For companies
At scale, hiring is statistics. At ten people, it is a bet.
We work with a small number of startups under a hundred people. One introduction at a time, with the reasons attached, and a straight answer when nobody fits.
Tell us what you are hiring foror read why first
Zelcast finds engineers for startups under a hundred people. We brief once, then come back with a small number of people and a real argument for each, rather than a pipeline of possibles. Our average from introduction to offer is under seven days. There is a fee when someone is hired and nothing before that, and we say plainly when nobody fits.
I. Volume is the enemy of the only hire that matters.
Fifty resumes at the founding stage is not progress. It is fifty distractions from the one seat that decides the next two years, and it quietly tells the right person that they are being processed rather than chosen.
A large company can be slightly wrong a thousand times a year and average it out. You get about ten swings, and each one is a tenth of the company.
II. The tenth hire sets the bar for the eleventh.
Strong people want to work with strong people. Merely good people rarely object to more of the same. That asymmetry is the whole reason early teams either compound or quietly stop.
A mediocre senior hire does not arrive with an alarm attached. Nothing visibly breaks. The company just gets a little slower, the standard gets a little softer, and the next great engineer becomes harder to convince.
III. The work happens before you ever see a name.
Knowing who is genuinely exceptional cannot be done on demand. It comes from years of paying attention while nothing is happening, which is exactly why it cannot be bought the week you need it.
That is the part we have already done. When we come back to you it is with a small number of people and a real argument for each: what they have built, how they work, and why this room rather than another.
IV. We will tell you when nobody fits.
A firm paid per placement finds that sentence expensive, which is why so few of them ever say it.
We work with startups under a hundred people that are hiring like the company depends on it, because it does. If that is not you, we would rather say so in the first conversation than take the brief and go quiet.
The aim is not to send you more people. It is to be the call you make when the next hire actually matters.
Tell us what you are hiring for
A person reads this, and you get an answer either way. Everything below the divider is optional.
No account, no portal, and no pipeline to log into. One conversation, then people.
Common questions
How does this work?
One conversation to brief us, then a small number of people with the reasons for each. Our average from introduction to offer is under seven days, and sometimes it is one conversation.
What does it cost?
A fee when someone is hired. Nothing to talk to us, nothing for a brief, nothing if we do not find the person.
Do you work with large companies?
No. Under a hundred people, and usually well under. Larger organisations have their own machines and do not need us.
What roles do you fill?
Engineering. Founding engineers through staff and principal, plus the first engineering leaders. We do not fill everything, which is rather the point.
What if nobody fits?
We say so, early. That is the sentence the model is built around.
How fast can you start?
The week you brief us. We are not building a pipeline from scratch, we are going to people we already know.
The longer argument is in the thesis. If you would rather see how we read engineers first, the Eng Scorer is free and public.
