Industry practice
Startup & High-Growth Recruitment in India
Hiring in Startups & Technology Companies
We work with seed to Series C companies on founding-team hires, first functional leaders and post-funding scale-up.
Startup hiring is not enterprise hiring with a smaller budget. Candidates trade certainty for equity and scope, which makes the pitch, the stage fit and the honesty of the conversation more important than the process. We brief candidates on the real risk profile, because a hire who joins on an inflated picture does not stay.
What makes Startups hiring difficult
Competing against certainty
Candidates weigh a startup offer against a stable, better-paying alternative. The proposition must be argued honestly and specifically.
Equity that means nothing to the candidate
Most candidates cannot value an ESOP grant. We help articulate it in terms a candidate can actually reason about.
Scope inflation at hiring
Roles get oversold to attract senior candidates, then contract after joining. We push back on briefs that will not survive contact.
Speed as a competitive advantage
Well-run startups close in two weeks. We structure processes so that is achievable without dropping the assessment bar.
Roles across the sector
Grouped by function. Adjacent roles are almost always in scope.
Founding & Leadership
- Founding Engineer
- First Product Hire
- Head of Engineering
- Head of Growth
- Head of Operations
- Fractional CFO / CHRO
Engineering & Product
- Full Stack Engineer
- Backend / Frontend Engineer
- Mobile Engineer
- Product Manager
- Product Designer
- Data Engineer
Go-to-Market
- Sales Lead, SaaS
- Account Executive
- Performance Marketer
- Content & Brand Lead
- Customer Success Manager
- Partnerships Manager
Business Operations
- Finance Manager
- People / HR Lead
- Chief of Staff
- Business Analyst
- Operations Manager
- Compliance Manager
How we hire for Startups
Permanent Recruitment
Specialist hiring for professional and mid-management roles.
RPO Services
Your recruitment function, run by us, embedded in your team.
CXO & Leadership Hiring
C-suite and senior leadership appointments, assessed against outcomes.
HR Advisory
Practical HR structure for businesses growing past informality.
What we are seeing in Startups
- 01
Bengaluru remains the densest startup talent market, with Mumbai, Gurgaon, Pune and Hyderabad following.
- 02
Candidates increasingly assess runway, revenue and investor quality before accepting.
- 03
ESOP structures vary widely and need explaining clearly to land as real value.
- 04
Two-week hiring cycles are achievable and are frequently the deciding advantage over a larger competitor.
Startups in practice
Startups & Technology Companies recruitment, frequently asked
Yes, from seed onward. Early-stage mandates focus on founding-team and first-leadership hires where the assessment weighs ambiguity tolerance and ownership as heavily as skill.
Yes. That is a common RPO engagement, where an embedded recruiter runs hiring end to end under your employer brand for a fixed monthly fee.
We help articulate the grant in terms a candidate can reason about, strike price, vesting, dilution and realistic exit scenarios, because unexplained equity is treated as worth nothing.
Start hiring
Hiring in Startups?
Brief the consultant who covers this sector. You will get an honest read on the market before we start, not after six weeks.