Every founder knows this feeling: You're ready to scale. Your product's gaining traction. But instead of building, you're spending hours every day screening irrelevant resumes, scheduling interviews, and hoping you don't make a costly mis-hire.
We built Candor because we've been there. As founders, we've felt the weight of making the wrong hire. We've watched great teams struggle when a new hire wasn't the right fit. And we've experienced firsthand how traditional recruiters just don't get what startups need.
A single hire can transform your company's trajectory. The right person accelerates your growth, elevates your team's performance, and helps define your culture. The wrong hire does more than slow you down – they can derail your momentum, drain team morale, and take months to recover from.
This is especially true in startups, where every person has an outsized impact. Your early team shapes not just what you build, but how you build it. They influence every decision, every process, and ultimately, your company's DNA.
Traditional recruiters don't understand this. They treat hiring like a numbers game, sending endless streams of candidates who look good on paper but lack that essential startup mindset. They don't get that startup experience is different from enterprise experience, or that cultural fit is just as crucial as technical skills.
And they definitely don’t get the pace of the world you live in. It often takes them months just to send one mediocre resume (almost always typed in Times New Roman)!
We move at founder speed because we know every day spent hiring is a day not spent building. We dig deep into both technical skills and cultural alignment because we've seen how the right combination can transform a team. And we guarantee our placements because we're confident in our ability to find people who will help write your success story.
Candor is for startups who truly want to build their dream team. We're working with teams who don't want to settle, and candidates who are looking for their dream roles and to do the best work of their lives. Because in the end, building a great company starts with building a great team.
Candor was born from personal experience. Our founder, Kelsey Bishop, has lived both sides of startup life – the magic of being on a team that feels like home, and the struggle of being in the wrong cultural fit. This contrast sparked a mission: to help startups build teams where everyone can do their best work.
Founded in 2021 and backed by $5M from top investors who share our vision, we're now a tight-knit team working all over the world. We work with startups who refuse to compromise on talent – from YC graduates to venture-backed teams who know that their next hire could be their next breakthrough.
Feel free to share questions or feedback with our team. We will be in touch within 1 business day.
