Sourcing Candidates
Build a pipeline of exceptional candidates through multiple channels—from referrals to outbound recruiting.
Finding Great People
The best candidates aren't on job boards. They're happily employed, crushing it at their current company, and not actively looking. Your job is to find them and convince them that your startup is worth the leap.
"The best people are never on the market. You have to go find them." — Ben Horowitz
Sourcing Channels Overview
Understanding where to find candidates
Channel Effectiveness Ranking
Not all channels are created equal. Here's how they typically perform:
Referrals
Best Quality40-60% of hires at top startups come from referrals. Higher conversion, faster close, better retention.
Outbound/Direct Sourcing
High QualityProactively reaching out to passive candidates on LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub. Time-intensive but effective.
Inbound/Job Boards
VolumeLinkedIn Jobs, Indeed, AngelList, etc. High volume but lower quality on average. Requires good filtering.
Recruiting Agencies
Expensive15-25% of first year salary. Use for hard-to-fill roles or when speed is critical.
Building a Referral Engine
Your most powerful sourcing channel
Why Referrals Win
Longer retention than job board hires
Faster to hire
More likely to be hired
Lower cost per hire
Referral System Best Practices
1. Make it Easy
Create a simple form or email alias for referrals. Remove friction. The easier it is to refer, the more referrals you'll get.
2. Offer Meaningful Bonuses
$2,000-10,000 is typical. Pay half at hire, half at 3-6 month mark. Make it significant enough to motivate action.
3. Ask Specifically
Don't just say "know anyone?" Ask: "Who's the best engineer you've worked with?" or "Who from [Company X] should we talk to?"
4. Mine Networks Systematically
Do "sourcing jams" where you sit with each team member and scroll through their LinkedIn connections together.
The Referral Ask Script
"We're looking for [role]. Who's the best [title] you've ever worked with? Even if you don't think they're looking—the best people rarely are. I'd love an intro if you're comfortable making one."
Outbound Recruiting
Reaching out to passive candidates
Where to Find Candidates
- • Use LinkedIn Recruiter or Sales Navigator
- • Filter by company, title, location, skills
- • Look at 2nd connections for warm intros
- • Check who's engaging with industry content
GitHub/Stack Overflow
- • Search by programming language
- • Look at contribution history
- • Find active open source contributors
- • Check project quality and documentation
Twitter/X
- • Follow industry thought leaders
- • Engage authentically first
- • DM after building relationship
- • Look for people sharing expertise
Communities
- • Slack communities (industry-specific)
- • Discord servers
- • Subreddits
- • Industry meetups and conferences
Writing Effective Outreach
Subject Line
Personal and specific. Not "Job Opportunity" but "Your work on [Project] caught my eye"
Opening (Why Them)
Reference something specific about their work. Show you did your research.
The Pitch (Why Us)
2-3 sentences on what makes your company compelling. Problem, traction, team.
The Ask
Low commitment. "Would you be open to a 15-min chat to learn more?"
Example Outreach Message
Subject: Your Stripe integration work Hi Sarah, I came across your blog post on building webhook handlers at scale—really smart approach to the retry logic problem. I'm the CTO at [Company], and we're building [one-liner]. We just raised our Series A and are looking for a senior backend engineer to own our payments infrastructure. Given your Stripe expertise, I'd love to chat about what we're building. Would you be open to a quick 15-minute call this week? Best, [Name]
Response Rate Benchmarks
Good outreach gets 15-30% response rates. If you're below 10%, refine your message. If above 30%, you've nailed it. Track and iterate on what works.
Job Boards & Inbound
Making the most of inbound applications
Best Job Boards for Startups
General
- • LinkedIn Jobs - Largest reach
- • Indeed - High volume
- • Wellfound (AngelList) - Startup-focused
- • Y Combinator Jobs - Quality candidates
Technical
- • Hacker News (Who's Hiring) - Engineers
- • Stack Overflow Jobs - Developers
- • GitHub Jobs - Open source devs
- • Key Values - Culture-focused
Remote-First
- • We Work Remotely
- • Remote.co
- • FlexJobs
- • RemoteOK
Niche
- • Dribbble - Designers
- • Built In - City-specific
- • Climatebase - Climate tech
- • Pallet - Community-based
Optimizing Job Posts
Don't
- • Generic titles ("Software Engineer")
- • Wall of requirements
- • No salary range
- • Corporate buzzwords
- • "Fast-paced environment" (means chaos)
Do
- • Specific titles ("Backend Engineer - Payments")
- • Focus on 3-5 key requirements
- • Include salary range
- • Show personality and mission
- • Describe actual work environment
Building Employer Brand
Making candidates come to you
Brand Building Tactics
Technical Blog
Share engineering challenges and solutions. Engineers want to work with other smart engineers. Your blog is proof of your technical depth.
Open Source Contributions
Open source internal tools when possible. Contributors become candidates. Shows you give back to the community.
Founder/Team Visibility
Share the journey on Twitter, LinkedIn, podcasts. People want to work for leaders they respect. Let candidates get to know you before applying.
Culture Content
Share team photos, offsite recaps, day-in-the-life content. Give candidates a window into what it's actually like to work there.
Careers Page Essentials
- •Mission & vision - Why does the company exist?
- •Values - What do you actually care about?
- •Team photos/bios - Put faces to the company
- •Benefits & perks - Be transparent
- •Interview process - Set expectations
- •Open roles - Make it easy to apply
Managing Your Pipeline
Staying organized as you scale recruiting
ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
Once you're hiring regularly, you need a system. Options for startups:
Budget Options
- • Notion/Airtable - DIY tracking
- • Ashby - Modern, startup-friendly
- • Workable - Good for small teams
Scale Options
- • Greenhouse - Industry standard
- • Lever - CRM + ATS combined
- • Rippling - HR + ATS in one
Pipeline Stages
Metrics to Track
Funnel Metrics
- • Applications per role
- • Screen-to-interview rate
- • Interview-to-offer rate
- • Offer acceptance rate
Efficiency Metrics
- • Time to fill (days)
- • Cost per hire
- • Source quality (by channel)
- • Candidate NPS
Practice Exercise
Build your sourcing machine:
- 1Create a referral program with clear incentives and process
- 2Do a "sourcing jam" with your team—mine LinkedIn connections
- 3Write 3 personalized outreach messages for target candidates
- 4Post your role on 3 relevant job boards
- 5Set up a simple pipeline tracker (Notion, Airtable, or ATS)