Flexible Hourly Recruiting Built For Growing Startups
Rent an hourly recruiter who has first-hand experience working at a high-growth startup (no commissions). Finally, a startup-friendly way to scale recruiting.
OUR RECRUITERS WORKED AT:
What Our Clients Are Saying
“Venture Scaler found our dream hire in a few short weeks and saved us a ton of time in the process. We’ll definitely start with Venture Scaler for our next role!”
Wyatt Smith
Founder & CEO at UpSmith
“They sourced high quality candidates and their intuition about structuring a streamlined recruiting process led us to successfully hiring 4 roles in 2 months."
Marisa Reddy
Co-Founder at Conduit
“The Venture Scaler team has been HUGE for us. They got us amazing recruiters to help with hiring across all positions in the company, including executive roles."
Itamar Zur
Co-Founder & CEO at Veho
Our "Rent A Recruiter" Model
We Know Hyper-Growth.
We’ve recruited at the fastest growing startups and are bringing you the same playbooks to grow your team.
Flexible Plans To Meet Your Needs.
We’re an on-demand resource that can flex up or down (or pause) as needed, as your business needs change.
Pay Hourly & Reduce Burn.
We save clients up to 90% with our hourly plans vs. traditional recruitment agency commissions.
Client Case Study: UpSmith ☝️🛠
How Venture Scaler Closed A Stalled Search 4x Faster
UpSmith builds technology to improve workforce productivity to combat America’s 1 million skilled worker shortage. UpSmith raised a $5M Seed round and is backed by a16z and GSV Partners.When we connected with the UpSmith team, they were:→ Searching for their first sales hire
→ Receiving referrals from their investors and network, but...
→ Still not meeting the right candidates
→ Stuck; after 5 months their search stalledThey couldn't justify bringing on a full-time recruiter (they were only hiring one role) or working with an agency (too expensive). That's where Venture Scaler came in.We helped UpSmith hire their first sales hire in less than 6 weeks (4x faster) and helped the founder start to transition out of founder-led sales.After we closed the role, UpSmith paused for 3 months until they needed to hire again. We helped them reduce their burn during a slow period, and when they restarted, we helped close their first Product role, too.
Wyatt Smith
Founder & CEO at UpSmith
“We were struggling for months to find our first sales hire, but couldn't find the right blend of knowledge, skills, and experiences. That changed within a few weeks when we started working with Venture Scaler.Our recruiter immediately started screening candidates and setting up high-quality interviews, including people in their network they'd known for years.They found our dream hire in a few short weeks and saved us a ton of time in the process. We’ll definitely start with Venture Scaler for our next role!”
“Venture Scaler was a game-changer for us. Honestly, we were blown away with their speed of execution and the quality of candidates they brought to us. I can’t recommend them enough."
Ryan Kober
Co-Founder & CRO at Nurseio
"Jake's experience in growing startups has been extremely valuable. Our recruiters have been an important extension of our team and understood the nuances of hiring a diverse set of roles."
Ivana Tesanovic
Co-Founder at Pepper
Client Case Study: Honey Homes 🍯🏠
How Venture Scaler Saved Honey Homes $230k in 2 Months
Honey Homes is a home services membership platform that raised a $9M Series A from Khosla Ventures & Pear VC. In 2 months, our expert recruiter sourced, interviewed & hired 13 new employees:→ 2 Senior Managers at $110k salaries
→ 9 Operations Managers at $75k salaries
→ 2 Customer Support Reps at $50k salariesIf Honey Homes worked with a traditional recruiting agency instead, they would have paid an industry average 25% commissions on first-year salaries, totaling $250,000 😱But by working with Venture Scaler on our flexible hourly plans, we saved them over 90% (not a typo). And by saving them over $230k, we helped reduce their monthly burn and extend their runway while helping them scale up their team.
Jeff Kreutter
Head of Operations at Honey Homes
"I reached out to Venture Scaler when we were struggling to keep up with our hiring requirements but were not ready to commit to a full time recruiter.We were up and running with an incredible recruiter within a week and they completely exceeded our expectations. We wrapped up our hiring sprint ahead of schedule and with higher quality candidates than before.Additionally, the cost per hire came to about one tenth of what a traditional agency would have charged. I can't recommend Venture Scaler enough for the quality and value they provide."
"We were paired with an excellent recruiter who helped us source and fill a hard-to-place role. As an HR team of 1, I'm extremely grateful and look forward to working with them in the future."
Holly Leonard
Chief of Staff at Radius Group
"The Venture Scaler team was phenomenal. They helped our team place 2 fantastic operations roles and 6 talented sales professionals. We can't wait to continue our growth with them."
Geoffrey Polk
Founder & CEO at Presidential Title
Client Case Study: Veho 🚘📦
How Venture Scaler Helped the Veho Team Grow 4x in 6 Months
Veho is a last-mile delivery marketplace for consumer brands like Warby Parker & Hello Fresh. Veho is backed by Techstars and raised $300M to date from Softbank, Tiger Global and Construct Capital.We helped the CEO and executive team on hiring and people ops strategy:→ Provided recruiting support from 2 of our expert recruiters
→ Hired across multiple departments, including Ops, Eng & Product
→ Helped hire key executives (e.g. VP of People Ops)
→ Refreshed employer pages: LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Crunchbase, etc.
→ Published 10 employer brand blog posts to increase inbound candidate volumeOur Results in 6 Months:
→ Grew the team 4x from 70 to 285 employees
→ Increased inbound applicants by 500%
→ Veho raised their $125M Series A round shortly after!
Itamar Zur
Co-founder and CEO at Veho
"The Venture Scaler team has been HUGE for us. We were starting to grow like a rocket ship, and we needed smart professionals who could help us ramp up hiring, interviewing and employer branding.Venture Scaler created a 'machine' for us in those areas. They got us amazing recruiters to help with hiring across all positions in the company, including executive roles.I can't recommend Venture Scaler enough!"
Work With Us
Our team of hourly recruiters worked at companies like Uber, Dropbox & Spotify and run the full end-to-end recruiting process for you as if they were your in-house recruiter.We also save our clients up to 90% on hiring with our Rent-A-Recruiter model.We’re on-demand and can flex up & down with you as your needs change. It's low risk because there are no long-term commitments, commissions or hidden fees.You only pay hourly for the time (no commissions). That's time that you and your team get back to run and grow your business.
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Startup B2B Sales Bootcamp
Craft your sales pitch, build a repeatable process, and scale it with your first sales hires.
This 3-week B2B Sales Bootcamp will teach you the system startups like Neon used to 10X revenue YoY and grow to over $1M ARR without running any ads.I’m running small groups with startup founders and early sales hires who are selling to SMB customers (not enterprise) to maximize results, so space is limited – Join the waitlist!
Case Study: Hypergrowth With Zero Ads
How Neon Went All-In on Cold Calls to 10X Revenue
_______
“I thought cold calling was only for telemarketers and scammers. I was taught as a founder that only digital ads & blasting 10,000 emails works.Wrong—cold calling works! I built my entire business using cold calls. And calling your customers gives you the immediate feedback those other channels never will.We grew revenue 10X in our first year, and we're on pace to 3-4X revenue again this year. And we still never ran an email campaign or a single ad.”
Eli Chmouni
CEO & Founder of Neon
What You're Getting From The Bootcamp
The bootcamp is designed to help founders and early sales hires at B2B tech startups who are selling to SMB customers (not enterprise) build a repeatable sales system that prioritizes cold outbound over the phone.We also designed it to make cold calling less scary and less sucky. And you get all of this:
Setting Foundations
🎯 Foolproof Customer Persona Playbook to discover, define, target and connect with the customers that will say YES 100% of the time.📢 Proven Value Proposition Framework to develop a compelling offer that speaks directly to your target audience, resonates and compels prospects to take action.🛠 Complete Competitor Analysis Toolkit to identify gaps in the market and create a strategic plan to position your offering advantageously against competitors.🙅 Objection Mastery Handbook on how to handle the biggest objections your customers will have, plus detailed responses to the top 5 objections you’ll face.🍟 Customer Logo Blueprint with proven techniques to secure your first customers, earn their trust, and showcase your brand's credibility by featuring logos of these initial customers.
Building Repeatability
☎️ Fully Customizable Cold Call Phone Script that compels prospects to agree to a meeting. Portfolio companies have successfully used this script framework to 10X revenue YoY.🔀 A Structured Script Flowchart that breaks the script down and seamlessly walks you through each step of the selling process of closing demos no matter what a customer says.❓Customer FAQ Response Handbook with a systematic approach to answering the most meaty questions your customers will ask you on the call.💌 Hand-Crafted Email Templates to use when customers either don’t pick up or try to blow you off by asking for more info.🧬 Quotas & Sales Math Formula used to reveal the path and cost of acquiring a conversation, converting it to a meeting, and determining the volume needed to achieve your revenue targets.
Running the Process
📜 Lead Generation Blueprint that highlights effective methods for creating a lead list tailored to your target audience using proven account-based selling tactics.☢️ “Crash Test Dummy” Account Selection Technique for strategically selecting your initial target accounts for practice and to minimize any downside risk in the process.🏃 The 5-Step Lead Sprint process to target accounts, manage your outreach and build a natural feedback loop to apply insights and refine your approach for future lead sprints.📚 Cold Calling Best Practices Library filled with expert advice & best practices to overcome nervousness and maximize your cold calling success.🎬 Role-Playing Simulation to imitate real cold calling scenarios where you can practice applying the techniques learned during the bootcamp in a safe environment.
Built for Founders. By Founders.
JAKE HUBER
Founder of Venture Scaler
Jake helped scale unicorns like Uber, Veho and Industrious, where he launched 15 new markets and grew national teams from 0 to 250+ employees. He built a portfolio of 40+ startups at his startup studio with a combined market value of over $500M.Jake is a former startup founder, a mentor for Techstars and First Round Capital, and holds an MBA in Corporate Entrepreneurship, and Leadership & Strategy Certificates from HBS.
ELI CHMOUNI
Founder & CEO of Neon
Eli is a 5-time startup founder with 2 successful exits and specializes in developing repeatable sales systems for startups. He built a B2B SaaS digital signage business with clients like Dippin’ Dots, Chompie’s and FastMed, and grew revenue 10X YoY in 2022 by exclusively cold calling customers.Eli is a former ASU Executive Director and Professor of Entrepreneurship and holds a Masters and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from ASU.
Bootcamp Sessions & Topics
The bootcamp will be facilitated through a series of 90min Zoom sessions over 3 weeks:
01. Foundation Setting (Part 1) 🏗
In our first session, we’ll introduce all of the foundational inputs we will use to build our first phone call script, including identifying target customers, researching competitors, developing unique value propositions, and anticipating top objections and ways to handle them.
02. Foundation Setting (Part 2) 🏗
After defining our target customers, value propositions and competitors, we will identify our top objections and begin to transform our findings into structured script elements that we will use in our call scripts to position our offering and navigate customer conversations with confidence.
03. Call Scripts (Part 1) ☎️
In this session, we’ll introduce the Cold Call Phone Script framework and the key elements of an engaging script that compels prospects to agree to a meeting. We’ll also explore successful script examples and begin to craft our own customized scripts based on the foundational inputs we developed in our first two sessions.
04. Call Scripts (Part 2) ☎️
After completing our first drafts of the Cold Call Phone Script, we’ll perform table reads and begin to transition the script elements to a Structured Script Flowchart with decision tree logic. We’ll also introduce and develop Customer FAQ Responses and the Follow Up Email Templates.
05. Sales Math Formula 🧬
In this session, we will introduce the Sales Math Formula and work backwards to determine how many dials are needed to reach our revenue and commission goals. At the end, we’ll review the essential sales tools we’ll use to streamline your cold calling process.
06. Lead Generation 🎯
In this session, we’ll introduce the Lead Generation Blueprint we’ll use to create a lead list tailored to your target audience using proven account-based selling tactics. We will also introduce the 5-Step Lead Sprint process and generate our lead list for your first lead sprint.
07. Role Playing Simulation 🎬
This is where the rubber meets the road—in this session, we will review best practices and expert tips for making successful cold calls, and then we’ll engage in a role-playing exercise to simulate real cold calling scenarios. At the end, we will identify and select our “Crash Test Dummy” Accounts for an initial round of practice calls.
08. First Lead Sprint (Part 1) 🏃
In this session, we’ll review our first round of cold calls and work together to make any adjustments based on our feedback and findings. We will also finalize our lead list to conduct our First Lead Sprint with real targeted accounts.
09. First Lead Sprint (Part 2) 🏃
In our final session, we’ll review the results of our first Lead Sprint and work together to make any adjustments based on our feedback and findings. We will also introduce the Product Demo Script and the key elements of an engaging demo that compels prospects to close with you.
Bonus: One-on-One with Jake 🤝
In this bonus session, we’ll meet one-on-one to review your full outbound sales program end-to-end and the insights and findings from your first Lead Sprint to ensure you are leaving the bootcamp with a repeatable, battle-tested process that you can begin to scale with your team.
Join The Waitlist
We make cold calling simple. And less scary.We took a B2B sales system that helped startups like Neon go from $0 to $100K MRR. And we reverse-engineered it to work for you.What sucks more? The idea of making cold calls? Or getting zero responses from your ads & email blasts and running out of runway?And if we do this right, you may never need to fundraise again. But if you want to, investors will be chasing YOU.Limited spots are available. Sign up for the waitlist to reserve your seat!
I truly love working with founders at any point in their founder journey, but especially the early stages. I open up a limited amount of hours each week for advising, either on a one-off basis or longer term.
Have a big topic to talk through? Grab a full hour here. I also offer a limited amount of monthly advising and full-day working sprints — email me at jake@venturescaler.com to discuss.
My Background
🚀 Built a portfolio of 40+ startups at my startup studio with a combined market value of over $500M.🍟 Head of Supply Operations, Uber Eats: Grew team from 0 to 50+ people to grow driver & restaurant onboarding; increased driver conversion rates 18%+ and generated $8M of implied signup savings.🚘 City Launcher & Ops at Uber: Launched 5 new markets (including Las Vegas, largest launch in U.S.), hired teams, and grew key markets like Phoenix 300% YoY.🏢 RGM & City Launcher at Industrious: Launched 10 new locations, hired teams, improved NPS scores +20% from 70 to 84, and grew revenue +115% to a $12M run rate in < 1 year.📦 People Ops Advisor for Veho: Helped Veho grow 4X from 70 to 285 employees and recruit key hires (including VPs) in 6mos. Veho raised a $125M Series A shortly after.🤝 Selected as a Lead Mentor for First Round Capital and the Techstars Austin, Atlanta and San Diego Accelerator Programs.🎓 MBA in Corporate Entrepreneurship from Lehigh University, and Leadership & Strategy Certificates from HBS.❤️ Former startup founder (I still have the bruises and limp) and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the Boost VC Startup Accelerator in the Bay Area.
TESTIMONIALS
What Founders & Startup Leaders Say
"Jake is the mentor and advisor every startup entrepreneur needs in their life. During difficult times, he will support and encourage you on a personal level; while creating business strategies that take into account the issues you are facing. I would highly recommend Jake."
Eli Chmouni
CEO & Founder of Neon
“Jake is an incredible sounding board who provides tactical tips, resources and introductions to help navigate crisis’ and challenges. He has an innate ability to level with you on any subject. We hashed through 5-10 topics at a time spanning from affiliate & growth strategies to recruiting and mindset."
April Dominguez
CEO & Founder of Handsome
“Jake is by far one of the best advisors and mentors that I have worked with. His expertise in growing startups and tackling all of the intricate problems is invaluable. But more importantly, I feel that he truly cares about me and that I succeed as a founder. "
Tyler Morgan
CEO & Co-Founder of Upkid
(Techstars '21)
“Jake's marketplace expertise and practical advice have been important for an early stage company like ours to design and learn from experiments, find our product-market fit, and strategize marketing and growth. I always take away clear action plans from our conversations."
Jen Liang
Co-Founder of Haulsale
(Techstars '22)
“Jake’s knowledge around scaling and expanding into new markets has helped us come up with a solid plan for our future expansion. He listened attentively to what we needed and gave good advice to help us move forward. He was always available when we needed him and an all around nice guy."
Sean Garris
CEO & Founder of Qoncert
(Techstars ‘22)
“I can confidently say that Jake’s mentorship has accelerated my personal and professional development in ways I couldn't have achieved alone. His patient and supportive approach made me feel comfortable asking questions, no matter how basic or complex they were. I genuinely felt like he cared about my growth & success."
Mirella Recchiuti
Sales Director, U.S. at Grover
What I Can Help With
I often help with a variety of founder questions, but can help the most with:→ Launching and scaling 2 & 3 sided, B2B & B2C marketplaces
→ Testing ideas & running experiments
→ Finding Product-Market Fit
→ Go-to-market strategy
→ B2B outbound sales
→ Hiring & people ops
→ Scaling operations
→ Founder issues
Have a big topic to talk through? Grab a full hour here. I also offer a limited amount of monthly advising and full-day working sprints — email me at jake@venturescaler.com to discuss.