Roles We Recruit For
We focus on four groups:
Software engineers.
Senior and staff full-stack, backend, data and platform engineers for SaaS, fintech, health tech and dev tools.
AI and ML engineers,
often from Toronto's research community.
Product managers and designers
who shape the product with the founders.
Tech sales and marketing:
account executives, first sales hires, and growth and product marketers for B2B software startups.
Founding team recruiting: your first hires, chosen on signal
Your first ten hires decide how the company builds and sells. We recruit the founding roles: founding engineers, founding product designers and PMs, and founding account executives and first GTM hires.
We start with what the person has to own in their first year, and what they'll need to build or hire. Then we find people who've done that job at your stage, often as an early employee at another startup.
Tech sales and GTM recruiting in Toronto: sellers who don't need a big brand behind them
Toronto has a deep bench of B2B software sellers. The hard part is finding the ones who can sell without a known brand and help the founders write the first playbook.
We recruit founding account executives, first sales hires and growth and product marketers, judged on deal size, sales cycle and the buyers they've sold to. Offers are benchmarked in CAD and against US remote packages.
Recruiting tech talent in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor: where the strongest people actually are
The corridor is two talent pools in one: Toronto's startup and AI community around the University of Toronto and the Vector Institute, and Waterloo's engineering and co-op pipeline.
Job boards reach people who are already looking. The engineers worth hiring here are usually employed, so direct sourcing works better. Solara OS searches university, research and startup networks beyond LinkedIn, and scores each candidate against the role's signals. Speed matters, but signal matters more.
US companies hiring in Canada: offers that make sense on both sides
Many US startups build remote or hybrid teams in Toronto, and pay is the usual sticking point. We benchmark offers in CAD against US remote pay and local equity norms, so the offer works on both sides.
How Solara compares
| Search detail | Solara Talent | Typical recruiting agency | Job boards or in-house only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs the search | Sean, the founder, from first call to accepted offer | An account manager, often passed between recruiters | Your own team, on top of their day jobs |
| How candidates are found | Direct sourcing beyond LinkedIn with Solara OS | Database and LinkedIn searches | Whoever applies |
| How they're chosen | Scored against signals agreed for the role | Keyword and title matches | Resume screening |
| What you see during the search | Client Signals: a live view of the pipeline | Weekly email updates | Your applicant tracking system |
Who runs the search
- Solara Talent
- Sean, the founder, from first call to accepted offer
- Typical recruiting agency
- An account manager, often passed between recruiters
- Job boards or in-house only
- Your own team, on top of their day jobs
How candidates are found
- Solara Talent
- Direct sourcing beyond LinkedIn with Solara OS
- Typical recruiting agency
- Database and LinkedIn searches
- Job boards or in-house only
- Whoever applies
How they're chosen
- Solara Talent
- Scored against signals agreed for the role
- Typical recruiting agency
- Keyword and title matches
- Job boards or in-house only
- Resume screening
What you see during the search
- Solara Talent
- Client Signals: a live view of the pipeline
- Typical recruiting agency
- Weekly email updates
- Job boards or in-house only
- Your applicant tracking system
How a Solara search works
- 1
Role model. We start with what the hire must achieve, not a job description, and agree the signals that predict success.
- 2
Sourcing with Solara OS. Our platform searches beyond LinkedIn and scores every candidate, so you see the reasoning behind each name.
- 3
A calibrated shortlist, with an honest read on each candidate, including the ones we'd pass on.
- 4
Client Signals. A live view of who's moving and where candidates drop off.
- 5
Close. Compensation benchmarking in CAD and against US remote offers, and support through offer and acceptance.
What we don't do: we don't handle immigration or visa work, and we don't promise a time-to-hire, because every search is different.
Toronto startups we've recruited for
Beacon Software
Series BToronto
Staff Software Engineer
(opens in a new tab)
PlaySpace
Toronto · Canada remote
Engineering Lead · Full Stack Engineer
(opens in a new tab)
SELECT
Toronto
Senior Software Engineer
(opens in a new tab)Track record: for clients referred by our VC partners, every one of those clients has made at least one hire.
What our clients say
"They're smart about sourcing, find great candidates, and are highly responsive. Candidates we meet say nice things about them as part of the process. We've hired several execs through them and I highly recommend."
Brandon Kessler
CEO, Devpost
"Excellent project management, very communicative and fills our pipeline with great candidates. Better results than any agency we've worked with in the past."
Dan Kosir
CEO, Slanted Frame
"Sean and his team were proactive and great to work with. Understood our needs and delivered on time."
Mo Hamouda
CEO, Momentum
Frequently asked questions
Founding and senior software engineers, AI and ML engineers, product managers and designers, and GTM hires, for venture-backed startups from Seed to Series C.
Job boards and LinkedIn reach active candidates, but the strongest engineers in Toronto and Waterloo are usually employed. Direct sourcing through university, research and startup networks works better, and Solara uses Solara OS to find and rank those candidates.
Yes. Founding account executives, first sales hires, and growth and product marketers for B2B software startups.
Yes, on the recruiting side. We benchmark offers in CAD against US remote packages so they work for both the company and the candidate. We don't handle immigration or visa work.
For clients referred by our VC partners, every one of those clients has made at least one hire. Timelines depend on the role, so we agree a realistic plan at the start.
You work with the founder directly, and every search runs on Solara OS, so candidates are chosen on signals, not keyword matches.
Looking for a role at a Toronto startup? See open positions on the Solara job board.
Hiring founding engineers, product or tech sales talent in Toronto?
Tell us about the role. Sean replies within one business day.