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Recruiting for Chicago startups.

You're scaling from 10 to 50, hiring is eating your week, and a full-time recruiter feels premature. That's the exact gap I fill — embedded, flexible, and local.

The stage

The 10-to-50 stretch is the hardest hiring you'll do.

Early on, the founders hire everyone. Later, you have a talent team. In between is the messy middle — too much hiring to squeeze in around your real job, not enough to justify a full-time recruiter. That gap is exactly what I fill.

vs. doing it yourself

Get your calendar back and stop losing candidates to slow, part-time-attention processes.

vs. an agency

One flat fee across all your roles instead of 20-25% per hire — and someone who actually knows your team.

vs. hiring too early

All the recruiting muscle, none of the six-figure salary, benefits, and tooling of a full-time hire.

“Hire the fractional recruiter at 12 people. Hire the full-time one at 60. In between, you just need someone good who shows up.”

— how I think about startup hiring
Questions

For founders.

When should a startup use a fractional recruiter?
Usually once you're hiring 2+ roles at a time and it's eating your week, but you're not ready to commit to a full-time recruiter's salary and overhead — often around the 10-to-50-person stage.
Why not just use an agency?
Agencies are great for one-off senior hires but expensive at volume and disconnected from your team. A fractional recruiter is embedded, cheaper across multiple roles, and represents you authentically.
Why not hire a full-time recruiter?
At some point you should! But a full-time recruiter is $100k+ plus benefits and tools, and needs enough steady hiring to stay busy. Fractional bridges the gap until you're there.
Do you understand technical roles?
Yes — software, data, IT, and product hiring is the core of what I do, and I can bring in specialist partners for senior or confidential searches.

Ready to make hiring easier?

Book a free 15-minute call and let's see if I can help.