Skip to main content

About

Recruitment for technology startups and scaleups, paid for differently.

Startup Staffing (SUS) is a permanent recruitment service for international technology startups and scaleups from Humand Talent Limited. The recruitment is conventional. The way it is paid for is not.

What Startup Staffing is

SUS finds and places permanent employees for startups and scaleups. Instead of a single recruitment fee charged as a percentage of annual salary at the point of hire, you pay an agreed monthly percentage of that employee's gross monthly salary for as long as they remain with you.

The person is employed directly by your business, on your contract. If the employment ends, the monthly billing ends too.

Why the model exists

Startup Staffing exists to give ambitious technology startups and scaleups another way to access specialist recruitment, without concentrating the full recruitment cost at exactly the point they are also increasing payroll and building out their team.

A recruitment invoice tends to arrive at the point when a growing technology business is least able to absorb it: the same weeks as a new salary, onboarding, equipment and the ramp-up before the hire is fully productive. SUS exists to change the timing, and with it the shape of the risk.

Who it is designed for

International technology startups and scaleups — software, deep tech and other technically complex businesses — hiring specialist technical and engineering roles, from pre-seed through Series B+ and beyond, whether bootstrapped or funded. Funding stage is not a qualification requirement; what matters is the hire and the cash allocation decision around it.

It is not for everyone. If you would rather pay a conventional one-off fee, or you are hiring temporary or contract workers, another arrangement is likely to suit you better — we set that out openly.

The principle: aligned incentives

When the full fee is earned on day one, a recruiter's commercial interest in a placement effectively ends the moment somebody starts. Under SUS our income continues only while the person we introduced is still with you.

That gives both sides the same interest: a hire who performs and stays. It also means we carry part of the risk if a placement does not last, rather than all of it sitting with you.

Being straight about the trade-off matters too. Over a long tenure, cumulative monthly payments can add up to more than a one-off fee. SUS is about cash flow, flexibility and shared risk — not a claim to be the cheapest option in every case.

Who delivers it

SUS is operated by Humand Talent Limited (company number 12379847), registered in England and Wales, with its registered office at 1 Abbey Street, Eynsham, OX29 4TB, United Kingdom. Humand is a UK-registered recruitment business with a background in specialist technical recruitment, and its consultants run the search, assessment and introduction process behind every SUS placement for clients internationally.

Humand recruits into technically complex environments — software, AI/ML, data and cloud infrastructure — and is comfortable taking briefs from robotics, advanced engineering and other deep-tech teams. The team brings more than 50 years of combined experience in specialist recruitment. Candidates are headhunted directly rather than sourced from advertising, which is why the same process suits hard-to-fill technical startup roles.

Startup Staffing and SUS are trading names of Humand Talent Limited.

Visit the Humand Talent Solutions website

Why Humand created SUS

Humand kept meeting technology startup founders who wanted proper specialist recruitment support and could not justify a five-figure invoice landing in the same month as a new salary.

Some of those companies hired alone, more slowly, and sometimes badly. Others paid the fee and felt the cash gap for months afterwards.

SUS was created so the recruitment cost follows the employment rather than arriving ahead of it — and so Humand only keeps earning while the hire is still there.

Startup Staffing (SUS)

Operated by
Humand Talent Limited
Company number
12379847
Registered office
1 Abbey Street, Eynsham, OX29 4TB, United Kingdom
See how the model works

The recruitment service

Who actually recruits for me?

Humand Talent Solutions' consultants do. SUS is not a marketplace, a job board or software that leaves you to run the search. You get a named recruitment team experienced in hiring for technology startups and scaleups, doing specialist search work across global technical markets — with the fee charged monthly while the hire stays.

The Humand recruitment service

The recruitment itself. Search, assessment and candidate introductions carried out by Humand Talent Solutions' consultants, to the same standard as their conventional placements.

  • Specialist technology and science recruitment
  • Headhunted, not advertised
  • Named consultants you can speak to
  • Straight feedback and clear timelines

The SUS commercial model

How the recruitment is paid for. An agreed monthly percentage of gross salary while the employee stays, instead of one large fee at the point of hire.

  • Monthly payments linked to a specific employee
  • Billing stops when that employment ends
  • Pre-agreed buy-out stops future monthly charges for that hire
  • Terms confirmed in writing before work begins

How a search runs

The recruitment process is conventional and deliberately unglamorous. The commercial model is the part that is different.

  1. 01

    Understand

    A proper briefing on the role, the team around it, the technical bar and what the business is trying to build. If the brief is unrealistic for the market or the budget, we say so at this point.

  2. 02

    Search

    Candidates are approached directly rather than waiting on job-board applications. Humand's network and long-standing candidate community do most of the work here.

  3. 03

    Assess

    Screening and structured conversations before anything reaches you, covering technical fit, motivation, notice period and salary expectations — so a shortlist is genuinely a shortlist.

  4. 04

    Introduce

    You receive a small number of relevant candidates with context on each. Interviews, feedback and offer stages are coordinated so nobody is left waiting, and you hire directly onto your own contract.

Read Humand's full recruitment process

The people

The team behind a SUS placement

These are the Humand Talent Solutions people who run searches, speak to candidates and pick up the phone when you call. More than 50 years of combined experience in specialist recruitment, based in the UK, working with international technology teams.

  • Joseph Edney

    Managing Director & Founder

    Founded Humand and set the model behind SUS. Works directly with founders on briefs and commercial terms.

  • Jamie Kennedy

    Client Solutions Director

    Owns how searches are shaped and delivered for clients, from brief to offer.

  • Jess Haydon

    Senior Talent Partner

    Runs searches end to end, handling candidate conversations and assessment.

  • Adrian Taylor

    Senior Talent Scout

    Identifies and approaches candidates directly in specialist technical markets.

  • Katy King

    Candidate Operations Manager

    Keeps candidates informed and supported through the process, start to finish.

  • Nav Dey

    Client Support Partner

    Coordinates interviews, feedback loops and offer stages so searches keep moving.

See the full team on the Humand website

Talk to a person, not a form

Enquiries come to Joseph Edney, Managing Director & Founder of Humand Talent Solutions, the recruitment business Startup Staffing is operated by. If you would rather skip the form, call or email directly.

Prefer to book time? Arrange a conversation.

Feedback

What people say about the recruitment service

SUS is a new commercial model, so we are not going to invent client testimonials for it. What we can show is published feedback on the recruitment service delivered by Humand Talent Solutions. Most of it is written by candidates rather than hiring companies, which is worth knowing when you read it.

  • I had a really great experience working with Katy and the team at Humand. From start to finish, the process was smooth, professional, and genuinely personable — which makes such a difference. It's clear she really cares about both the candidates and the companies she works with.
    Graham ClarkCandidate · published Google review of Humand
  • Best recruitment company I have come across. Everyone I have dealt with was very professional, thorough and patient. I was very impressed with how they maximised the impact of my CV for each specific role and provided very thorough and specific interview preparation material.
    Fabio SimoesCandidate · published Google review of Humand
  • They offered valuable advice, were very clear about client expectations, and went above and beyond to help whenever I had questions. This is what a professional approach to recruitment consulting looks like — a great bridge between candidate and client.
    Darren EphraimCandidate · published Google review of Humand

Quotes are shortened for length, with wording unchanged. You can read them in full, along with every other review, at source. Read the reviews on Google

Evidence standard

What counts as proof here, and what does not

Recruitment websites tend to present four very different things as if they were the same kind of evidence. These are the four, kept apart, with the limits of each stated.

  • Company and legal proof

    On this site today

    Who you would actually be contracting with: a registered UK recruitment company, its company number, registered office and written commercial terms.

    What it does not prove: It tells you the business is real and accountable. It does not tell you anything about hiring outcomes.

    Check it against: Companies House, and the written terms issued before any work begins.

  • Humand recruitment experience

    On this site today

    The recruitment track record behind SUS: Humand Talent Solutions' specialist markets, named consultants and published Google reviews.

    What it does not prove: This is feedback on Humand's recruitment service, mostly written by candidates rather than hiring clients. It is not SUS client proof and is never presented as such.

    Check it against: humand.co.uk and Humand's public Google reviews.

  • Product mechanics

    On this site today

    How the SUS model works: monthly percentage of gross salary, billing that stops when the employment ends, buy-out on agreed written terms, and the illustrative calculators that show the arithmetic.

    What it does not prove: Calculator figures are illustrative examples, not quotations, and the percentages used are not an offered rate.

    Check it against: The written commercial terms, which take precedence over anything on this website.

  • SUS client case studies

    Not yet available

    Named or anonymised accounts of real SUS engagements: the challenge, the role, what was done, and any outcome the client has confirmed.

    What it does not prove: SUS is a new commercial model. Nothing is published in this category until a client has approved it in writing, so there is nothing here yet.

    Check it against: The named client, once a case study is approved and published.

Why there are no case studies on this page

SUS is a new commercial model, so there are no SUS client case studies to show yet. When there are, they will be published with the client's written approval and only the outcomes that client has confirmed. Until then, the proof on this site is the company behind it, Humand's recruitment track record and feedback, and the mechanics of the model itself.

If you would rather judge the model on its arithmetic than on someone else's story, the calculators show the full cost either way, including the point at which the monthly model becomes the more expensive option.

Build your team without taking the recruitment hit all at once.

You do not need a finished job specification to talk to us. A rough idea of the role is plenty — we will do the rest with you.

  • A specific live vacancy you are trying to fill
  • Hiring you are planning over the next few months
  • Several future hires and how they would work together
  • Whether SUS is the right fit for your business at all

Prefer to talk? 01865 657 000

Prefer email? joseph@humand.co.uk

Fields marked required are required.

We use these details only to respond to your enquiry and, where relevant, to discuss hiring with you. We do not sell your data or add you to marketing lists without your consent. See our privacy notice.