SeekLab

2024 – 2026

We built the engine that put one thousand recruiters to work.

SeekLab connected fast-growing companies to a network of industry-specialised recruiters through performance-based bounties: software instead of retainers, outcomes instead of invoices. This is what we shipped, and what it added up to.

The ledger

Two years of hiring, in five numbers.

Placements made 100+
Companies hired with us 75
Y Combinator companies 30
Recruiters in the network 1,000+
Paid out in bounties Seven figures

Every placement was paid on outcome. Every bounty was earned by a recruiter who knew their market cold. Nothing here was billed by the hour.

Companies

Hired with teams building what’s next.

From startups to healthcare to hardware: a sample of the companies that ran hiring on SeekLab.

Linkup Legion Health Laylo Hera Anchr Arbor Closure Aktos EarthStore Mission Healthcare Entwistle VibrantCare

The whole loop

Role posted to recruiter paid, in six steps.

I

Price the role

Set a fee, a guarantee window, and a salary band, live in minutes. No retainer, no lock-in contract.

Under 5 minutes to post
II

Reach the network

The role goes out to a thousand recruiters who already work your niche, not a black hole on a job board.

1,000 specialised recruiters
III

Match on requirements

Every candidate arrives with a scorecard and the reasoning behind it: a case to read, not a keyword match to guess at.

Reasoned, not keyword-matched
IV

Verify the submission

Client and recruiter both confirm the submission before it counts, so nobody argues later about who found who.

Dual sign-off
V

Move the pipeline

One pipeline, one truth. Client and recruiter watch the same stage update live. Nobody's writing a status email.

Shared, real-time stages
VI

Pay on outcome

Payment triggers the moment the hire is confirmed. Seven figures moved through the system, and nobody had to chase an invoice.

Seven figures paid out

The product

A full recruiting operating system, built by three people.

Bounty posting, AI candidate matching, submission verification, a shared pipeline, and payouts, one platform. Everything below is the real interface, running on sample data.

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3 AR

Total Active Candidates

42

Working Roles

18

Scheduled Interviews

7

Pipeline Breakdown

Detailed candidate progression through each stage

Pending Confirmation
410%
New
1126%
In Review
921%
Interviewing
819%
Final Interview
512%
Offer Letter Sent
37%
Hired
25%

Recent Candidates

Latest candidate activity and progress

View All
MR
Maya Robins
★ 4.6

Senior Backend Engineer @ Northlake Labs

3h agoInterviewing
DO
Devin Osei
★ 4.2

Product Designer @ Fernwood

YesterdayIn Review
SK
Sana Khouri
★ 4.9

Staff Data Engineer @ Ardent Health

2 days agoOffer Letter Sent
TP
Tomas Pike

Physical Therapist @ Cascade Care

4 days agoHired
New
2
$48,000
Pipeline Value
RA
Rosa Almeida

Senior Backend Engineer

Fernwood

Est. Commission
$24,000
Date Submitted
Mar 4, 2026
InterviewReject
JW
Jonah Weiss

Product Manager

Northlake Labs

Est. Commission
$24,000
In Review
11 new
$31,500
Pipeline Value
NEW
MR
Maya Robins

Senior Backend Engineer

Northlake Labs

Est. Commission
$31,500
Interviewing
1
$28,000
Pipeline Value
DO
Devin Osei

Product Designer

Fernwood

Date Submitted
Feb 21, 2026
Offer Letter Sent
1
$36,000
Pipeline Value
SK
Sana Khouri

Staff Data Engineer

Ardent Health

Est. Commission
$36,000
Hired
1
$22,000
Pipeline Value
TP
Tomas Pike

Physical Therapist

Cascade Care

Date Submitted
Jan 9, 2026
Verified clientUrgent
NL

Senior Backend Engineer x 2 openings

Northlake Labs
$31,500Est. Bounty
18% of base90-day guarantee
Salary
$160k – $185k
Type
Full-time
Location
Seattle, WA · Hybrid
Role Summary
Posted 3 days ago
Submit candidate Apply View Details ›
CC

Physical Therapist

Cascade Care
$14,000Est. Bounty
15% of base60-day guarantee
Back Active for: 0w 3d 4hr
Northlake Labs

Senior Backend Engineer x2

Seattle, WA · Hybrid Full-time
Est. Fee
$31,500x2
Salary Range
$160,000 - $185,000 /year
Contract
18% of Salary, 90 day guarantee
Download Role PDF
Weekly Submissions: 3Reset: 2d 6h
Copy Direct Apply Link Submit Candidate

Job Details

Job Overview

Northlake Labs runs the ingestion layer for a fleet of clinical devices, roughly 40k events a second, on Go services behind a Kafka spine. You would own two of those services end to end, from schema to on-call.

Responsibilities

Today
Design and ship backend services in Go. Own reliability targets for the pipelines you build. Review peers’ designs and mentor two mid-level engineers.

Ideal Candidate

Someone who has carried a pager for a high-throughput system and can explain the last incident they caused.

Must-Have Requirements

Experience

  • 5+ years building backend services in Go, Java or Rust

    Required
  • Owned a production service handling >10k req/s

    Required
  • Experience in a regulated or clinical data environment

    Nice to have

Skills

  • Kafka or an equivalent streaming platform

    Standard
  • Kubernetes in production

    Nice to have

Location

  • Able to work from Seattle two days a week

    Required

Screening Questions

1. Describe the highest-throughput system you have personally owned.
2. Are you able to be onsite in Seattle two days a week? (optional)

Relocation & Sponsorship

Relocation assistance
Visa sponsorship

Must-Have Requirements

  • 5+ years backend in Go, Java or Rust

    Required
  • Production service >10k req/s

    Required
  • Seattle, two days a week

    Required

Benefits

Full medical, dental and vision
Equity refresh at 24 months
Unlimited PTO, 3-week minimum
✓ Getting Started ✓ Role details ✓ Requirements 4Rate

What salary do you offer for this role?

This information helps us match you with appropriate talent and calculate our service fee.

How would you like to specify the salary?

Choose how you’d like to specify the compensation for this full-time position

Annual salary

Specify the yearly salary range you’re offering for this position

USD $ (US Dollar)
$160,000/year
$185,000/year

Monthly equivalent

The monthly salary equivalent would be:

$13,333 - $15,417 per month

SeekLab will use the annual salary range to calculate the service fee.

Optionally add a note shown at the end of the salary (e.g. “plus equity”, “depending on experience”). This won’t change the service-fee calculation.

plus equity and annual performance bonus

Select fee structure

Choose the fee structure and guarantee period for this position

Back
Save Draft Publish Role
✓ Upload2Personal3Experience4Role Fit5Extras6Review

Personal & Profile Info

Enter the candidate’s basic information. We’ll check for duplicates and blocked profiles as you go.

Contact Details

Primary identification and contact information

Auto-filled
Maya
Auto-filled
Robins
Auto-filled
maya.robins@example.com

The candidate will need to confirm their submission via this email.

Auto-filled
🇺🇸 +1
(206) 555-0148

Without a leading + on the number, the country isn’t detected automatically. Select it above.

(optional)Auto-filled
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayarobins
(optional)
https://github.com/username
(optional)
https://yourportfolio.com

Location

Where the candidate is based

Auto-filled
Seattle, WA

City, State/Country (e.g., San Francisco, CA)

Willing to Relocate

Is the candidate open to relocating for this role?

Visa & Sponsorship

Work authorization requirements

Requires Visa Sponsorship

Does this candidate require visa sponsorship to work?

Currently on an H-1B transferable from her present employer; no cap issues.
Previous step
Save Draft Next
Channels
Group Messages4
Private Messages
Search channels
NL

Senior Backend Engineer

11:24

Rachel: Two days onsite is firm, but we’re…

AV

Staff Data Engineer

Mon

You: Sending three profiles this afternoon

BR

Product Designer, Growth

Mon

Bounty rate updated to 20%

2
CX

Head of Compliance

Fri

Dan: Can we widen the salary band?

2
OP

Platform Engineer, Infra

Jul 3

You: Closed (candidate accepted)

NL

Senior Backend Engineer, Northlake Labs

4 members, 2 online

Bounty published: 18% of salary, 90 day guarantee
RC
Rachel Chen
Heads up: we bumped the band to $160–185k. Same fee structure.
9:02 AM
YO
Got it. That unlocks a few people I passed on last week. I’ll re-approach them today.
9:14 AM
Today
YO
Submitted Maya Robins. 6 yrs Go, ran ingestion at 40k/s at her last shop. Only wrinkle is an H-1B transfer.
10:58 AM
RC
Rachel Chen
Two days onsite is firm, but we’re fine sponsoring a transfer. Sending her to the hiring manager now.
11:24 AM
Send a message
AI Score Candidate Location Current Role Submitted Status 9.1/10
SK
Sana Khouri
sana.k@example.com
Austin, TX
Staff Data Engineer
Ardent Health
Staff Data Engineer @ Ardent Health
Mar 2, 2026
Offer Letter Sent
8.4/10
MR
Maya Robins
m.robins@example.com
Seattle, WA
Senior Backend Engineer
Northlake Labs
Senior Backend Engineer @ Northlake Labs
Feb 27, 2026
Interviewing
7.2/10
DO
Devin Osei
devin.osei@example.com
Remote · US
Product Designer
Fernwood
Product Designer @ Fernwood
Feb 21, 2026
In Review
6.5/10
JW
Jonah Weiss
jonah.w@example.com
Chicago, IL
Product Manager
Fernwood
Product Manager @ Northlake Labs
Feb 14, 2026
New
8.8/10
TP
Tomas Pike
t.pike@example.com
Tacoma, WA
Physical Therapist
Cascade Care
Physical Therapist @ Cascade Care
Jan 9, 2026
Hired
NL

Senior Backend Engineer

Northlake Labs

Seattle, WA $160k – $185k Full-time

Matched Candidates (12)

Sort by: Match tier
MR
Maya RobinsLinkedIn
Senior Backend Engineer · matched 6h ago
Great Match Outdated Archive Submit Candidate
Requirements scorecard

Requirements were updated since this scorecard was generated.

Refresh

Eight years in backend engineering, most recently owning the payments platform at a Series-B fintech through a full re-architecture.

Years of Experience
  • 5+ years in a backend language (Go, Java or Rust)

    Required

    8 years total, 6 of them writing Go in production.

Work Experience
  • Owned a service handling production traffic end to end

    Required

    Led the payments platform migration; on-call owner for two years.

Hard Skills
  • Kubernetes in production

    Nice to have

    Resume mentions Kubernetes but not as an ownership area, unclear.

  • Experience with real-time streaming (Kafka or similar)

    Standard

    No streaming experience found in the resume.

RA
Rosa Almeida
Backend Engineer · matched 2 days ago
Good Match Archive Submit Candidate
JW
Jonah Weiss
Platform Engineer · matched 5 days ago
Submitted by Dana Whitfield
Ok Match Unarchive
Show More (9 more)

Product video

See the product in motion.

A short walkthrough of the recruiting operating system: bounty posting, matching, pipeline, and payouts.

In their words

What the two sides said about it.

“They helped us hire three people in under three months, and stayed flexible enough to present candidates exactly the way we wanted.”

Peter FrelinghuysenPeter Frelinghuysen, Co-founder, Earth Brands

“Great to work with from the start, and genuinely responsive every time we gave feedback.”

Aaron ZelingerAaron Zelinger, Co-founder, Closure

“We’d spent three months striking out with other agencies and platforms. SeekLab found us the one candidate that mattered.”

Peter WangPeter Wang, CEO, Aktos
Recruiter note
Client email
Recruiter email

Timeline

How it went.

2024

SeekLab starts

Three founders, one thesis: recruiting should be priced on outcomes and run on software, not retainers and spreadsheets.

2025

The marketplace goes live

First bounties posted, first placements paid. The recruiter side of the network crosses 250.

Early 2026

YC companies pile in

Thirty Y Combinator companies hiring on the platform. AI matching ships, and the recruiter network passes one thousand.

2026

One hundred placements, seven figures paid

Seventy-five companies hired through SeekLab. Every bounty settled, every recruiter paid.

Now

Onto what's next

The three of us are building again. If any of the above is useful to you, the fastest way in is a message.

The team

The three of us. Reach any of us directly.

Justin Diraddo

Justin Diraddo

Co-founder & CEO

Ran sales and financial operations: every client relationship, the commercial model behind the bounties, and the money moving through them.

LinkedIn
Lucan Laurence

Lucan Laurence

Co-founder & CTO

Owned the supply side: recruiting, vetting and running the 1,000-strong recruiter network, and built the majority of the platform as technical lead.

LinkedIn
Fernando Kuniy

Fernando Kuniy

Co-founder & Founding Engineer

Helped build the platform: the matching pipeline, resume parsing, third-party services and the infrastructure it all ran on.

LinkedIn