Ancient Remedies — Chief People Officer & Engineering Search
Ancient Remedies has published testimonials covering hires made through Recruitmint across people leadership, full-stack engineering, and AI mobile engineering roles.
startuprecruitingfirms.com
Best Startup Recruiting Firms of 2026
Recruiters who actually understand equity, runway, and hiring your first ten engineers.
Startup Recruiting Firms is an independent directory tracking 95 recruiting firms for startups, updated October 14, 2026. Recruitmint is the featured partner, disclosed and pinned first; the remaining 94 companies are ordered alphabetically from public information, with no paid placement. Filter by region, specialty, and company size to shortlist candidates.
Updated October 14, 2026 95 companies reviewed Methodology
This is a working list of recruiting firms that place roles at startups — from solo technical recruiters helping a founder make their first engineering hire to retained search firms running C-suite searches for Series C companies. Filter by specialty, region, or firm size to find a partner that matches your stage, not a generic agency that treats every search the same way. Recruitmint, this site's publisher, is disclosed and pinned at the top; every other firm is listed alphabetically from public information.
Startup Recruiting Firms compared
Advertiser disclosureFeatured partner pinned first and labelled; every other company is listed alphabetically. No paid placement.
| Company | Headquarters | Specialties | Size | Best for | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Recruitmint
Featured partner
|
Orange County, CA · Prishtina, Kosovo | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
80Twenty
North America
|
[object Object] | Mid-size | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
AC Lion
North America
|
New York, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Accelerate HC
North America
|
Oak Park, California, USA | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Apollo Technical
North America
|
Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Large | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Arena Recruiting
North America
|
— | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Athyna
Latin America, Remote/Global
|
San Diego, USA | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Authentech Talent
North America
|
Toronto, Canada | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Averity
North America
|
New York, USA | — | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Balkan Hire
Balkans, Remote/Global
|
Sheridan, Wyoming, USA | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Beacon Talent
North America
|
[object Object] | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Bespoke Partners
North America
|
Austin, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Betts Recruiting
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Mid-size | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Bloom Talent
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Bolster
North America
|
New York, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Bonell Ryan
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Boundly
Europe
|
United Kingdom | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Cadre
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Captivate Talent
North America
|
— | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Carex Consulting Group
North America
|
— | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Chasen Talent
North America
|
— | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
ClosedWon Talent
North America
|
Waverley, MA, USA | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Clutch Talent
North America
|
— | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Coastal Recruiting
North America
|
Los Angeles, USA | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Crucial Recruiting
North America, Remote/Global
|
Seattle, USA | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Daversa Partners
North America
|
New York, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
DRH Search
North America
|
Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
Early Stage Talent
North America
|
— | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
EC1 Partners
Europe, North America
|
London, UK | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Edison & Black
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
EqualAccess
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
Excelsior Search
Europe, North America
|
London, UK | — | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Fabric Staffing
North America, Remote/Global
|
— | — | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Founders Connect
North America
|
— | — | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
GENTY recruitment
Latin America
|
Buenos Aires, Argentina | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Golden Gate Recruiting
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
GTM Hunters
Remote/Global
|
— | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
GTM Talent
North America, Europe
|
— | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Herd Freed Hartz
North America
|
Seattle, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
High Slope Recruiting
North America, Remote/Global
|
— | Boutique | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Hire With Near
North America, Latin America
|
Austin, USA | Mid-size | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Hired By Startups
Europe
|
London, UK | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
HireKosovo
Balkans, Remote/Global
|
Kosovo | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Hunt Club
North America
|
Chicago, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
ISG Partners
North America
|
— | — | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
KORE1
North America
|
Irvine, USA | — | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
LaunchWorks
Europe, North America
|
London, UK | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Littlemore Recruiting
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Lupa Hire
Latin America, North America
|
— | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Magenta
Latin America, Remote/Global
|
— | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
Marathon Talent
Latin America
|
— | — | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Masarna
North America
|
— | Boutique | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
MBI Talent Group
Latin America, North America
|
— | — | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
McKenzie Recruiting
North America
|
— | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Merot
Balkans
|
Skopje, North Macedonia | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Nederlia
Europe
|
Barcelona, Spain | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Neon Talent Partners
North America
|
USA | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Omnes Group
Balkans, Europe
|
— | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Opal Search Partners
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Pipeline Recruiters
North America
|
— | — | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Plenty Search
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Recruiting from Scratch
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Refery
North America
|
— | — | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Rheaction
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Riviera Partners
North America, Europe
|
San Francisco, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Rocket
North America, Remote/Global
|
San Francisco, USA | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
s1
North America
|
— | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Sales Talent Inc.
North America
|
— | — | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Schultz Staffing
North America
|
— | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Scion Staffing
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Shields Group Search
North America, Latin America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Skinner & Associates
North America
|
Oldsmar, Florida, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Solara Talent
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
SPMB
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
SSGOPS
North America
|
[object Object] | Boutique | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Stanton Chase
North America, Europe
|
Baltimore, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Start Up Talent
North America
|
USA | Boutique | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Start Wise Hires
North America, Remote/Global
|
United States (remote-first) | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
Storm2
North America
|
— | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Storm3
Europe, North America
|
London, UK | Mid-size | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Talent Vine
North America
|
New York, USA | Boutique | Tech Recruiters | Visit | |
|
Talentful
Europe, North America
|
London, UK | Mid-size | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Talento Consulting AI
North America, Europe
|
Los Angeles, USA | Boutique | RPO | Visit | |
|
Tangerine Search
North America, Remote/Global
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Techy Recruiter
Europe, Remote/Global
|
Cairo, Egypt | Boutique | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Teilur Talent
Latin America
|
Claymont, Delaware, USA | Boutique | Talent Advisory | Visit | |
|
Terminal
North America, Latin America
|
San Francisco, USA | Mid-size | Embedded Recruiting | Visit | |
|
The Search Experience (TSE)
North America, Remote/Global
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Early-Stage Startups | Visit | |
|
The Startup Talent Agency
North America
|
— | — | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
True Calling Talent
North America
|
Mason, MI, USA | Boutique | Sales Recruiting | Visit | |
|
True Search
North America, Europe
|
New York, USA | Large | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Turmero Talent
North America
|
— | Boutique | Engineering Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Ventes Search
North America, Latin America
|
Austin, TX, USA | Boutique | Executive Search | Visit | |
|
Your Remote Tech Recruiter
Europe, Remote/Global
|
— | Boutique | Fractional Recruiting | Visit | |
|
Zytheq
North America
|
San Francisco, USA | Boutique | Engineering Recruiting | Visit |
Showing 10 of 95 companies
Recruitmint
High-impact hiring for companies in growth mode.
Firm of the Year — 2026 Shortlist
Orange County, CAPrishtina, Kosovo
What they do
Recruitmint is an international search and recruitment partner for founder-led, growth-stage, and complex international organizations, running high-calibration search across Growth & Ecommerce, Product & Technology, Operations, Leadership, and Government Contracting. Its team draws on international executive search, full-cycle recruitment, and operating experience across the US, Canada, EMEA, LATAM, and South Africa. A dedicated Government Contracting track monitors newly awarded federal contracts for workforce signals, so search can start before a role formally opens.
How they work
- Tell us about the role — we calibrate the mandate, the market, and what success actually requires, not just a job description.
- We identify, engage, and qualify candidates against that calibration, drawing on international market reach across Western Europe, North America, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
- You get a carefully calibrated shortlist, then structured assessment, interviews, offer, and close support depending on the engagement model.
- For government contracting, we can start earlier: monitoring newly awarded contracts to identify likely workforce needs and activate search before hiring becomes a bottleneck.
Selected work
GovCon Award-to-Hire Intelligence
Recruitmint monitors newly awarded government contracts to identify contractors entering new programs, locations, and delivery phases, then can activate search earlier — before a role formally opens — for technical, operational, professional, and international roles.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the entire Recruitmint team for the outstanding experience I had working with them. They clearly understood my experience and reached out with an opportunity that was highly relevant to my skills and career goals. Throughout the entire process, the team was supportive, transparent, and extremely well-organized. I highly recommend Recruitmint to anyone. They truly excel at connecting the right people with the right opportunities.
- Offices
- Orange County, CA · Prishtina, Kosovo
- Contact
- hello@recruitmint.io
Awards
Firm of the Year — 2026 Shortlist · Startup Recruiting
Startup Recruiting Firms publishes this award. Recruitmint — the award's winner — is also this site's featured, paid partner; the badge and the placement come from the same publisher. See how we rank.
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95 shownFeatured partner
Recruitmint is an international search and recruitment partner for founder-led, growth-stage, and government-contracting organizations, with offices in Orange County, CA and Prishtina, Kosovo. It recruits across product, engineering, and AI roles (including founding engineers), growth and ecommerce leadership, executive and leadership search, and GovCon roles including cleared and OCONUS talent. Offered as full-search or embedded talent-partner engagements. Publisher of this directory; disclosed as the featured listing.
Multi-office staffing and recruiting agency headquartered in San Francisco with a New York office, placing sales, marketing, and business-development talent for startups and larger companies across the US.
AC Lion Group is a New York City-based executive search firm placing growth, GTM, and digital leaders for investor-backed companies, with deep-expertise practices spanning emerging tech/AI, digital media and adtech, MarTech/SaaS, and e-commerce.
Accelerate HC is a boutique recruiting firm specializing exclusively in go-to-market roles for B2B SaaS companies, placing account executives through CRO-level hires for seed-stage through Series C+ clients across fintech, healthtech, martech, HR tech, and cybersecurity verticals.
Apollo Technical is an engineering, IT, and supply-chain recruiting firm with offices across the US Southeast, Texas, and the Midwest, placing candidates from startups through Fortune 500 companies in specialties spanning software engineering, controls engineering, and renewable energy.
Arena Recruiting is an outsourced recruiting firm serving startups, SMBs and law firms. It offers fractional recruiting engagements (typically one to three days a week over 3-6 months), plus contingency, retained and direct-hire IT recruiting.
Athyna is a San Diego talent-matching platform, founded in 2019, for startups and scaling companies hiring remote professionals. It uses AI to connect them with vetted candidates, with a particular focus on talent from Latin America.
Authentech Talent is a boutique recruiting firm running technical, go-to-market, and executive search for startups from Pre-Seed through Series F, offering both embedded TA advisory and success-based placement across AI, fintech, healthtech, and cybersecurity verticals.
Averity is a New York City technical recruiting agency specialized in software engineering, data science/engineering, and DevOps/security hiring, running dedicated recruiting teams for each niche within the NYC tech market.
Balkan Hire is a boutique recruiting agency (Efficient Hire LLC) that sources and vets remote candidates from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia for growing startups and SMEs, covering marketing, finance, operations, and general business roles.
San Francisco Bay Area sales recruitment agency founded by David Berk, placing VP Sales, CRO, Account Executive, SDR/BDR, RevOps, and Customer Success leaders for B2B SaaS startups and scale-ups from first sales hire through a full revenue leadership team.
Bespoke Partners is an Austin executive search and sales recruiting firm, founded in 2011. It places C-suite and VP-level revenue and marketing leaders, including CRO and CMO roles, at PE- and venture-backed software and SaaS companies.
Betts Recruiting is a go-to-market recruiting agency headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Seattle, and Toronto, placing sales, marketing, and customer success talent for startups from pre-seed through Series D via contingency search, executive search, and a recruiter-subscription (RaaS) model.
Bloom Talent is a woman-owned boutique recruiting agency based in San Francisco that partners with early-stage startups, venture capital firms, and established tech companies to fill senior and executive roles through a relationship-driven, white-glove search process.
Bolster is a New York-headquartered executive talent marketplace, founded by the former leadership team of Return Path, that matches CEOs of startups and scaleups with full-time, fractional, interim, and board executives through a combination of experienced recruiters and a sourcing platform.
Bonell Ryan is a boutique, retained executive search firm based in New York serving the FinTech, Payments, and SaaS industries, placing transformational leadership talent for both Fortune 500 clients and early- and late-stage startups.
Boundly is a solo founder-led boutique GTM recruitment agency for global B2B SaaS companies, placing sales, marketing, and customer success roles from pre-seed through enterprise, run by founder Connor Jones who has worked both as an agency recruiter and in-house talent lead.
Cadre is a boutique San Francisco Bay Area software engineering recruiting firm serving high-growth startups since 2007, deliberately capped at fifteen recruiters, sourcing candidates directly rather than through job postings.
Captivate Talent is a recruiting firm dedicated to revenue roles at high-growth SaaS companies, placing sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps talent from individual contributors through executive leadership, working with US and Canada-based teams.
Carex Consulting Group is a recruiting firm with a decade-long healthtech practice placing implementation & onboarding, customer success, product & project management, sales & marketing, and engineering/data/DevOps talent for healthtech, digital health, and health-and-wellness startups scaling from around 30 to 500+ employees.
Chasen Talent is a solo founder-led boutique search firm running engineering, revenue, and go-to-market searches for early-stage to growth startups in California, New York, and remote, with every search handled personally by founder Chasen Nick from intake through close.
Sales and GTM recruiting firm for seed and Series A startups, placing founding AEs/BDRs, marketing, VP Sales/Revenue leadership, sales engineers, and CSMs, with vertical experience across cybersecurity, fintech, healthtech, and vertical SaaS.
Clutch Talent is a technical recruiting firm with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, offering software engineering hiring, embedded recruitment, talent representation, and strategic consulting for startups and tech companies.
Coastal Recruiting is a boutique Los Angeles tech recruiting firm for early-stage, VC-backed startups. It hires engineering and product talent, specializing in the first wave of technical hires at a company.
Seattle-based fractional and embedded recruiting agency for pre-seed to Series A startups. A dedicated recruiter joins your team to run sourcing and hiring, scaled up or down with hiring volume.
Daversa Partners is an executive search firm that runs leadership searches for high-growth, venture-backed technology companies, with case studies covering companies such as OpenAI, Brex, and Cursor.
DRH Search is a solo-founder recruiting firm connecting talent with venture-backed startups from seed through Series B, placing candidates across software engineering, sales, marketing, GTM, talent acquisition, data science, product, and finance functions.
Early Stage Talent is a boutique agency founded by Ryan Sapper specializing in early engineering, product, and go-to-market hiring for startups, offering individual-contributor search, fractional recruiting leadership, and executive search.
EC1 Partners is a global FinTech recruitment agency with offices in London, New York, Miami, and Singapore, placing permanent, contract, and executive-search talent across electronic trading, capital markets software, regtech, payments, lending, and crypto/digital assets for FinTech companies.
Edison & Black is a New York City-based IT consulting and technical staffing firm offering tech and sales recruiting solutions alongside enterprise platform consulting (ServiceNow, Salesforce, AI/ML), placing engineering and go-to-market talent for growth-stage technology companies.
EqualAccess is a New York recruiting and executive search firm built by former startup operators, placing founding engineers, SDRs/AEs, customer success, and ops hires for early-stage companies using behavioral-assessment-backed screening.
Excelsior Search is a global executive search and recruitment firm focused exclusively on fintech vendors serving capital markets and investment technology, data, and research providers, recruiting executive management, sales, marketing, professional services, and product development talent across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
Fabric Staffing is a recruitment-as-a-service (RaaS) provider, operating since 2016, that helps founders, VCs and high-growth companies scale engineering and product teams with dedicated candidate pipelines.
Founders Connect is a startup recruiting agency for venture-backed teams from pre-seed through Series D, focused on go-to-market roles such as account executives, SDRs, marketing, and revenue operations.
GENTY recruitment is a Latin America-focused recruitment agency helping US and European startups hire tech, sales, and leadership talent across 14 LATAM countries, offering IT recruitment, sales recruitment, RPO, and executive search services.
Golden Gate Recruiting is a boutique San Francisco staffing agency running full-cycle recruiting for early-stage startups across engineering, product, sales, marketing, operations and legal roles, with the person running the search owning the hire.
GTM Hunters is a precision recruiting firm exclusively focused on revenue roles for VC-backed SaaS and AI companies from Series A through Series D, placing Account Executives, SDRs, GTM leadership, RevOps, and AI GTM talent.
Boutique executive search firm placing GTM leadership (CRO, CMO, VP Sales, VP Marketing, RevOps, first sellers) for SaaS and tech scale-ups, plus nonprofit executive search, with partners covering North America and EMEA for cross-border searches.
Herd Freed Hartz is a Seattle retained executive search firm with a Pacific Northwest focus (Seattle, Portland, Alaska) and national search reach. It recruits leaders across functions including CEO, CFO, COO, CRO/sales, CTO/engineering, CMO, VP Product, and HR/talent, with technology and startups among the industries it serves.
High Slope Recruiting is a founder-led firm placing engineering and executive talent, including staff and principal engineers, ML researchers, and founding technical leads, at Series A-C startups.
Hire With Near is an Austin staffing and recruiting agency, founded in 2021, for U.S. startups hiring remote professionals in Latin America. It handles sourcing, vetting, and compliance support.
Hired By Startups is a boutique London recruitment agency, founded in 2017, for early-stage and high-growth startups in Europe. It places go-to-market talent across sales, marketing, and customer success.
HireKosovo is a structured international hiring firm sourcing AI-fluent, tech, and creative talent from Kosovo and the Balkans for venture-backed startups and scaling companies, offering both self-directed platform access and full-service role architecture, sourcing, and vetting engagements.
Hunt Club is a Chicago executive search and talent advisory firm, founded in 2014. It finds leaders for high-growth VC- and PE-backed companies (Series A-C included) through expert referrals and AI-assisted relationship mapping.
ISG Partners (Hawn Holdings LLC DBA ISG Partners) is an embedded recruitment firm offering on-demand recruiters, Talent as a Service, to venture-backed startups across Series A, B, and C stages, including technical and AI/ML hiring.
KORE1 is an Irvine, California staffing and recruiting firm founded in 2005. It offers direct hire, contract and project-based staffing across the U.S., with technology specialties including software, AI/ML, cloud, DevOps and data engineering, plus a startup staffing service.
Retained GTM search firm focused on Series A and Series B venture-backed startups, placing enterprise sales/presales, marketing, and C-suite GTM leadership across DevTools, cybersecurity, and AI/ML companies in the US and EMEA.
Littlemore Recruiting is a senior-led San Francisco search firm offering fractional and embedded recruiting, project-based sourcing, and hiring strategy for startups and growth-stage companies, with proven work across AI, health tech, fintech, and B2B SaaS.
Lupa Hire is a tech recruiting agency placing pre-vetted engineers and digital professionals from Latin America with US companies, offering recruiting, staffing and RPO and sending curated shortlists of 3-4 candidates per role.
Magenta is a remote staffing and recruiting agency that helps founders and high-growth startups hire full-time and virtual-assistant talent from Latin America, with full-cycle candidate management and a proprietary LATAM candidate database.
Marathon Talent is a LATAM-focused recruiting and Talent-as-a-Service firm. It offers full-cycle recruitment, fractional people and talent strategy where a consultant embeds with the client's team, plus salary and market studies, for US companies hiring bilingual talent in Latin America.
Masarna provides recruiting support for founder-led startups and growth companies through three models: success-based search, embedded recruiting, and fractional talent leadership. It also advises on workforce planning and hiring-process design.
MBI Talent Group offers executive search, tech and sales recruiting, and a Fractional Headhunters service in which an experienced headhunter embeds with a client's team on a flexible monthly basis. Its site says it pioneered the fractional model in Latin America and lists offices including Querétaro, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Milan, and San Jose, CA.
McKenzie Recruiting is a women-owned, SAM.gov-registered fractional recruiting and executive search firm working with startups, SaaS companies, tech firms, marketing agencies, and government contractors across insurance, technology, aviation, manufacturing, and other specialized functions.
Merot is a Balkans-based outsourcing company whose recruitment service sources, screens, and delivers shortlists for engineering, sales, and operations roles across North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, and Serbia, running searches up to head-of-engineering/VP-engineering level.
Nederlia is a venture capital-focused executive search firm specializing in early-stage startups, from seed to Series B, placing C-suite and VP-level leaders across tech hubs in Europe and the UK.
Neon Talent is a subscription-based fractional recruiting firm that embeds recruiters with startups on a monthly basis to fill executive, technical, and operations roles, with active placement work across San Francisco, Austin, New York, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and Miami.
Omnes Group is an IT-focused recruitment firm sourcing developers in Serbia, offering pay-per-hire, pay-per-stay and recruiter-as-a-service models with focus areas in AI, Web3, SaaS, GTM and Fintech.
Opal Search Partners is a New York-based boutique executive search and advisory firm placing C-suite, board, and VP leaders in product, engineering, go-to-market, and operations roles for mission-driven, venture-backed startups, using a proprietary candidate-mapping tool called Opal Loupe.
Pipeline Recruiters is a SaaS sales and go-to-market recruiting agency that helps startups across Canada and the US hire SDRs, BDRs, account executives and revenue leaders, from early-stage seed companies to Series B and C.
Plenty Search is a boutique New York executive search firm built by former startup operators. It runs leadership searches for Series A-C and early-stage startups, with a smaller caseload per recruiter than traditional retained firms.
Recruiting from Scratch is a technical recruiting firm that pairs software-driven sourcing with recruiters focused on engineering hires, working with companies from seed stage through Series D.
Refery is a startup recruiting network for VC-backed Seed to Series B companies hiring engineering, AI, and go-to-market talent, combining specialist independent recruiters with referrals from founders, operators, and investors.
Rheaction is a boutique recruiting firm headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in New York and Denver, specializing in design, product, and technical leadership placements for venture-backed startups, including Series A-B companies competing for engineering talent.
Riviera Partners is a technology-focused executive search and talent advisory firm placing leadership in product management, software engineering, AI/ML/data, security, and design, working with venture-backed companies from seed stage through scale.
Rocket (Neatly Technologies, Inc.) is an AI-native recruiting firm started in San Francisco with additional teams in Toronto and New York, placing engineering, product, go-to-market, and executive roles for high-growth, VC-backed startups from Series A through IPO via contingency, executive search, and embedded models.
s1 is a GTM-only recruiting firm for AI and SaaS startups, placing account executives, SDRs, and sales leaders from seed through Series D, run by former GTM operators from companies including Intercom and Contentsquare.
Sales Talent Inc. is a software and SaaS sales recruiting firm that headhunts SDRs, account executives, sales leaders, customer success, sales operations and marketing talent in the US and Canada for seed through Series C and PE-funded SaaS companies.
Schultz Staffing is a founder-led fractional recruiting practice that embeds with VC-backed startups, pre-seed to Series A, as their in-house recruiter. It runs personalized outreach from the client's own inbox, and the founder, Erich Schultz, previously recruited in-house at Earnest, Rutter, and Forethought.
Scion Staffing is a San Francisco-headquartered temporary staffing, contingency search, and executive recruitment firm that has served Bay Area employers since 2006, including startups and technology companies alongside finance, healthcare, nonprofit, and other sectors.
Shields Group Search is a New York City-based executive recruiting firm specializing in startup and scale-up hiring, providing executive and technical talent acquisition for venture-backed companies from Seed through Series C across SaaS, fintech, healthtech, and Web3.
Skinner & Associates is a boutique health tech recruiting firm placing mid, senior, and executive-level talent for health tech startups and established companies, offering retained, contingency, hybrid, and contract-to-hire placement models.
Solara Talent is a New York-focused technical recruiting firm that helps venture-backed startups hire software engineers, product managers, designers, and growth talent using a proprietary sourcing platform called Recruiter OS.
SPMB is an executive search firm that recruits C-level executives and board members for technology, consumer, and health companies, ranging from early-stage startups to established public companies.
Solo-operator technical recruiting practice based in the San Francisco Bay Area (also working New York City), specializing in AI/LLM and software founding-engineer hires for seed through Series A/B startups, with 20 years of Bay Area recruiting experience and the last decade focused on startups.
Stanton Chase is a large, Baltimore-based global executive search and leadership consulting firm, founded in 1990. Its startups-and-scale-ups practice recruits C-level and board talent for Series A-D venture-backed and private equity-owned companies.
Start Up Talent runs an embedded recruiting and HR support model alongside a fractional Strategic Advisement service for Seed-through-Series E tech startups, handling full-cycle technical and executive hiring and advising on the talent function itself; clients include HoneyBook and Collective.
Start Wise Hires is a remote-first, US-based recruiting firm helping early-stage and scaling tech startups hire across fintech, AI, biotech, blockchain, and cybersecurity, offering hiring services, recruitment outsourcing, and hiring-strategy consulting.
Storm2 is a FinTech-focused recruitment and executive search firm placing AI/data, software engineering, finance & operations, legal, product, risk & compliance, and sales & marketing talent for FinTech companies from founding teams through public/late-stage, covering verticals from digital banking to payments, lending, and crypto.
Storm3 is a HealthTech-focused recruitment and executive search firm placing data & analytics, engineering, AI/ML, product management, and go-to-market talent for HealthTech companies from founding teams through late-stage and public, covering sub-sectors from digital health to AI drug discovery and biotech.
Talent Vine is a small New York-based search firm founded by three former Palantir recruiters that runs retained search and hiring-partnership engagements for forward-deployed engineering, technical/product leadership, and business-leadership roles at growing startups.
Talentful is a London-based, mid-size embedded recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firm, founded in 2015. It places specialist recruiters inside client companies and pairs them with AI-driven sourcing tools, working across startups, scale-ups, and larger enterprises in Europe and North America.
Talento Consulting AI is a Los Angeles-based talent consultancy specializing in go-to-market, product, and engineering hiring for early-stage and high-growth tech startups, offering embedded RPO, hiring sprints, and retained search from seed through pre-IPO, serving LA, San Francisco, New York, and London.
Tangerine Search is a San Francisco Bay Area-headquartered boutique recruiting and fractional HR firm serving startups and growth-stage tech teams, offering startup recruiting, technical recruiting, executive search, embedded/RPO support, and fractional HR across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Techy Recruiter is a boutique tech recruitment consultancy based in Cairo, Egypt, serving funded startups and scale-ups across Europe and the Gulf region. It offers embedded recruitment, sourcing-as-a-service, and hiring-process design.
Teilur Talent is a nearshore staffing agency connecting US and Canadian companies with pre-vetted tech professionals across Latin America, covering software engineering, design, and other technical roles through an in-house vetting and matching process.
Terminal is a San Francisco engineering hiring platform for growth-stage technology companies. It places full-time, contract, and contract-to-hire software engineers, AI/ML developers, dedicated teams, and engineering managers in nearshore and offshore markets across Canada, Latin America, and Europe, and also offers employer-of-record services.
The Search Experience (TSE) is a San Francisco-based startup recruitment agency that partners with venture-backed founders from Seed through Series C to build go-to-market, technical, and design teams, working with companies backed by firms such as Sequoia, Greylock, and SoftBank.
The Startup Talent Agency is a recruiting firm founded by a CHRO that works only with startups. It recruits across engineering and product, go-to-market, executive and leadership, and G&A roles.
Solo strategic recruiting partner for seed-to-Series B B2B SaaS startups, building GTM and Product hiring systems and running embedded/fractional talent-leader engagements alongside retained executive search for CRO/VP-level roles.
True Search is a New York-headquartered global retained executive search firm with offices across six continents, recruiting C-suite and board talent for venture capital- and private equity-backed companies as well as mid-to-large-cap organizations.
Turmero Talent is a contingency recruiting firm focused only on technical roles, placing backend, platform, infrastructure, DevOps/SRE engineers and engineering managers at seed to Series A startups of roughly 11-50 employees.
Boutique retained executive search firm focused exclusively on Go-To-Market leadership hires (CRO, CCO, VP Sales, Head of GTM) for founder-led, PE-backed, and venture-funded companies primarily in the US and Canada, with cross-border reach into Latin America.
Your Remote Tech Recruiter Ltd. is a one-recruiter practice offering fractional, embedded tech recruitment to startups, including post-fundraise teams. Its engagements follow a Review, Embed, Deliver model, and its site features testimonials from Develop Health, Juro, Booksy, and Scott Logic.
Zytheq is a San Francisco Bay Area recruiting firm running engineering, data/AI, product, go-to-market, and executive searches for Series A-D startups and larger tech companies, offering contingency search, retained executive search, and embedded/RPO recruiting out of its San Francisco office.
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Our picks by need
Featured partner excludedEach pick is chosen from the listed data below — size, headquarters, and published specialties. Our own featured partner is deliberately left out of this section.
Best for early-stage teams
Boutique firm in Oak Park, California, USA. Lists Sales Recruiting and Talent Advisory.
Why this pickBest for enterprise programs
Large firm in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Lists Engineering Recruiting and Tech Recruiters.
Why this pickBest for nearshore delivery
Covers Latin America and Remote/Global. Boutique team out of San Diego, USA.
Why this pickBest for early-stage startups
Lists Early-Stage Startups alongside Fractional Recruiting and Embedded Recruiting. Based in —.
Why this pickBuyer's guides
All guidesGUIDE · 5 MIN
Engineering Recruiting Companies for Startups: Firms to Know
A practical rundown of firms that specialize in placing software engineers at startups — what each one actually does, and how to tell if they fit your stage.
GUIDE · 5 MIN
Hiring for Startups: A Stage-by-Stage Guide
How startups actually approach hiring at each stage — first engineering hire, first GTM hire, executive search — and which recruiting model fits each one.
GUIDE · 5 MIN
How to Choose a Startup Recruiting Firm
A practical framework for picking a recruiting partner that actually fits early-stage hiring.
Questions buyers ask
Do I need a recruiting firm before my first ten hires?
It depends on whether founders still have the hours. Most startups bring in outside recruiting when the founder pipeline stops keeping up with the roadmap, or when the role is outside the team's network. Embedded and fractional models exist precisely for that stage — the specialties on each listing show which firms offer them.
What should I ask a startup recruiting firm before signing?
Who actually sources — the person on the call, or a junior researcher? How many searches will that person carry alongside yours? What does the replacement policy say in writing? And can they show a search in your function and stage, not just a logo wall?
Does any company pay to be listed or ranked here?
No. Every firm on this site is included because it is a real, currently operating firm we found in public sources, and the order is fixed: featured partner first and labelled, everyone else alphabetically. There is no paid placement, no sponsored ranking, and no pay-to-play tier.
What does "featured partner" mean on this site?
It means Recruitmint publishes this directory. We pin Recruitmint to the top of the table with a badge — Recruitmint holds this directory's Firm of the Year — 2026 Shortlist recognition — and disclose it on every page rather than quietly ranking ourselves first. Treat that row as an advertisement — and compare it against the rest of the table like you would any other candidate.
What is the "Firm of the Year — 2026 Shortlist" recognition?
It's this directory's own editorial shortlist, given to our featured partner, Recruitmint, and disclosed here rather than presented as an independent or third-party award. It reflects how the featured listing is curated and maintained on this site — it is not a guarantee, a fee arrangement, a placement count, or a claim about outcomes for any client.
How current is this list, and how do I get a listing fixed?
Listings are compiled from public sources — company sites, LinkedIn, press — and reviewed on the date stamped at the top of the page. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct or remove it. We do not charge to fix a listing.
Methodology
Updated October 14, 2026How we rank
This directory is published by Recruitmint. Our own listing is disclosed above as the featured placement — it is not ranked by any hidden score. Every other firm on this site is included because it is a real, currently operating recruiting firm serving startups, listed alphabetically within each category from public information (company sites, LinkedIn, press). We don't charge for inclusion, we don't accept payment to rank a competitor higher or lower, and we'll correct or remove a listing on request if it's factually wrong.
How we make money
Recruitmint is the featured partner and the publisher of this directory, so Recruitmint appears pinned at the top of the comparison table and in the two ad units on each page — always labelled, including this directory's own Firm of the Year — 2026 Shortlist recognition. If you click through and become a client of Recruitmint, Recruitmint makes money. No other company on this site pays us anything, inclusion is free, and no position in any list is for sale.
Spot something wrong in a listing? We correct or remove it on request.