inside the platform.
- Best for: larger companies centralising many agency relationships rather than a Seed team making three hires.
Fractional recruiters
Fractional models put one recruiter inside your team for a period. Dover's marketplace is the most visible example at the startup end. The trade-off is simple: you pay for time rather than outcomes, so the model rewards clear briefs and a founder who can give feedback quickly. Compare it with success-fee models in retainer vs contingency vs referral.
Contingency firms with a startup focus
Recruiting from Scratch
Recruiting from Scratch is a boutique technical recruiting firm. Its site states "We work on contingency. No retainers, no upfront fees," and its content focuses on founding, staff, and AI engineers at venture-backed companies.
- Published terms: contingency; the percentage is not published.
- Best for: a narrow senior engineering profile where a firm's own bench of candidates matters.
Superposition
Superposition positions itself as AI-driven recruiting for AI startups. Its pricing page states "$500 / month per agent + 15% on hire," with the success fee defined as "15% of first-year base salary only, not equity or bonus," charged "on your candidate's first day," and a "90-day replacement guarantee for any reason."
- Published terms: $500 per month per agent plus a 15% success fee; 90-day replacement.
- Best for: AI product roles where the founder accepts a monthly agent fee for a lower fixed percentage on hire.
Hunt Club
Hunt Club runs executive search and team builds through what it calls an expert network. Its site lists executive leadership and senior leadership placements and a search platform.
- Published terms: not stated; quoted per engagement.
- Best for: VP and C-level searches at growth stage, less so for a Seed team's first engineers.
Fixed-fee services
Funded.club
Funded.club sells fixed-fee recruiting for startups. Its page states fees "from $4,900/hire" in salary tiers (for example "$7,500" for the $70,001 to $110,000 tier) and a "30-Day Shortlist Guarantee" with a full refund if no qualified candidates are delivered.
- Published terms: flat fee per hire by salary band; 30-day shortlist guarantee.
- Best for: predictable cost on well-defined mid-level roles, often outside the US.
Startup job boards and self-serve sourcing
Wellfound
Wellfound is the largest startup-specific talent marketplace. Its pricing page states "Post jobs free," job ads "from $200," self-serve AI sourcing from free to "$199 / seat / mo," and a managed product, Autopilot, at "$500 / mo / role + 10% on hire."
- Published terms: free posting; paid tiers as above.
- Best for: inbound volume from candidates who already want startup work; pair it with a screened channel for senior roles.
YC Work at a Startup
Y Combinator's job board lists roles at YC companies with salary ranges on the listing. It is only useful if you are a YC company, and then it is one of the strongest inbound channels available.
Underdog
Underdog is a curated candidate marketplace that states it has "no staffing firms" and turns away "more than 50% of the companies that try to join." Companies apply to access candidates.
How to choose in one afternoon
- Write the brief first: the outcome the hire owns, location, compensation, and what you will decide in the first interview. The startup hiring brief template is enough.
- Decide whether the bottleneck is context (you cannot tell who is good), bandwidth (you cannot reach enough people), or capacity (nobody has time to run the process). That maps to referral network, marketplace, or fractional.
- Put every proposal on the same basis: fee basis, payment trigger, guarantee, exclusivity, and what happens to a candidate already in your pipeline. The questions are in recruiting payment and guarantee questions.
- Run two channels, not five. A screened channel for the senior roles and one inbound channel is usually enough at Seed.
Compare contingency recruiting options for an engineering hire
Start with the work the engineer will own, then ask each provider to explain how it would search for that profile. A large recruiter network does not by itself show that the people working your role understand the technical scope.
Use the same brief and questions for each proposal:
| Decision | What to ask the provider |
|---|---|
| Technical fit | How would you distinguish someone who owned the work from someone who supported it? |
| Search ownership | Who screens introductions, collects feedback, and changes the search when the brief changes? |
| Candidate experience | Who contacts each candidate, and how do you prevent duplicate outreach across recruiters? |
| Commercial scope | What starts a fee obligation, what compensation is included, and what happens if the candidate was already in our pipeline? |
| Review point | What evidence will we review together before adding more sourcing channels? |
Keep unanswered questions visible. Request an explanation of the process rather than confidential candidate records or an unsupported promise about hiring speed. Use the recruiting partner quality scorecard to compare responses and the guide to coordinating multiple recruiting partners if several firms will work on the same role.
The checklist was added on October 6, 2026. Provider pricing and terms below retain their separate source-check date.
Sources
Checked on September 19, 2026.
- Paraform: paraform.com, paraform.com/recruiters, paraform.com/connectors
- Dover: dover.com/pricing
- BountyJobs: bountyjobs.com
- Recruiting from Scratch: recruitingfromscratch.com
- Superposition: superposition.ai/pricing
- Hunt Club: huntclub.com
- Funded.club: funded.club/fixed-fee-recruiting
- Wellfound: wellfound.com/recruit/pricing
- Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/jobs
- Underdog: underdog.io
- Refery: refery.io/recruiting-fees
Public pages and terms change. Confirm scope, fee basis, and guarantee conditions directly before signing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a recruiting network and a recruiter marketplace?
A recruiter marketplace exposes your role to many independent recruiters who source and submit candidates in parallel. A recruiting network adds a second source of candidates, referrals from people who know the person's work, and usually one contact who screens and coordinates. Marketplaces optimise for sourcing bandwidth; networks optimise for context per introduction.
How much do startup recruiting platforms charge?
Published models range from free job posts to success fees stated as a percentage of first-year base salary (Superposition states $500 per month per agent plus 15% on hire, Refery states 15% to 25%), monthly platform fees (Wellfound Autopilot states $500 per month per role plus 10% on hire), fixed fees per hire (Funded.club states from $4,900), and hourly fractional recruiters (Dover states that recruiters set their own rates). Several providers, including Paraform and Hunt Club, do not publish pricing and quote per search.
Which platform is best for a Seed-stage company making its first engineering hires?
For the first two to five engineering hires, most founders combine their own network with one referral-led or specialist channel, because the roles are defined by ownership rather than a title match. Broad marketplaces and job boards add volume once the brief is stable. The right answer depends on whether you need context per candidate, sourcing bandwidth, or in-house capacity.