For finance leads at technology startups
Startup Staffing is a permanent recruitment service for international technology startups and scaleups where the fee is paid as an agreed monthly percentage of each hire's gross monthly salary. It is a recruitment fee payment model — not lending, credit or a financial product — and it changes the timing of the cost rather than making it disappear.
No accounting or tax treatment is implied or advised here; how you record the expenditure is a matter for you and your accountants.
This is the point worth being blunt about. SUS does not remove the recruitment cost. It converts a single large payment at the point of hire into a monthly payment linked to that employee, invoiced monthly in arrears from their start date.
Each placement contributes a known monthly figure derived from that employee's gross monthly salary. Recruitment stops being a lumpy, unforecastable line and becomes a per-head monthly amount you can plan against.
The calculator shows the month-one comparison side by side for exactly this reason: one model asks for a large sum immediately, the other asks for a fraction of it while you assess the hire in the role.
Monthly payments accumulate. Two figures matter: the exact month at which the cumulative SUS total equals what a traditional one-off fee would have been, and the first full month in which it is above it. The calculator shows both rather than leaving you to find them.
The buy-out value, or the basis for calculating it, is agreed with you in writing in your commercial terms at the outset, for each hire. You can exercise that pre-agreed option later under those terms, without a fresh commercial negotiation. Once it is paid, future monthly billing for that hire stops. Other hires are unaffected. Monthly fees already paid are not deducted, credited or refunded against the buy-out by default; they cover the months already elapsed.
If the employee's employment ends, billing stops from their final date of employment. Payments already made are not refunded. Fees are exclusive of VAT and, under the standard terms, payable within 14 days.
Illustration only, on a £60,000 salary: a 20% traditional fee against a 17.5% monthly fee on gross monthly salary. Your actual percentages and buy-out value are agreed with you individually in writing.
| Cash requirement | Traditional fee | SUS monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Month one | £12,000 | £875 |
| First six months | £12,000 | £5,250 |
| First twelve months | £12,000 | £10,500 |
Modelling several hires at different salaries is what the team hiring planner is for: plan-level payroll, month-one cash requirement, cumulative cost and crossover for the whole plan, plus a printable summary.
If the cash timing is the part that matters, it is worth walking through the assumptions with a person — including the point at which this model stops being the cheaper option for you.
Discuss these numbersNothing you have entered above is attached to this link. You choose what to tell us on the next page.
Being clear about the boundaries of the model saves everyone time.
Whether the monthly fee mechanics are predictable, bounded and defensible in a board pack.
Five steps, in order, from understanding the model to modelling your own numbers to talking to a person. You can skip straight to the end at any point.
Rebates, cancellation, buy-out and where each model is genuinely more expensive.
Where recruitment sits among the real costs of adding a person, so the line is modelled in context.
Plan-level modelling with a printable decision pack: sequence, assumptions, cumulative table, crossover and peak monthly recruitment cost.
Invoicing, VAT, payment terms, buy-outs and leavers in one place, with a model-neutral checklist of questions to ask any recruiter.
Bring the assumptions you want tested. Percentages and buy-out values are agreed individually in writing, never quoted from this site.
Written for this role specifically, and useful whether or not you ever work with us.
The same model, answered for the other people usually in the room.
Send us the shape of it — headcount, rough salaries, timing — and we will talk you through how the monthly model would land across the plan.
Prefer to talk? 01865 657 000
Prefer email? joseph@humand.co.uk