◆ FOUNDR · TALENT PARTNERS Now booking — Q2 2026 searches AI/ML · Engineering · Security · GTM
0 hires placed · 2025—26

Connecting the brightest minds with the boldest ventures.

Foundr is the go-to recruiting partner for some of the world's best VC-backed startups. We hire across AI/ML, Engineering, Security, and GTM — from first ten to scale-stage.

FOUNDING ENGINEER · SEED STAGE AI · SF HEAD OF SECURITY · SERIES B · REMOTE GTM LEAD · DEV TOOLS · NYC ML INFRA · SERIES A · LONDON STAFF SWE · AGENTS · SF CISO · FINTECH · SERIES C FOUNDING ENGINEER · SEED STAGE AI · SF HEAD OF SECURITY · SERIES B · REMOTE GTM LEAD · DEV TOOLS · NYC ML INFRA · SERIES A · LONDON STAFF SWE · AGENTS · SF CISO · FINTECH · SERIES C
Backing portfolios from
Sequoia a16z YC Bain Capital Ventures Lightspeed Decibel Rock Health Trail Mix Ventures Sequoia a16z YC Bain Capital Ventures Lightspeed Decibel Rock Health Trail Mix Ventures
01 / Services

What we hire

Four practice areas, each led by operators who've shipped in the trenches. We staff the first ten and the team that comes after.

01 — AI / ML

Research, infra & applied AI

Founding ML engineers, research leads, and post-training specialists for frontier-adjacent teams.

Post-trainingAgentsInfraResearch
02 — Engineering

Product, platform, staff+

From the first backend engineer to heads of platform scaling 0→1→10.

BackendPlatformStaffEM
03 — Security

AppSec, detection, CISOs

Security leaders who know how to build a program on a seed budget and a Series C runway.

AppSecDetEngCISOCompliance
04 — GTM

Founding sales, marketing, ops

First AE to VP Sales. Brand marketers and RevOps architects who've done the ladder before.

SalesMarketingRevOpsSuccess
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PLACEMENTS · '25—'26
0%
OFFER ACCEPTANCE
0d
AVG. TIME-TO-SIGN
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PORTFOLIO CLIENTS
02 / Process

Your path to the perfect hire

One senior partner per search. No juniors, no pass-throughs, no commission-chasing. Built for founders who've been burned by generalist recruiters.

01
INTAKE
SOURCE CALIBRATE SUBMIT
✓ OFFER SIGNED ○ CHECKS ○ START DATE ○ 90-DAY PULSE
STEP 01 · WEEK 0

Intake & scope.

A 90-minute working session with your founders. We map the role against your product trajectory — not a 15-bullet JD.

  • Team topology and first-6-months deliverables
  • Comp band, equity, location, reality-check
  • Signal we're screening for, in plain English
STEP 02 · WEEK 1

Sourcing at depth.

We build a calibrated long-list of 60+ operators. Not a database dump — people we've talked to, vouched by people we trust.

  • Competitive mapping across adjacent teams
  • Direct outreach with senior-to-senior framing
  • Weekly calibration on the top 8
STEP 03 · WEEK 2-4

Submit, interview, iterate.

Shortlist delivered in writing with a narrative on each candidate. We prep both sides. You see fewer people and decide faster.

  • Structured loops with interviewer training
  • Reference hunt before offers, not after
  • Compensation strategy co-designed with founders
STEP 04 · WEEK 4-5

Close & onboard.

We sit on the offer call. We don't disappear after signing — 90-day check-ins for every hire we place.

  • Offer negotiation handled end-to-end
  • Onboarding plan co-written with hiring manager
  • 90-day pulse check with both parties
03 / How we engage

Three ways to work together.

Hover or tap a panel to dig in. Each engagement is built for a different moment in your hiring story.

04 / Founders on Foundr

The receipts.

We'd rather let the operators we've placed do the talking.

9.4/10

Foundr found our first two research engineers in under three weeks. Both still with us. Both shipped in month one.

MH
Maya Herrera
Co-founder · Stalwart AI
9.8/10

We'd been stuck on a CISO search for five months. Foundr closed it in 34 days. The candidate pool was noticeably different.

JS
Jeevan Singh
CEO · Ledger Systems
9.1/10

No recruiter theater. Senior-to-senior. Real references. Real calibration. We hired six people through them this year.

TC
Tim Chen
VP Eng · Hollowfield
9.6/10

They turned down our search twice before taking it on — said they didn't have the right network yet. That honesty is why we trust them now.

AO
Amara Okafor
CTO · Vantage Labs
9.3/10

Best GTM hire we've ever made came from a Foundr intro. Three years in, she's running the whole revenue org.

DR
Daniel Roth
Founder · Northwind
05 / Insights

Field notes from the search.

Quarterly thinking on hiring, compensation, and what changes when the team goes from 10 → 60.

COMPENSATIONAPR 2026

The 2026 founding-engineer comp benchmarks

Read · 8 min →
PLAYBOOKMAR 2026

How to interview ML researchers when you've never built a model

Read · 12 min →
MARKETFEB 2026

Security leadership is the quietest talent squeeze of 2026

Read · 6 min →

Let's build the
team that ships.

Tell us about the role. We'll come back in 24 hours with a short plan, a candidate archetype, and who on our side would lead the search.

Start a search Meet the team