Zelcast

The best engineers for the best startups

AI-native talent firm connecting the top 1% of engineers with the most promising, early-stage startups

Join as an engineer Hire with us

If you want a comfortable seat at an established company, this isn’t for you.

Everyone in the market The few worth calling The ones you meet The one

If that’s you,
put your name in.

You won’t find them on the market

The people we represent aren’t looking, and most never apply to anything. We read the whole map, and with the best of them we go deep: what they’ve built, how they work, and what they want next. An introduction from us carries all of that, to one company.

Infrastructure
ML and systems
Product engineering

Where we place people

AI and MLTraining infra, applied research, model products National securityDefense, space, autonomy software Regulated industriesFintech, markets, healthcare InfrastructureCloud, distributed systems, data platforms Robotics and hardwareEmbodied AI and the software beside it Developer toolsThe tools engineers pick for themselves

Founding and first-engineer roles, at funded companies still small enough for one hire to matter.

From introduction to offer, inside a week

Day 0

The brief

One conversation to learn your company’s religion and who you need right now.

Days 1 to 3

The search

Warm introductions go out on day one. The rest by day three.

By day 7

The offer

Interviews booked straight onto your calendar, and an offer out inside the week on average.

Introduction to offer

1day at its fastest

7days on average

Measured on every search we run

Common questions

How does this work?
One conversation to brief us, then a small number of people with the reasons for each. Introduction to offer runs seven days on average, one at its fastest.
What does it cost?
15% of first-year base, paid when someone is hired. No charge to talk to us, none for a brief, and none if we do not find the person.
Do you work with large companies?
No. Under a hundred people, and usually well under. Past that, the hire stops being the one that decides the company.
What roles do you fill?
Founding and first engineers, staff and principal engineers, and the technical leaders beside them, in AI and ML, infrastructure, national security, regulated industries, robotics and developer tools.
What if nobody fits?
We say so, and we bill nothing.
How fast can you start?
The brief is one conversation. Warm introductions go out the same day when the person exists.
Join the roster → Tell us what you’re hiring for →

Blog

What is a talent agent for engineers? The firm What is a forward deployed engineer? For engineers How to hire a founding engineer For founders
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