TLDR: On Deck is announcing Via – a hiring network powered by the On Deck community designed to help early-stage founders hire top vouched-for talent. Starting today, On Deck community members can share top talent they know, and companies can request an invitation to use Via for their early hires.

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‍“I’m looking for a backend engineer.. know anyone?” is one of the most common asks in the founder ecosystem. 

Early-stage startups often don’t have enough brand to attract strong talent, nor an in-house recruiting function that can go out there and source through outbound. 

Founders end up turning to their personal networks, investors, and early supporters for referrals. These referrals are invaluable because they come with trust and reputation, which form the foundation of an early-stage startup's culture. 

But personal networks are finite. 

As the On Deck network has grown, the question, "How can I hire from the On Deck ecosystem?" has become increasingly frequent among both community members and those outside it. Even without a formalized way to help facilitate this, we’ve organically seen 100+ successful hires for the community purely with the existing talent in the On Deck community.

Previously, those outside of On Deck have had no way to tap into that talent pool. Even for founders within it, it was a very manual process: send a blast out in a Slack channel hoping the right person will see it, endlessly scroll through the directory, or ping select community members hoping they’ll know the kind of talent you’re looking for at the right time.

Now it’s time to supercharge it.

Introducing: Via by On Deck

Today, we’re excited to publicly announce Via, a hiring network powered by the On Deck community designed to help early-stage founders hire top talent.

Via connects early-stage founders with the most relevant talent from the 1st and 2nd-degree connections of the On Deck network.

The Via hiring network operates 100% by vouch, or cosign. Each candidate must be cosigned by someone within the On Deck network (“connectors”), ensuring the talent pool remains high-quality and trustworthy. Given many are secretly searching, Via keeps candidates confidential until they express interest in a specific opportunity, at which point we facilitate a warm intro complete with the context of the original cosign.

Unlike other network-based recruiting products, our connectors personally know and can vouch for the talent they refer, and often are the first to know when their friends and colleagues from past roles are starting to look for their next thing. 

This approach also enables founders to expand the reach of traditional pipelines by connecting them with candidates from circles they otherwise wouldn’t be connected to, and leaning on cosigns to help those with non-traditional experience shine based on their skills and the trust of their referrer.

Instead of spending time with outbound strategies on talent that may not even be open to new opportunities, Via provides founders with curated candidates actively interested in their company who are ready to consider their next move.

With Via, we are facilitating warm intros at scale, letting social capital and reputation efficiently elevate top talent to breakout companies.

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How to get involved

Interested in hiring through Via?

Via is equipped to support funded Pre-seed to Series B stage startups (regardless of On Deck affiliation) looking to hire full-time employees.

While in private beta, we’re offering a 1st placement for free 🎉 

For subsequent hires, or after the beta ends, we operate on a purely outcome-based placement model. If you don’t make a successful hire through Via, you pay nothing,

We're particularly keen on supporting founders in the earliest stages of their business before conventional recruiting resources might apply as they scale. For later-stage companies, we aim to be a diversified source of unexpectedly awesome talent.

👉 Request an invite to hire from Via: We’re prioritizing access to companies that have a strong overlap with our active talent pool. 

Interested in referring talent?

Know someone exploring new opportunities who you’d consider to be in the top 10% of talent you know, or someone you’d hire again if you could?

Connectors can easily recommend talent for hundreds of startups with just one email introduction to our team, and we’ll handle the rest. 

👉 Request an invite to refer talent: Access is currently limited to On Deck community members. We hope to selectively invite others as we expand, so join the waitlist if interested. 

Interested in exploring new roles?

Via is by invitation only. Unlike job boards, talent cannot join Via without a strong cosign from a member of the On Deck network.

Learn More:

To learn more or view our FAQ, go to beondeck.com/via