when your vc asks you to stop hiring your friends.
It’s time to step up your hiring game.
we’re proud to partner and collaborate with many of the world’s most innovative companies.
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featured clients
like a founder
We don’t recruit from the sidelines. We plug directly into your team’s workflows, to understand how you build from the inside out. This hands-on approach ensures we’re building with your future in mind and never settling for good enough.
speed with precision
At early-stage startups, timing is everything. We build always-on talent pipelines and move with urgency - without ever compromising on fit. Our process is engineered for speed, constantly finding and building your talent at pace.
sourcing reinvented
We use AI-driven sourcing, search optimization, and efficient workflows to surface top candidates faster. Our system identifies people with the adaptability, range and startup experience to thrive in high-growth companies.
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featured venture partners
behind every great hire is a great partner
We’re proud to collaborate and work with leading venture partners who live and breathe our values and Founder Mentality.
This is the startup ecosystem. From seed to late round series and exit - you need partners that work together to guide you along the way.
imagine a world where anyone can build a univeRSE.
character.ai leads the way.
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Character.AI was in a phase of rapid growth, with ~70 employees, over $300M in funding, and 20M+ monthly active users. Despite this momentum, the company had only one internal recruiter supporting a high volume of hiring across engineering, research, product, and marketing. They needed to scale quickly while maintaining an extremely high hiring bar in a competitive AI talent market. The challenge was building a world-class team across both IC and leadership roles without slowing down product velocity.
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Using the Team Build model, we deployed a team of three recruiters to operate as an extension of the internal function. We took ownership of end-to-end hiring across multiple functions, from sourcing and screening to pipeline management and offer execution. In parallel, we helped implement structured processes, improve feedback loops, and advise on overall recruiting strategy—freeing up internal leadership to focus on higher-priority initiatives.
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Scalrr rapidly built pipelines across a wide range of roles, including ML Infra Engineers, Applied ML engineers, research engineers, Backend Engineers, product managers, and design hires. Within the first phase of the partnership, we filled multiple key roles including a Brand Designer, Research Engineer (post-training), Backend Engineers, a Staff Security Engineer, and a Product Manager for Trust & Safety. We also supported ongoing hiring for senior and leadership roles, helping Character.AI scale its team while maintaining speed and quality during a critical growth stage.
Steve Fogarty discusses how Scalrr helped Character.AI scale fast across IC & leadership roles.
When candidates become clients .
With 3 decades of experience recruiting at Fortune 100 companies and Executive Search firms, we’ve built relationships that go beyond interviews and placements.
We pride ourselves in helping top talent connect with innovative companies, because candidates end up being great clients.
mission-driven leadership.
built with manara.
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Manara, a Y Combinator-backed social impact startup, needed to rapidly build out its leadership team across operations, product, engineering, and marketing. Previous experiences with multiple recruiters had been frustrating and ineffective. At the same time, the company was expanding across geographies and needed leaders who could thrive in an early-stage, mission-driven environment. They needed a partner who could move fast and deliver consistently at a high level.
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Using our Team Build model, we enabled multiple concurrent searches while embedding directly into the company’s workflows. We integrated into their existing systems, collaborated closely with leadership, and continuously refined the hiring strategy through weekly syncs. Beyond recruiting, we advised on process, candidate experience, and positioning to ensure strong alignment across every hire.
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Within five months, Scalrr successfully placed key leadership and technical hires across operations, product design, growth marketing, and engineering. These hires helped establish a strong foundation for Manara’s continued growth and expansion. Notably, the Head of Operations we placed was later promoted to CEO, highlighting the long-term impact of the partnership.
Steve Fogarty tells the story of how Manara changed the game regarding where to find leaders.
wherobots offers growth,
innovation and impact.
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Wherobots is founded by the creators of Apache Sedona, a deep-tech startup operating in a highly specialized domain of geospatial data and cloud analytics. At the seed stage, they had strong open-source traction but no recruiting infrastructure in place. As they prepared for a major product launch, they needed to rapidly build a world-class team across engineering, product, and go-to-market. The challenge was finding highly technical talent capable of operating at both startup speed and enterprise scale.
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Using the Team Build model, we embedded dedicated recruiters to work directly with the Founders. We focused on building both the foundational leadership team and scaling execution across engineering, infrastructure, and go-to-market roles. In parallel, we helped implement recruiting infrastructure, refine hiring processes, and position the company’s open-source traction to attract top-tier talent from companies like Amazon Web Services, Databricks, and Mapbox.
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Scalrr led 20+ hires across leadership and critical IC roles, including Head of Engineering, Head of Product, and Head of Marketing, along with a full buildout of engineering and infrastructure teams. These hires enabled the launch of SedonaDB, SpatialBench, Spatial AI Coding Assistant, Wherobots Cloud and supported rapid go-to-market expansion. The company successfully scaled from seed to Series A, with strong customer traction and performance benchmarks exceeding platforms like Snowflake and Google BigQuery in key workloads.
Marlin Plank discusses how Scalrr helped Whereabouts scale its rapidly expanding engineering and AI teams.
the drop
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Case Study: GOFUNDME
GoFundMe was entering a key phase of platform innovation and growth. Following the integration with Classy, their team needed to scale rapidly across engineering and product to support critical initiatives in payments infrastructure and … -
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Where Talent Reigns
We’re thrilled to see our Team Build model gaining recognition and making waves in the startup world. Our mission has always been to rethink recruitment—helping founders build powerhouse teams without the traditional… -
![A group of young people gathered closely around a tablet, looking at it intently, in a dimly lit setting with blue and red lighting, possibly a film or photography studio.]()
Supporting the Next Generation of Inventors
At Scalrr, we work with early-stage and fast-growth technology companies pushing the boundaries of innovation—from materials science to AI, semiconductors, health…
Authentic. relentless.
founder Mentality.
get in touch
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In cases where you don’t need a senior leader but are looking to build out an early team, our Team Build model is often the right fit.
This approach includes a modest monthly retainer, which helps reduce the overall placement fee. It works especially well for companies hiring for three or more roles at once.
We support hiring across individual contributor (IC) roles and can allocate multiple recruiters to your account, increasing speed and efficiency while lowering overall costs.
This model evolved organically—after placing leadership hires, many clients asked us to help build out their teams. For early-stage companies without internal recruiting resources, we effectively operate as an extension of your team, providing dedicated, hands-on support throughout the hiring process.
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We work with early stage and growth companies going from Seed to Series.
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We are easy to work with, just reach out via the form on our website and we will get back to you right away.