Your first engineers write the code everyone else inherits.
Get the first two or three wrong and you pay for it for years. We find engineers who can build from a blank repo, and we check they can before you meet them.
Who it’s for.
Founders hiring engineers one to five, often while still writing half the code themselves.
- Pre-seed to Series A
- Zero to five engineers today
- A technical founder short on hours, or a non-technical founder short on a way to judge
Sound familiar?
“I can’t tell a good engineer from a good talker, and I’m about to bet the product on it.”
“Every recruiter sends me 40 CVs. I want three people I would actually hire.”
“Our last take-home came back perfect. Then he couldn’t explain a line of it.”
How we handle it.
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We pin down the job before anyone is sourced.
Define: one call to agree what this engineer owns in month one, the stack, what great looks like, and a salary and equity benchmark that won’t scare good people off. You leave with a job description and an interview plan.
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We go after people, not job boards.
Find: most good early engineers aren’t applying anywhere. We headhunt people who’ve built at small companies and actually like the mess.
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A live technical interview on a real problem.
Vet: not a puzzle and not a take-home. They work through a problem from your world, live, checked with our anti-cheat. Plus ID and right to work, employment history, and references confirmed through work email.
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3-5 people, then we see it through.
Shortlist and Hire: 3-5 vetted engineers by an agreed date, each with an interview pack. Then we run scheduling, feedback, offer, negotiation and notice period, and the six-month guarantee starts.
The roles we fill for you.
Why it holds up.
6 months
Every hire is guaranteed for six months (guarantee terms). Pay as they stay: spread the fee across their first number months, so your runway stays yours.
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Interview tech we built ourselves.
From the team that built zero-friction interview anti-cheat. Built on interview technology used by 20,000+ recruiters.
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We do your first round.
Every shortlisted engineer comes with an interview pack: how they handled the live problem, where they’re strong, where to push in your round, and what they want on salary and notice.
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Checked, not just sourced.
ID and right to work, employment history, references confirmed through work email, and a live technical interview read by our anti-cheat.
Questions, answered.
I’m a non-technical founder. How do I judge the shortlist?
That’s what the interview pack is for. We run the technical interview and write up what we saw in plain English, with questions for your round. Bring a technical adviser if you like. You won’t be guessing.
Do you set take-home tests?
No. We run a live technical interview on a real problem instead. It respects the candidate’s evenings and tells you more.
How fast can we meet people?
3-5 vetted engineers in 10 days from the brief, by a date we agree upfront.
What if they leave in month three?
Every hire is guaranteed for six months. If it doesn’t work out, replacement or refund terms.