The scarcest thing a seed-stage founder has isn’t cash. It’s hours. By our math, a founder sourcing engineers alone can spend more than 100 hours of profile review on a single hire, and most of that time goes to noise: AI-polished resumes, inflated skills, and candidates who aren’t who they say they are. Cadre filters that out before anything reaches the founder’s inbox. 84% of the engineers we submit are ones they’ll want to interview.
We tell founders what their own team often won’t: that the comp band won’t land the engineer they want, that the role is really two roles, or that the pitch is losing candidates on the first call. All three are easy to fix on day one and expensive to fix in month three.
Every referral you make spends your credibility. For 19 years, talent teams at leading venture firms have pointed their portfolio companies to Cadre — because when the founder comes back, it’s to say thank you.
84% of the candidates Cadre submits are ones the client wants to interview — published, tracked on every engagement, and we decline searches we can’t hit it on. Your referral comes with a warranty.
Founding engineers at pre-seed through staff specialists and VPs post-IPO. 80% of our current searches are for AI companies — the hiring your portfolio is actually doing.
Every engineer reviews the company — our full pitch, the role, the comp — and explicitly opts in before an introduction. Your founders never burn time on lukewarm candidates.
“Cadre was clearly our top recruiting partner… If I were to launch a startup, the first call I would make is to Jason.”
Gordon Kass · VP of Engineering, Pear Therapeutics
Adding Cadre to your portfolio resources doc, trusted-supplier list, or talent Slack? Here’s the blurb — copy it as-is so your portfolio hears the same thing we’ll deliver.
Cadre (yourcadre.com) — boutique software engineering recruiting, since 2007. Engineering roles only, from founding engineers to VPE. They publish a standard on every search: 84% of submitted candidates will be ones you want to interview. They’ve never posted a job — every candidate is directly sourced and opts in to meeting you before the intro. Contact: info@yourcadre.com.
You connect a portfolio founder over email or Slack. We take it from there and keep you as informed — or as out of it — as you like. Most partners just want to hear it went well; we make sure they do.
Cadre sits in your portfolio-resources doc or vendor list. Founders come inbound already primed; the blurb above sets exactly the right expectation. We’ll flag to you when your portfolio engages, so the credit lands where it belongs.
A portfolio company has a critical engineering gap — a founding engineer walked, a funded roadmap with nobody to build it. Because we work these roles continuously, we can usually show opted-in candidates within days, not weeks.
Live engineering comp data from our placements, hiring-market reads by stage, and honest answers about what a role should cost — for you or any founder you send our way. No engagement required.
Better yet — ask the last talent partner who referred us. We’re happy to make that introduction too.
Talk to Cadre