Every interview hour was a founder hour. A single mis-hire at this size could set the roadmap back six months.
The agentic assistant pre-screened and ranked candidates, while transparent prompt logs let founders judge thinking — not just final code — in minutes.
At seed stage, the hiring team is the founders, and every interview hour is taken from building. A single mis-hire can cost months the company doesn't have.
The problem: no time, no margin for error
A four-person team with no recruiter couldn't run a heavy interview loop — but also couldn't afford to get senior hires wrong.
- Founder time was the scarcest resource
- One bad hire could derail the roadmap
- Final code alone didn't reveal how candidates thought
The shift: automate the busywork, keep the judgment
The agentic assistant sourced, pre-screened, and ranked candidates. Transparent prompt logs let the founders evaluate reasoning — not just the final answer — in minutes per candidate.
- Agent-ranked shortlist from a single prompt
- Prompt logs surfaced thinking, fast
- Founders made the call, the agent did the legwork
The outcome
Seven senior engineers hired, average review time of 18 minutes per candidate, and zero mis-hires — a small team punching far above its weight.