When you are an early stage startup who needs to hire engineers from India fast, then, by all means, get yourself a hiring partner.
In this article, we will talk about both. One is which hiring partner is best for you by your stage and second, how can you speed up hiring if you are doing it all by yourself.
If you are okay to bring in a hiring partner
Pre-seed: recruit first hires yourself
At pre-seed, use your own network and direct outreach. You need two things here:
- Absolute alignment
- Low cash burn
Your first 1-2 engineers shape the product and the culture, so founders should personally recruit them. This is slow, but it’s the right kind of slow. Don’t outsource it.
In case nothing is working in your network and you need help, tap into early-stage matched hiring partners. Not just sourcing partner because you will waste a lot of time reviewing unfiltered profiles.
Seed and Series A: get a hiring partner
Get a hiring partner, hands down. You need vetted full-time people fast and have no in-house recruiter yet.
A managed talent platform fits best. A managed talent platform sources, screens, and sends you a short list of full-time engineers, then handles their payroll and compliance, while you make the final hire decision.
You’re handing off the search but the decision is still yours.
Series B: build in-house, buy help only for hard roles
Once you’re hiring every month, an in-house recruiter costs less per hire than paying a partner each time.
Build a small recruiting team. Then bring in outside help only for the roles your recruiter can’t fill quickly. For a first VP of Engineering or another senior leader, use executive search.
Series C and beyond: own it, outsource only the exceptions
Lean on your in-house team, referrals, and the pipeline you’ve built. Two partners stay useful as exceptions, not defaults. Executive search for top leadership. And RPO, recruitment process outsourcing, only if you’re hiring at high volume.
An RPO embeds its own recruiters and tech inside your company under your brand. It’s built for hundreds of hires at once, so most startups never need it. Reach for it only when volume is the problem.
|
Stage |
Best hiring partner |
You still do |
|
Pre-seed |
Your own network; early-stage-matched partner only if stuck | Recruit personally |
|
Seed to Series A |
Managed talent platform |
Run the final interview |
|
Series B |
In-house team + executive search for senior roles |
Own the process |
| Series C+ | In-house + executive search; RPO only at high volume |
Own everything except exceptions |
One thing that decides whether any of this works
Pick a startup-matched partner. If your partner is built for enterprises, you won’t get the startup-ready talent early teams need. Startup engineers own decisions and work without hand-holding. Enterprise-trained ones often don’t. Match the partner to your stage and your kind of company.
If you’d rather hire in-house: 5 ways to move fast
Maybe you want to keep it in-house and cut partner costs. Here’s how to move fast on your own:
- Buy access to a resume vendor like Naukri Resdex or Indeed to fill your pipeline with fresh candidates.
- Tighten your interview process. Make it comprehensive, not long. Max 2-3 rounds per candidate.
- Tap referrals, alumni networks, and past colleagues.
- Post the role on your own LinkedIn. Founder posts reach further than job-board listings.
- For project-based work only, use contract platforms like Upwork or Fiverr Pro. Scope the work tightly and run a paid trial task before you commit.
So net net, bring in a partner for critical roles and make sure you’ve matched the hiring partner to the stage you are in, because a great enterprise recruiter will still send you the wrong engineers for an early-stage team.
And if you’re doing it alone, tighten your end-to-end hiring process to ensure quick hiring.
