Recruiting for early-stage startups

Every week your role stays open,
your best candidate takes another offer.

We find 2–3 pre-vetted candidates for Seed to Series A teams in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Shortlist in 10 days. No fee until your hire starts.

Prefer to submit a brief first? Start here →
2–3
Vetted candidates
10 days
To a shortlist
$0
Success fee only

You're running the product, managing investors, and trying to close customers. Recruiting well takes time you don't have.
And the wrong hire costs more than the search ever did.

You're screening people who've never worked in a startup

Job boards return volume, not fit. You spend weeks filtering candidates who can't handle ambiguity, no process, or a team of eight.

Agencies aren't built for your timeline

Enterprise recruiting firms move on enterprise timelines. By the time they deliver a shortlist, the best candidates have taken other offers.

20% of salary before you've seen one email

Upfront retainers are standard in this industry. That's $18K–28K on a single CS hire before anyone's done anything. We think that's backwards.

The wrong hire is the most expensive mistake you'll make

A bad fit at this stage doesn't just cost money. It costs trust, team morale, and six months of momentum you won't get back.

We built StartupX to fix this. Book a no-obligation discovery call to find out if we can help.

Book a No-Obligation Discovery Call

Simple. Fast. No surprises.

01
Week 1

We align before we source.

We run a focused discovery conversation to understand the role deeply. We want to know what the role is, what success looks like and why this hire matters right now. No intake form. Just direct alignment before we start sourcing.

Discovery call → written brief → search begins
02
Week 1–2

We match. You review.

We pull from our actively managed pipeline of pre-vetted, startup-ready operators. People we've already identified and assessed before your search begins. You get 2–3 vetted profiles with a write-up on why each one is worth your time.

2–3 vetted candidates → in 10 days or less
03
Ongoing

We present our recommendation. You make the final call.

We don't just deliver names. We give you a ranked recommendation and our informed opinion on fit. We coordinate interviews, manage communication, and stay involved through close. You make the decision; we handle everything around it.

$0 until day one → no hidden fees
What "vetted" means at StartupX

Every candidate is screened for both startup readiness and role-specific capability, including core technical skills, functional experience, and the execution track record needed to succeed in the role. Not resume-matched. Assessed for the reality of an early-stage environment.

You should be talking to us if...

Post-traction

You're Seed to Series A

You have a product, early customers, and a team that needs to grow. You know that the next hire is either a force multiplier or a six-month setback. Speed matters.

Bandwidth

You don't have time to recruit

You're running the product, managing customers, and staying on top of fundraising. Reviewing 40 resumes isn't something you have time for. We handle sourcing so you stay focused.

Toronto · Montreal · Vancouver

You're building in Canada

We know where the best operators are, what they're making, and what it takes to get them to move. Local market knowledge is the difference at the offer stage.

GTM and revenue roles

You're hiring for revenue

Account executives, BDRs, SDRs, sales development, revenue operations, partnerships. We focus on the roles that directly affect your top line, filled by people who've done it before.

Account Executive Business Development Rep Sales Development Rep Inside Sales Rep Revenue Operations GTM Lead Account Management Partnerships Business Development

We don't work with everyone. We work best with founders and revenue leaders who know what they need and are ready to move when the right person shows up. If you're still figuring out whether to hire, we can help with that too. But the best results happen when both sides are serious.

Also hiring beyond sales?

If you're building ops, CS, or founder-adjacent roles alongside your revenue team, we handle those too.

Customer Success Customer Support Lead Operations and Systems Founder-adjacent generalist Early-stage ops

What it looks like in practice.

Axya had a Customer Support Team Lead role open for four months with no hire. We sourced a vetted candidate who was strong enough to come in with a competing offer at $100K. The role was posted at $75–80K.

We worked the close. The candidate chose Axya. The role was filled.

Axya
B2B procurement platform · Seed · Montreal
2–3

Vetted candidates, not a firehose

Every profile is assessed for startup fit. Not a keyword match.

10

Days to a shortlist

From the discovery call to 2–3 vetted candidates in your inbox.

$0

No retainer. You pay only when your hire starts.

No upfront fees. No hidden surprises.

$100K

Competing offer, closed anyway

Our candidate had a $100K offer on the table. The role posted at $75–80K. We closed them on Axya.

It starts with a discovery call.

No pitch. No pressure. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help, and if we can't, we'll say so upfront.

No fee until your hire starts You pay only when your new hire walks in the door. Zero cost to starting the conversation.
Shortlist in 10 days or less We move on startup timelines because we draw from an existing pipeline, not starting from zero.
You stay in control We make introductions and give you our ranked recommendation. You make the final call. No commission-driven pressure.
If we can't help, we'll tell you We'd rather say no upfront than waste your time on a search we can't win.

Book a discovery call.
We'll be straight with you.

We'll tell you what we can do, what it costs, and how fast we can move. If it's not a fit, we'll say so in the first five minutes.

Prefer to submit a brief first? Start here →

Success-fee only  ·  Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver  ·  Seed to Series A