Now booking Q3 2026 recruiter retainers 2 slots left.  See retainer spec →
C1.Chain Labs
FORWARD-DEPLOYED AI ENGINEERS · FOR RECRUITING AGENCIES

The agents
aren’t the
hard part.

Everyone already has the AI. The work underneath it is what nobody sells. One senior engineer, embedded in your desk, handing your team back 20–40 hours a week. From $6,000/month, month-to-month.

  • sourcing agent
  • qualify agent
  • screening agent
  • reporting agent
  • LinkedIn reactivate
  • Telegram reactivate
  • email agent
  • WhatsApp reach-out
$600M+
on-chain volume · our Web3 work
12.5×
ROI delivered · our Web3 work
$10k
self-generated in 1 week · reactivation agent
20–40
hrs a week back across your desk
WHY WE EXIST - MIHIIR, FOUNDER

Buying AI was the easy part.

Every agency I talk to already runs AI somewhere on the desk. A sourcing tool, an outreach tool, a notetaker — a few paying for themselves, most quietly underused. You don't need convincing. So this isn't a pitch. It's the four beliefs this company is built on.

Software cancels out. Judgment doesn't.

+

AI made every agency faster. It also made every agency sound the same. Candidates arrive polished by the same models that write your competitors' outreach. When both sides of the market run the same software, the software cancels out. What's left is the one thing no vendor stocks: how your desk decides. What your best recruiter hears in a first call. Which briefs you walk away from. Why your placements stick. The only agents worth owning are built out of that.

You can't buy the hard part.

+

The gap between a demo and an agent you'd trust in front of clients isn't intelligence. It's labor. Someone has to write down how the work actually flows — the real process, not the org-chart version — wire up systems that were never meant to talk, watch what the agent gets wrong, and tune it until your recruiters send its output unedited. That work is specific, unglamorous, and permanent. It doesn't come in a subscription. It gets done inside a desk, or it doesn't get done.

AI never touches the relationship.

+

I hold one hard line: agents take the grind, people keep the relationships. Recruiting runs on trust built in conversations, and an agent faking those conversations is a liability with your name on it. So we point AI at the sifting, the screening, the Friday reports — the hours that burn recruiters out — and keep it away from the moments that make a placement. Every vendor promises AI won't replace your people. For us that's not reassurance. It's a design constraint.

Nothing stays built.

+

None of this stays solved. Models change underneath you. Channels tighten their rules. An agent that works today drifts quietly, while the dashboard stays green. That's not a reason to panic. It's the reason the work needs a standing owner — why we embed an engineer instead of selling licenses, build on your infrastructure with your keys so the code is yours from the first commit, and price by the month so staying is always your choice. Peace of mind isn't a feeling. It's a maintenance schedule.

FLAGSHIPFlagship offer

A forward-deployed
AI engineer,
embedded in your agency.

An engineer from our team sits in your Slack, reviews your ops weekly, and hands your team back 20–40 hours a week. Month-to-month. No equity. No 6-month hiring loop. No slide decks.

From$6,000/ month · no lock-in
Typical month
Find the hoursShadow the ops · rank the drains
Build itOn your real data · evals live
Deploy & tuneLive in your stack · drift watched
MeasureHours back, counted · then repeat
Hiring in-house
  • 6-month search
  • $200k+ all-in / yr
  • 18-month commit
  • One person, one velocity
Chain Labs FDE
  • Start next week
  • From $6k / mo
  • Cancel anytime
  • One FDE, backed by our research bench
The FDE engagement

How we embed.
And keep shipping.

A Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE) is one senior engineer from our team who embeds with your desk — understands your process, ships your agents, and iterates with you every week. One dedicated FDE, one backup. A success manager is on the engagement from the start; a PM joins at three or more FDEs.
The shadowing

We learn your desk.

Your FDE sits with the work — the actual calls, the actual screens, the shortcuts nobody ever wrote down. Not an audit. Just enough to build the right first thing instead of a generic one.

who's on it · 1 FDE · 1 success manager
The write-up

We write it down.

The rules your desk runs on, and the judgment underneath them — the exceptions, the edge cases, the calls that don't fit the rule. Most of it has never been written down anywhere. That write-up is the asset, and it's yours.

The build

We wire it up and ship.

Your infrastructure, your model keys, your repo. Your ATS, your inbox, your messaging stack — whatever the desk actually runs on — get wired together, and your first agent goes live where your team already works.

the code · yours from the first commit
The upkeep

We watch it and tune it.

Evals on real output. Drift caught while it is still a scoring change and not a lost placement. Tuning until the drafts stop coming back for edits. That standing watch is what the retainer buys, month to month.

team shape · +PM at 3 FDEs
What we ship

Four agents.
One recruiting desk.

Each agent slots into your existing ATS, CRM, and messaging stack. This is what the FDE retainer builds — and keeps running as your desk changes.
01 / SOURCE

Signal-based sourcer

finds people already looking

Monitors signals across LinkedIn, GitHub, public fundraising, layoff lists, visa boards — then surfaces candidates who fit your JD and are actively in motion.

  • Skill-match + signal-match scoring
  • Runs nightly, pushes to your ATS
  • Deduplicates against your history
sourcing hours
5× fewer
02 / QUALIFY

Pre-screening agent

public-signal enrichment + async intake

Scans public signals — tweets, posts, GitHub, prior employers, visa indicators — before a human ever opens the file. Then runs a structured intake on email, WhatsApp, or Telegram in your tone.

  • Public-signal enrichment → skill + eligibility
  • Salary, visa, notice, motivation captured
  • Structured notes posted back to your ATS
per candidate
minutes, not hours
03 / SCREEN

Voice screening agent

10-min interviews · on demand

A Vapi-powered voice agent runs first-round screens. Structured questions, follow-ups, scoring rubric. Delivers recording + transcript + shortlist decision.

  • Calibrated to your rubric
  • Handles reschedules, time zones
  • Human review queue for edge cases
throughput
24/7, parallel
04 / REPORT

Client-reporting agent

weekly update, auto-drafted

Generates your client updates — shortlist summary, pipeline health, next steps. Tone-matched per account. You edit, send, ship.

  • Pulls from ATS + email + notes
  • Per-client tone & template memory
  • Draft-to-inbox in under 2 min
Friday reports
a full day → 20 min
Concept · in build

The sourcing agent that
finds people already looking.

A live prototype of the sourcing agent we’re shipping. Signal-based — it surfaces candidates who are actively in motion before they post a resume.
Prototype · in buildSourcing agent

Cold reach-outs out.
Warm intros in.

Sourcers shouldn’t grind through LinkedIn all day. We’re shipping a signal-engine: it watches for people tagging “open to work”, posting about layoffs, leaving Series-B cap tables, or star-ing a job board. Each morning it delivers a ranked list — already deduped against prior outreach.

hourly
cron · always fresh
X · Li · Rd
watches your query
webhook
lands in your ATS
SM
S. Martinez
Senior Platform Eng · Stripe
posted "looking"94
AK
A. Kumar
Staff ML · recent layoff
signal · layoff91
JB
J. Bashir
Principal SWE · visa expiring
visa · 60d89
NP
N. Park
Founding Eng · Series-A failed
cap-table exit87
RT
R. Torres
Eng Manager · 2yr tenure
engagement drop84
W
Samantha · Sourcer
online · reactivation agent
Packaged agent · sold separately

Reactivate your network
on WhatsApp & Telegram.

Your CRM is full of people you placed, pitched, or chatted with once. Our reactivation agent warms them back up — in your voice, on the channel they actually reply on. It respects rate limits, escalates interested replies to you, and kills the thread politely if they pass.

$10k
Chain Labs self-generated · 1 week · this agent
Warm
replies, not cold-email silence
Your voice
tone-matched, not GPT-matched
Safe
respects rate limits & channel ToS
Chain Labs also ships Web3.Our code has handled $600M+ in on-chain volume across DeFi, NFT, and identity protocols. Different domain, same engineering DNA: ship systems that take real money, real traffic, real users.
  • Curve Labs
  • Movement Labs
  • Safe Global
  • Protocol Labs
  • Hyperlane
  • Toucan Earth
  • Giza
  • Arbitrum
  • Komet Wallet
  • Zo World
  • Antigravity
  • Bipzy
Try it now

Describe your desk.
We’ll scope the agent.

Tell us what slows your recruiters down. Our scoping agent sketches what we’d ship, roughly how long it’d take, and what it’d cost — right here. Then you book a call to pressure-test it.

One-off builds are fixed scope, $12k–24k. The retainer is what we’d rather run: from $6,000/month with no lock-in, an engineer embedded in your team who ships the first agent, then keeps building as the desk changes.

Chain Labs · live scopingagent.v1
Hey — what's a repetitive task on your recruiting desk? One line is fine.
FAQ

Questions recruiters ask us.

Will this replace my recruiters?+

No. Every one of our agents is designed to eliminate a specific repetitive task — the grind work that makes recruiters want to quit. Your best recruiters do more placements. Your average recruiters look like your best ones.

Who owns the code?+

You do — from the first commit. Agents are built in your infrastructure with your model keys; the code never lives anywhere else. The retainer is for continued shipping, not for holding your agents hostage.

What about GDPR / candidate data?+

Agents run on your infra with your model keys by default. We sign DPAs. We build redaction into every outbound channel. We can deploy model-local for EU desks if required.

Which ATS / tools do you integrate with?+

Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever, Workable, Recruitee, Bullhorn, plus spreadsheets and custom SQL stores. WhatsApp Business, Telegram, Slack, Gmail, Outlook — if it has an API, we've wired it.

How is this different from off-the-shelf sourcing AI?+

Off-the-shelf tools are calibrated to generic signals. We build agents around your specific rubric, your tone, your client mix — and evolve them monthly as your desk learns. Your agent wouldn't work at a competitor.

Retainer lock-in?+

None. Month-to-month, and there's no notice period — if you stop, you stop at the end of the month you've already paid for. We'd rather earn the next month than trap you into twelve.

What makes it more than $6,000/month?+

Engineer seniority, and how many FDEs you run. $6,000 is what one senior embedded engineer costs — it's a floor, not an opening bid. A second engineer is a second retainer; a more senior one costs more. Scope doesn't quietly inflate the invoice mid-month.

What if it doesn't work?+

You stop at the end of the month you've paid for — no notice, no exit fee, and the code is already yours because it was built in your infrastructure. That's why we measure the engagement in hours handed back rather than deliverables shipped: if the desk isn't getting time back, nothing is holding you here.

How do time zones work?+

Your FDE overlaps 4+ hours of your working day — whether you're in SF, NY, London, or Berlin. Daily standup lands in your morning; demos land in your afternoon.

Ready when you are

Your next desk
runs on agents.

30-min call. We’ll find the bottlenecks on your desk where an agent would pay for itself, ranked by ROI. Free, no pitch deck.

Book the desk audit

This site uses Microsoft Clarity for analytics, which sets cookies. Privacy Policy.