technical recruiting for startups
Aurora maps the market, predicts which engineers your offer can win, and screens them. Our team reaches the strongest and introduces only the few exceptional fits.
mapped
—
screened in depth
—
past our bar
The builders we place come from
Where they've worked
Series C+ · $11B
Series C+ · $8B
Series C+ · $2.75B
Series A · $27.5M raised
Series B · $76.5M raisedWhere they studied
We build the target market from the role backwards.
If the role as written can't be filled, you hear it in week one with the evidence.
Cash and equity together, per year — the number an engineer compares against what they already have. Our salary benchmark puts a series a company here at .
Equity
Stage
Workplace
How well known you are
could realistically attract
19%
of everyone past our bar
in SF Bay Area
the list most searches build
25names off a pedigree filter
Of those, 3 would move for this package. The rest are excellent, expensive, and already fielding more approaches than they read.
the list we build
15past the bar and in reach
12 of them carry no logo a filter would catch, and the middle of them would move for $234k
An illustration of the trade-off, not a readout of real candidates. Pay expectations are the market curve behind our salary benchmark, in SF Bay Area and in local currency.
We don't sell you a shortlist. We keep sending strong engineers until you are satisfied, you can hire as many as you want.
One engineer at a time
Strong fit
100% of the bar readable
CV + interview
Shipped AI to customersmust
40k paying users
Python + a typed languagemust
Python + Go
5+ years, startup
7 yrs, 2 startups
End-to-end ownership
Carried the pager
Retrieval and evals
Built the eval set
Credible with customers
Ran the design-partner calls
On-site 4 daysnot scored
Wants the room
Reading…
Not everyone is ready for a startup move. We establish that before making an introduction.
Candidates already in a process learn to say yes to everything. Ours weren’t looking until we gave them a reason.
We trace the reason behind every move they’ve made—and what would make them move again.
A strong CV can hide someone who executed well but never owned the decision.
Everyone agrees to intensity in an interview. We look at how they spent the last two years.
“Open to relocation” often dies at offer stage. We verify it against real-life constraints before you invest the time.
Risk aversion kills offers. We qualify the trade-off between cash, equity and certainty from the start.
“The engineers you want aren't looking. Everything we do is built around that one fact.”
Our network
What we recruit for
Retainer is where we do our best work, and where most teams start.
20% upfront, credited against the final fee.
No upfront. You pay only when you hire.
