I'm Jyoti, a recruiter for seed and early-stage tech startups. I work alongside founders to make their first critical hires — no sales team, no black box, just me and your search, from the first conversation to the signed offer.
two ways to work with me
Answer a few quick questions and I'll reply personally to set up a 30-minute conversation. I'll help you sharpen what you're really looking for, then run the search myself.
Prefer email? Write to me directly
Share a few details and your CV. I read every submission myself and only get in touch when there's a genuine fit with a founder I trust.
Takes about a minute · private
who it's for
Most founders I work with are hiring for the first time, or the first time in a while, and don't have the bandwidth to learn recruiting from scratch.
You need to make your first two or three engineering hires and don't know where to start.
You're getting applicants, but none of them are the right applicants.
You've tried hiring before, and the candidates never quite fit what you actually need.
You're technical, but you're the one doing outreach, screens, and offers on top of shipping product.
You just raised a seed round and hiring is suddenly the most important thing on your plate.
services
I personally run the parts of hiring that eat a founder's week.
I sit down with you and turn a vague need ("we need an engineer") into a specific, sellable role: scope, level, comp band, and what success looks like in 90 days.
Direct outreach to candidates who fit your stage and problem space, not just your keywords. I write the messages founders wish they had time to write themselves.
First-round conversations, technical loop coordination, and a live pipeline you can see into at any point — no black box, no mystery candidates, no handoffs to someone you've never met.
Comp benchmarking against real early-stage data and support getting a hesitant candidate across the line, especially against Big Tech counter-offers.
how it works
30 minutes, just us. I learn your product, your stage, and what's actually blocking you from hiring today.
You get a short written plan: which roles, in what order, at what budget, over what timeline.
I source, screen, and manage the pipeline myself. You show up for the parts that need a founder: pitching, deciding, closing.
No lock-in beyond the search you hired me for. Many founders bring me back for the next role; nobody's forced to.
who's behind this
I'm Jyoti. For the past decade-plus I've recruited niche technical and leadership talent for high-growth, venture-backed startups across the US, Singapore, Australia, Europe, and LATAM — the kind of hard-to-fill roles that need real headhunting, not job postings. I've placed AI/ML engineers, founding PMs, engineering managers, and GTM leaders, usually on tight timelines with very specific expectations from founders.
I started FigureOut because I kept running into the same gap: early-stage founders who needed exactly that kind of hands-on, headhunting-style recruiting, but didn't have the time, or a dedicated recruiter, to make it happen. FigureOut is built specifically for that stage — seed and early, when the first few hires matter more than almost anything else.
10+ years in recruitment & HR · MBA, Human Resources · Certified Tech Recruitment Professional
— Jyoti
why founders work with me
I only work with early startups, so I'm paced for a company that hasn't raised a Series A, not a 500-person enterprise search.
You work with me directly, from the first call to the offer. Never handed off to someone you haven't met.
A shared pipeline and weekly notes, so hiring never becomes a black box you're waiting on.
faq
Mostly early engineering hires, plus early go-to-market and operating roles for seed-stage teams. If you're not sure whether your role fits, ask on the first call.
I'll talk specifics on your call — terms depend on the search — but the short version is I'd rather fix it than walk away.
Enough to define the role well and to meet strong finalists — not enough to run the funnel yourself. Sourcing, screening, and pipeline management are on me.
get started
A 30-minute call is enough for me to tell you whether I'm the right fit — and if I'm not, I'll tell you that too.
Every message goes straight to me — no sales team, no queue.