startup-hiring
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The VC Firm That Wants the 11 P.M. Call
Oceans built its pitch around a scarce commodity in venture capital: useful attention after the wire lands. Its partners sell founders on operator time, candid advice and help with the hires and customers that decide whether an early-stage company gets a second act.
Bloom Talent
Bloom Talent is a woman-owned boutique recruiting agency in San Francisco that places Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, and operations talent for tech startups, venture firms, and executives. Founded in 2015 by Amanda Christoff, the firm is known for a relationship-driven, white-glove approach that weighs personality fit alongside skills, and has placed candidates at companies including Y Combinator, Stripe, Airbnb, and Pinterest.
Contrario
Contrario is a San Francisco AI recruiting company that pairs specialized human recruiters with AI agents to source, screen, and deliver vetted candidates to startups within days. Founded in 2025 by Stanford dropouts Arya Marwaha and Aditya Sood, it operates as a hybrid between a traditional agency and recruiting software, using AI talent scorecards and graph-based matching while automating scheduling and follow-ups. The company reached roughly $6M in annualized revenue and paid over $1M to recruiters within six months of operating, and raised a $2.3M seed led by Nexus Venture Partners.
Perfectly
Perfectly is an AI-native recruiting operating system that automates sourcing, outreach, screening, and qualification for fast-growing startups. Built by three ex-TikTok and Meta machine learning scientists, it treats hiring as a recommendation-systems problem: it learns a company's hiring preferences, reaches out to thousands of candidates, runs AI screens, and delivers interview-ready candidates directly into Slack. Backed by Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch, Perfectly counts startups like Giga, Corgi, LlamaIndex, Porter, and Mintlify among its early customers and charges only when a role is filled.
Shor
Shor is a San Francisco fintech (YC S25) that runs international payroll and Employer-of-Record services for startup founders. It pays contractors and full-time employees across 150+ countries by settling on stablecoin rails in the backend while customers transact in ordinary currencies - cutting the intermediary fees that make legacy providers like Deel and Rippling expensive. Setup happens on a single call, payroll runs within a week, and pricing starts at $19/month per contractor and $299/month per EOR employee.