Dover: One-Stop Recruiting Help With No Placement Fees

Dover has recruiters in SF and has already helped more than 800 startups hire across engineering, product, and go-to-market. Three points make Dover stand out:

• Hire fractional recruiters on an hourly plan: Bring one recruiter in for five hours a week or thirty, your choice, no lock-in. Scale down easily when you are not actively hiring.

• Free all-in-one ATS: Unlimited jobs and users, job board syndication to 70+ boards, Slack alerts, and AI resume scoring.

• Transparent pricing: Instead of the usual 20% placement charge, Dover bills a monthly or hourly rate based on your needs.

Founders short on time love that Dover unites tools and recruiters in a single platform, sparing them from juggling an ATS, a sourcing tool, and an agency. Curious how the costs break down? Our team posted an in-depth guide on fractional recruiter cost.

"Dover is so easy for hiring managers. I just have to read some resumes and hit Approve or Reject, and everything else is done automatically for me. Saves me a ton of time.”

Pablo Lleras, Senior Director of Engineering, Pixlee

Rocket: Embedded Recruiters With Bay Area Roots

Rocket plugs a full-cycle recruiter or even an entire team into your company. The recruiter joins Slack, attends stand-ups, and moves requisitions forward daily. Their edge comes from a long Bay Area history and proprietary tech that ranks passive candidates so outreach lands faster.

The Sourcery: Flat-Rate Recruiting-as-a-Service

Billing a flat subscription instead of success fees, The Sourcery gives early-stage teams predictable cost control. A dedicated recruiter drafts your job spec, screens inbound interest, and runs outbound sourcing while you focus on code or customers. Because there is no per-hire charge, incentives stay aligned with quality over volume.

One founder put it this way:

"The Sourcery is always there when we need them. They can scale up or down in response to demand. The Sourcery doesn't take a success fee. We only talk to pre-screened candidates who fit what we're looking for."

That testimonial mirrors dozens in their case study section.

Betts Recruiting: Go-To-Market Talent From SDR Up to VP

Sales hiring in the Bay Area is a sport of its own. Betts Recruiting narrowed its focus to that arena years ago and built Betts Connect, a private database of revenue candidates. Need an Account Executive next week? Betts likely has a shortlist waiting. They run on a contingency fee or a subscription to Betts Connect if you prefer to self-serve.

Best for: GTM hiring teams with the capacity to manage candidate outreach and funnel.

Riviera Partners: Engineering and Product Leadership Search

Riviera Partners has filled thousands of VP Engineering, CTO, and CPO seats since 2001. They track senior talent movement through a machine-learning platform that predicts company fit. They work on a retainer basis, spread over milestones, and often run two to five months. The price tag is high, but so is the impact of landing a top-tier engineering leader.

Note: Riviera Partners runs on a complete Done-For-You model, so you'll tap into their network of high-touch executives with minimal involvement.

Hunt Club: Warm-Intro Search at Scale

Hunt Club leans on a network of 20,000+ advisors who earn a referral bonus for passing names to their recruiters. That warm handshake helps open doors to passive candidates who rarely answer cold inbounds. Hunt Club is especially handy for growth, design, or operations roles where trust matters.

Candidate Labs: Data-Forward Recruiting for Sales and Marketing

Built by a former founder, Candidate Labs blends human recruiters with a data engine that maps where the best sales and marketing performers worked, what quotas they hit, and how quickly they were promoted. Packages range from single executive searches to an embedded partner handling a 10-person revenue team roll-out.

Andiamo Group: Twenty Years of SF Placements

Andiamo has seen every market cycle since the dot-com days. They swing between contingency search for one-off roles and a dedicated recruitment option for volume pushes. Their historical salary data helps first-time founders set realistic ranges and avoid sticker shock.

Triplebyte: Engineers Vetted on Skill

Triplebyte candidates pass a rigorous coding screen before landing in your inbox. Hire one or many engineers with fewer phone screens, keeping your dev team focused on shipping product features. Recently, Triplebyte paired with Karat to run live technical interviews, raising the bar even further.

🧪 Insider Tip: Engineers are vetted on Triplebyte, but you’ll still be in charge of interviews, outreach, and making offers. Some G2 reviews mention limited transparency into the sourcing process, which means founders may need to spend extra time vetting candidates to find perfect matches.

Not ideal if you are short on time during a product launch.

Wellfound: DIY Job Postings for Startup Enthusiasts

Formerly AngelList Talent, Wellfound hosts millions of job seekers who already want to work in a startup environment. The basic tier is free: create a company profile, post a role, and field applications. Pay a modest monthly fee for advanced search if you wish to source directly. It’s perfect for junior to mid-level hiring when the budget is tight.

Note: Wellfound is a DIY job board, which means founders need to write job posts, source, and handle applicants directly. Again, use this only when you potentially have enough time to focus on each hiring phase.