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We Are

Honed
Partners.

Honed
Partners.

We build Product & Engineering teams for SaaS & AI startups scaling from 5 → 50.

Operating in San Francisco and New York, we partner with founders in and around the Series A stage to build their core technical foundation.

Why Founders Work With Us:

  • 85% of our placements are made at Series A.
  • Deep coverage & understanding of the surrounding growth trajectory.
  • Specialization in Software Engineering, AI/ML, and Product.
  • We deliver the builders built for hyper-growth and 0 → 1.
  • First interview within 48 hours.
  • We live the startup lifestyle with you.

Testimonials.

Adam and the Honed team have been a great partner to us at Solstice. We’ve hired an exceptional product manager through them and they’ve sourced across applied AI, backend, QA, and data engineering roles, and the profiles are consistently well-screened and well-matched to an early-stage team. The team is responsive, stays close to the process, and adjusts fast when priorities shift.

Aris Saxena, CEO at Solstice

The Honed team has been one of the best recruiting partners I’ve worked with. I’ve partnered with them across two companies over the past year and they’ve delivered many placements in that time. They move fast, actually listen to what you’re looking for, and the candidates they send are consistently strong

Radhik Wickramasinghe, Operations at AfterQuery

Honed has really delivered for us. Four standout full-stack engineers hired, a pipeline that never misses the mark, and a team that makes scaling our team effortless. Can’t recommend them enough

Kyle Patel, CTO at Polimorphic

Honed helped us fill multiple positions with high-caliber candidates. I would highly recommend working with them if you need great people quickly!

Vishy Kaushik, Chief of Staff at Shaped

Braden is the best recruiter I’ve ever worked with. His technical and industry expertise helped place me at an outstanding startup with world-class co-founders and a highly aligned, motivated team. The process was smooth, fast, and well-managed throughout. I highly recommend him to both engineers looking for great startup roles and hiring managers hoping to find remarkable talent.

Anand Chitale

Braden reached out to me about an opportunity I was super pumped about and helped me through the interview process. He made the process super smooth and easy!

Marylyn Chen
    We have been privileged enough to have worked with companies such as…

    Built for Startups.
    Zero Friction.

    We cut out agency fluff, retainers, and drawn-out onboarding cycles. We are three founders who integrate with your ecosystem to land hyper-growth talent, fast.

    01

    Zero-Risk, Earned Trust
    We don’t trap you in exclusive contracts or demand upfront retainers. We work on a success-only model and let our pipeline speak for itself. We earn our fee when our candidate starts, not before.

    02

    Sub-24h Execution
    When you need to scale, every day counts. We place fully vetted, top-tier resumes into your pipeline within 24 hours of kickoff, with first interviews typically locked in within 48 hours.

    03

    Fully Embedded
    We adapt to your stack. We can integrate with your ATS (like Ashby) or build & manage a custom notion tracker. Each client gets a dedicated shared Slack channel, giving you round-the-clock access, real-time feedback loops, and frictionless comms.

    04.

    100% Founder-Led
    Your roles are never handed down to a junior recruiter. All three founders manage your search end-to-end, bringing high-speed strategy, sharp vetting, and a relentless attitude to every role.

    Formation of Honed

    We’re three friends who met at the same recruitment agency and quickly realized we disliked the same things: endless KPI tracking, admin, slow turnarounds, and actions taken just to hit internal quotas.

    In recruitment, only one metric actually matters: high-quality placements. So we quit and started Honed.

    We stripped away every piece of friction, for us and our clients. No middle management, no sales pitches, and no lock-in contracts. Just three founders working directly inside your ecosystem, filling your pipeline with proven builders in hours, not weeks.

    We do this because we genuinely love early-stage tech. Our goal is simple: back the founders building what’s next, and find the builders to get them there faster.

    The Honed Pioneers

    Braden Woods

    tap to meet Braden

    Braden Woods

    Braden keeps our operations and client side running smoothly, fueled almost entirely by a borderline-obsessive relationship with his Nespresso machine. When he isn’t seamlessly juggling business development and candidate relations, you’ll probably find him hiking or falling down a mountain with skis on his feet. 

    Finn Payton

    tap to meet Finn

    Finn Payton

    Finn is an ex-pro gamer turned top recruiter. The cool head and communication skills he forged in the fires of old MW2 lobbies make managing candidate processes a breeze. He channels his high-speed reaction times into keeping everything moving forward. While his two cats channel theirs into knocking things off his desk.

    Adam Scrivens

    tap to meet Adam

    Adam Scrivens

    Adam drives our recruitment, sourcing, and BD with the kind of unwavering optimism and resilience you only learn from being a massive Exeter City fan. When he isn’t busy tracking down top-tier tech talent, he’s hard at work expanding his world-class collection of fridge magnets from the new countries he visits (yes, really).

    +1 347 305-2140
    info@honedpartners.com