Founding Engineer & First-Hire Search

Founding and first-hire searches are where generic tools break: tiny candidate pools, high bar, every profile matters. Crustdata customers run these as precise, hand-tuned searches (one customer closed a founding ML engineer search this way).

The workflow, step by step

1. 1
   Pin the exact profileFilter People Search on current_employers.title, skills, and years_of_experience_raw for the senior bar you need.
2. 2
   Target the right company DNAAdd current_employers.company_headcount_range to find people who have built at the stage you are hiring for (early startups, not big-co).
3. 3
   Read the signalSkim recent activity and past employers to confirm they actually built, not just held the title.
4. 4
   Enrich the short listVerified contacts for the handful that fit.