At a startup, the hiring manager is usually also the CTO, the tech lead, or a founder shipping code between interviews. You don't have a recruiter to hand off to. Every hire either compounds your team or sets it back. Underdog.io was built for exactly this situation — curated engineering introductions, salary upfront, pay only when you hire.
The real problem
Enterprise ATS software assumes you have a pipeline of applicants to manage, a recruiter to screen them, and a coordinator to schedule interviews. Most startup hiring managers have none of those. You're a CTO, an engineering lead, or a founder — you're already doing three jobs and recruiting is the fourth. The wrong hire burns three to six months. The right hire changes the trajectory of the product. There's no room for a slow, noisy process.
The goal is to protect your time and give you fewer, better conversations — not more applications to manage.
You still run your own process. We just make sure the people you're talking to are worth talking to.
How it works
No job board. No resume pile. No recruiter coordination overhead. You define the role, we handle the sourcing and matching, and you spend your limited time on the conversations that matter.
Stack, seniority, what the engineer would own, compensation range, and location preference. No job description template needed — a conversation works.
We identify engineers in the network who fit your specific role. Every engineer has already opted in. You receive introductions with context — background, salary expectation, why they're open to moving.
You interview on your timeline, with your criteria. Technical screen, culture conversation, reference checks — you stay in control of the evaluation. We're available for feedback loops throughout.
When you extend and a candidate accepts, you pay 11.5% of first-year salary. No hire, no fee. No retainer. No subscription. No payment until a successful outcome.
What you actually get
The engineers you most want to hire are currently employed. They're not scanning your job board posting. They joined Underdog specifically to hear about compelling opportunities privately. Most of the engineers you'll meet here are unreachable by any other channel you use today.
Every introduction includes the engineer's compensation expectations. You know before you schedule a technical screen whether the range aligns. No more discovering after two rounds and a system design interview that you're $40K apart.
We review every engineer who joins the network by hand — only the top 5% are accepted. When you receive an introduction, that engineer has already been evaluated against a meaningful bar. You're starting from a recommended candidate, not a pool of applicants sorted by who applied first.
Traditional agency timelines are weeks to first candidates, months to closed offers. Underdog is built for the startup cadence — first introductions within a week, 2–4 weeks from first call to accepted offer when you move decisively. The engineers in the network are employed but actively considering — they're not browsing, they're evaluating.
The network self-selects for engineers who want startup environments — smaller teams, real ownership, product decisions that matter. You're not explaining equity to someone who's confused by a vesting schedule or convincing a Big Tech engineer that your 10-person company won't have a dedicated infra team.
Traditional agencies charge 20–25% of first-year salary plus a retainer — money out the door before you've seen a single candidate. Underdog charges 11.5%, pay-per-hire only. If you don't hire, you pay nothing. That's the right model for early-stage companies where runway is finite and outcomes matter.
Every time I use Underdog.io I remember that job searching doesn't have to be terrible. Thanks for the product.
Zach B. — Senior Software Engineer
Underdog vs. traditional agency
Companies that have hired through Underdog:
Seed through Series B. NYC, SF, and remote. All full-time permanent hires.
Common questions
Built for you
Curated introductions to pre-vetted engineers, salary expectations included, pay-per-hire only. Built for the startup hiring manager who needs great engineers — not a recruiting process to manage.
Start hiring engineers →