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Refery vs Jomigo

US operator referrals, or European crowd recruiting?

Refery and Jomigo sit in different geographies and use different sourcing models. If you are deciding between them, the first question is not fee or features — it is where you are hiring. Here is the honest breakdown.

Short version: If you are hiring in San Francisco or New York for a VC-backed US startup, Refery is the category fit. If you are hiring in Germany or broader Europe for tech, marketing, or sales roles, Jomigo is the stronger option in that region.

How Jomigo works

Berlin-based, crowd recruiting model.

Jomigo, founded in 2020 in Berlin by Jannis Eller, Jonathan Muhr, and Tobias Grieb, is a recruiting marketplace that connects companies with a community of specialized freelance recruiters. For each open role, Jomigo assigns approximately three freelance recruiters who source and qualify candidates in parallel — the founders call this "professionalized crowd recruiting." The hiring company sees candidates through a single dashboard, coordinated by a Jomigo account manager.

The model is built for speed. Jomigo reports an average time-to-hire of around 9 days. Customers are primarily German and European — HelloFresh, CoachHub, Ogilvy, Digital Charging Solutions, HomeToGo, Orderchamp, SIGNA Sports United. The specialty mix is tech, marketing, and sales. Jomigo raised a seven-figure seed round in 2022 led by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, with participation from Rainer Strack (former BCG Senior Partner) and others in the European HR ecosystem. The company won the HR Innovation Award at Zukunft Personal, Europe's largest HR event, in 2023.

Jomigo is a serious European recruiting platform with real traction in its home market. For companies hiring in Germany or wider Europe, it is one of the stronger options in the crowd-recruiting category.

How Refery works

US-focused, operator referral model.

Refery is built specifically for the US VC-backed startup ecosystem — primarily San Francisco and New York, primarily seed to Series B, primarily engineering and GTM roles. The network is 300+ curated scouts: founders of billion-dollar companies, CTOs from publicly traded tech companies, fund partners at top-tier VCs, and senior engineers and operators from the fastest-growing startups.

The sourcing model is different from crowd recruiting. There are no freelance recruiters competing on your role. Instead, scouts refer people from their own personal networks — someone they have worked with, invested in, or have been watching for years. Every referral is vetted by Refery's committee before reaching the hiring company. The fee is 20% of first-year salary on successful hire. No retainer, no exclusivity, 90-day replacement guarantee.

The product is tuned for a specific problem: the VC-backed US startup that needs a critical hire fast, where the signal of the referral — who is vouching for this candidate and why — matters more than volume of candidates surfaced.

At a glance

The honest side-by-side.

ReferyJomigo
Geographic focusSan Francisco, New York (USA)Germany and broader Europe
Sourcing modelOperator referrals — founders, CTOs, fund partners, senior operatorsCrowd recruiting — ~3 freelance recruiters assigned per role in parallel
Who refersPeople with personal knowledge of the candidateProfessional freelance recruiters using their own sourcing networks
Customer profileVC-backed US startups, seed to Series BGerman and European companies across tech, marketing, sales
Time to first candidateTypically within daysAverage ~9 days to hire
Success fee20% of first-year salaryVaries by role and recruiter
Upfront cost$0No upfront fee disclosed publicly
Role focusEngineering, GTMTech, marketing, sales
Primary languageEnglishGerman and English
Known customers200+ VC-backed startups (SF/NY)HelloFresh, CoachHub, Ogilvy, HomeToGo, SIGNA Sports United
How to choose

Geography first. Then model.

Choose Refery if

  • You are hiring in San Francisco or New York
  • You are a VC-backed startup at seed to Series B
  • You are filling engineering or GTM roles
  • You want personal referrals from founders, CTOs, and investors in the US tech ecosystem
  • You value operator-level signal on each candidate over volume of sourced résumés
  • Your network and your investors' networks are US-centric

Choose Jomigo if

  • You are hiring in Berlin, Munich, or elsewhere in Germany
  • You are hiring across other European markets with German-speaking or EU-based talent
  • Your role is in tech, marketing, or sales
  • You want multiple freelance recruiters working your role in parallel for speed
  • You prefer a crowd-recruiting model over a curated referral network
  • You are a European company and your existing HR stack is German-speaking
If you hire across both regions

Use the right tool in each market.

For companies that hire across both US and European regions — which includes many Series A and Series B companies expanding from one continent to the other — there is no contradiction in using both. Refery handles the SF and NY engineering and GTM hires where operator-referral signal matters. Jomigo or a comparable European recruiting platform handles the Berlin, London, or Amsterdam hires where local recruiter networks dominate.

Both platforms are pay-on-success and non-exclusive. Running them in parallel across different geographies is a cleaner operating pattern than trying to force either one into a market where it does not have density.

Questions

Common questions.

They operate in largely different geographies and use different sourcing models. Jomigo is a Berlin-based recruiting marketplace, founded in 2020, focused primarily on the German and broader European market for tech, marketing, and sales roles. Refery is a US-focused referral hiring network serving VC-backed startups in San Francisco and New York for engineering and GTM roles. If you are hiring in the US, Refery is the category fit. If you are hiring in Germany or Europe, Jomigo is one of the stronger options in that region.
Jomigo operates what it calls "professionalized crowd recruiting." For each role, Jomigo assigns approximately three specialized freelance recruiters who source and qualify candidates in parallel. The hiring company sees qualified candidates through Jomigo's platform, coordinated by a single account manager. The model is built to accelerate time-to-hire by putting multiple recruiters on a role at once. Average time-to-hire is reported around 9 days.
Jomigo's network and customer base are primarily European, centered in Germany. Customers include HelloFresh, CoachHub, Ogilvy, and other European companies. For US-specific hiring — particularly the SF and NY VC-backed startup ecosystem — the recruiter density and candidate networks are going to be stronger on US-focused platforms like Refery, Paraform, or Jack & Jill in its SF expansion.
Jomigo's candidates come from independent freelance recruiters working the role on Jomigo's platform — these are professional recruiters using their own sourcing tools and networks. Refery's candidates come from personal referrals made by operator-scouts: founders, CTOs, fund partners, and senior operators who personally know the candidate. The difference is not speed or fee — it is whether your candidate was sourced by a recruiter or vouched for by a peer.
Yes, particularly for companies hiring across both the US and European markets. A portfolio company could reasonably use Refery for SF/NY engineering and GTM hires and Jomigo for its Berlin, Munich, or wider-Europe hiring — neither is exclusive and the geographies are complementary.

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