Building an on-site team of 15 engineers for
an Agentic AI startup in Bangalore
From unstructured hiring to a structured partnership
When Shalini Sunderam, Director of HR from Lyzr AI reached out to us in late 2024, the company was standing at an important inflection point. They were an ambitious AI-first startup, already making waves by building domain-specific GenAI products, and the demand for talent inside the organization was outpacing the pace at which they could hire. Every new client engagement meant new features, new releases, and bigger responsibilities for the engineering team but the team simply didn’t exist yet at the scale required to keep up
The reality was harsh. Lyzr didn’t have a dedicated HR department to manage this growth. Hiring was happening in fragments, often led by founders juggling multiple priorities.
One of the hardest parts was there was no brand visibility in the market strong enough to pull top engineers in. As a result, every hiring cycle felt like starting from scratch.
Their vision, however, was crystal clear: they wanted to build a full-fledged engineering team—a mix of software engineers, full-stack engineers, and backend engineers who could take ownership, innovate alongside the founders, and scale the company’s GenAI products to the next level.
They needed a partner who could help them put structure into hiring while attracting the kind of talent that shared their long-term vision.
Setting the foundation right
It took nearly a month of conversations and back-and-forth discussions just to map out a hiring process that would work for a company at Lyzr’s stage. By January 2025, six high-priority requirements were finalized and placed on the table.
The pressure was on to deliver fast enough to not slow down product timelines, but also create a repeatable process that would make hiring smoother in the future.
Instead of following a broad, generic approach to recruitment, we decided to focus sharply on three key levers:
- Domain-first sourcing: We deliberately sought out engineers who were already building or contributing to GenAI products, ensuring they could hit the ground running without a steep learning curve
- Candidate experience: We took ownership of pitching Lyzr’s vision directly to the talent pool, carefully overcoming the challenge of low brand visibility and making the opportunity feel exciting and career-defining.
- Immediate joiners: We prioritized candidates who were available to start quickly, cutting down waiting periods and allowing the team to move forward without delay.
Locked in 4 critical roles in 2 months
What would normally stretch into four or five months of drawn-out hiring was compressed into just two months. The fastest role was closed in an incredible two weeks.
Every hire was onsite in Bangalore, and joined without backing out.
“Uplers has been an excellent talent partner for Lyzr, helping us successfully close key positions with speed and efficiency. The team’s professionalism, responsiveness, and collaborative approach have made it a real pleasure working with them. We truly value this partnership and look forward to achieving more together.”
“From getting matched to the right role to finally landing the job, the entire process from Uplers felt so smooth and supportive. No matter if it was day or night, any update I needed always came through right on time.”
And these weren’t one-off wins. Every engineer placed is still with the company today.
“I had a great experience working with Uplers. They handled my interview scheduling professionally and managed the entire process smoothly from start to finish. The team was responsive and kept me informed throughout each step of the process. Their communication was clear and timely, which made the whole experience stress-free.”
Scaling beyond the first hires
What began as a set of six urgent roles has now grown into a partnership that has filled more than 15 positions. In just a few months, Lyzr was able to triple its engineering team size, setting a strong foundation for future expansion.
“Even after joining, Uplers was helpful whenever I had any doubts.”
