The startup recruiting glossary
36 terms a founder runs into the first time they hire – defined in plain language, with the numbers where numbers exist.
Last updated July 11, 2026
01
Fee models & contracts
Contingency recruiting
A recruiting fee model where the recruiter is paid only if you hire their candidate – typically 15–25% of the hire's first-year salary. Usually non-exclusive, so several agencies can work the same role and only the winner is paid.
Retained search
A recruiting fee model where the firm is paid in installments from the start of the search – classically a third at kickoff, a third at shortlist, a third at placement – whether or not the search succeeds. Fees run 25–35% of first-year compensation, in exchange for exclusivity and deep market mapping. The standard model for executive hiring.
Container search
A hybrid between contingency and retained: a smaller upfront engagement fee secures the recruiter's commitment, with the balance due on placement and the upfront amount typically credited against the final fee. Also called "engaged search".
Flat-fee recruiting
A recruiting fee model that charges a fixed price per hire regardless of the candidate's salary, so the fee is known before the search starts. lemonly's version is $8,000 per hire, due only on placement. Because the fee doesn't scale with salary, the recruiter has no incentive to push compensation upward.
Placement fee
The fee due to a recruiter when a candidate they introduced is hired. In percentage models it's calculated on first-year salary or compensation; in flat-fee models it's a fixed amount per hire.
Exclusivity
A contract term giving one recruiting firm the sole right to work a role for a period. Standard in retained search, occasionally demanded by contingency agencies; its cost is that your search's speed depends entirely on one firm's pipeline.
Replacement guarantee
A recruiter's promise to redo the search (or refund the fee) if the hire leaves within a set window – commonly 30–90 days. Terms vary widely: some guarantee a refund, most only a replacement search, so the specific wording matters. lemonly's guarantee is 90 days, refund or replacement.
Embedded recruiting
A model where a recruiter joins your team for a monthly fee – roughly $5,000–20,000 per month – working like a temporary in-house hire rather than charging per placement. Cost-effective at five or more concurrent roles, expensive below that.
RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)
An arrangement where a provider takes over some or all of a company's recruiting function – process, tooling, and recruiters – usually priced as a monthly management fee plus per-hire costs. Built for enterprise hiring volume, not a startup's handful of key roles.
02
The search process
Candidate sourcing
Proactively finding and contacting potential candidates rather than waiting for applications. Sourcing covers building the long-list, researching profiles, and outreach – the top of every search funnel.
Passive candidates
People who aren't actively job-hunting but would consider the right opportunity. They never see job posts, so reaching them requires outreach – and they're usually the majority of the qualified market for any role.
Active candidates
People currently applying for jobs. Job boards only reach this group, which is why post-and-pray hiring structurally misses most of the market.
Screening interview
A short structured conversation – typically 20–30 minutes – that verifies a candidate's fit against the role's requirements before they meet the hiring team. In lemonly's data, only 31% of interviewed candidates clear this bar, which is the argument for screening before a hiring manager's calendar gets involved.
Shortlist
The small set of vetted candidates presented to a hiring team after sourcing and screening – the finished product of a search. A good shortlist is measured by how few names it needs, not how many it contains.
Warm introduction
Presenting a candidate to a hiring team after the candidate has been screened, briefed on the role, and confirmed interested – as opposed to forwarding a cold resume. Both sides arrive at the first conversation already informed.
Intake call (kickoff call)
The structured conversation at the start of a search where the recruiter extracts the role's real requirements – non-negotiables, nice-to-haves, compensation, and context – from the hiring team. The quality of this call sets the ceiling on the quality of the search.
Market mapping
Systematically charting the companies and people who make up the candidate market for a role – who does this job, where, at what level – before outreach begins. A standard component of retained search.
Boolean search
Querying candidate databases with logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) to define exactly who appears in results – the traditional craft skill of sourcing, increasingly automated by AI screening.
Talent pipeline
The pool of candidates at various stages of a search – sourced, contacted, screened, introduced – tracked as a funnel. Pipeline health is measured by conversion between stages, not raw volume.
03
Tools & technology
ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
Software that stores candidates and tracks them through hiring stages – the system of record for a company's recruiting. Examples range from lightweight startup tools to enterprise suites; some, like Dover's, are free.
AI candidate screening
Using AI to score and rank candidates against a role's defined criteria, so humans review a sorted shortlist instead of reading every application. It solves the coverage problem – thousands of profiles assessed consistently – while interviews remain human work.
Sourcing tools
Software for finding and contacting candidates at scale – databases, search filters, and automated outreach. They widen the top of the funnel; screening and closing still need people.
Job boards
Sites where employers post roles and active candidates apply – LinkedIn Jobs, Indeed, Wellfound. Cheap to start and structurally limited to active job-seekers, with high application noise on easy-apply posts.
InMail
LinkedIn's paid direct-message format for contacting people outside your network – the standard outreach channel of LinkedIn Recruiter, with response rates around 5%.
Talent marketplace
A platform connecting companies with candidates or recruiters on demand – freelance networks like Toptal, recruiter marketplaces like Paraform, or contractor marketplaces like Mercor. The marketplace supplies matching; management of the engagement stays with you.
04
Metrics
Time-to-hire
The days from a candidate entering your process to accepting an offer. Distinct from time-to-fill, which starts when the role opens. Healthy startup processes run 2–4 weeks and 3–4 stages from first interview to offer.
Time-to-fill
The days from a role opening to an accepted offer – the metric that captures the full cost of an empty seat, including the sourcing weeks before any interview happens.
Cost-per-hire
Everything a hire cost divided by hires made: fees, tooling, ad spend, and – the part everyone omits – the hours your own team spent. A "free" job post with 40 hours of founder screening is not free.
Interview-to-offer ratio
How many interviews a process runs per offer made – a measure of screening quality upstream. The more unqualified candidates reach interviews, the worse this ratio gets.
No-show rate
The share of booked interviews where the candidate doesn't attend. In lemonly's screening data it runs 7.5% of booked interviews – calendar damage a screening layer absorbs so a hiring team doesn't.
Offer acceptance rate
The share of offers extended that candidates accept. Low acceptance usually signals late compensation conversations or a slow process losing candidates to faster competitors.
Signal-to-noise ratio
In hiring, the proportion of applications or outreach responses that are genuinely qualified. Easy-apply job posts run 90%+ noise; screening exists to protect the hiring team's attention from exactly this.
05
Compensation
OTE (On-Target Earnings)
Base salary plus the variable compensation a person earns at full quota – the standard way sales roles are priced. A "$120K OTE" role with a 50/50 split pays a $60K base.
Total compensation
Everything a role pays: base salary, bonus, commission, and equity. Recruiter fee percentages are sometimes calculated on total comp rather than base – a distinction worth thousands, so check which one a quote uses.
Salary band (salary range)
The published min-to-max a company will pay for a role. Honest bands run about 25% between min and max; a $50K–$300K "range" is an evasion. BC law now requires ranges on every public job posting.
Pay transparency
Publishing what roles pay – in postings, offers, and internal bands. 82% of workers say it affects where they apply, and posting ranges correlates with higher applicant quality.
The deeper guides these terms come from: what recruiters cost in 2026, picking a fee model, and recruiter vs AI tools vs DIY.
Fluent now. Ready to hire?
$8,000 per hire, only when you place someone. 90-day satisfaction guarantee. Cancel any time.
Book a Demo