Original research · Human in the Loop Talent
Startup Hiring Research
The recruiting CRM behind Human in the Loop watches job boards, news, funding and headcount for every company it tracks. Put side by side over time, that is a panel. These pages publish what it shows, with the sample behind every number, and nothing the sample cannot carry.
Upcoming research
Studies by company category
Explore advertised roles and team-building questions across tracked startup categories and investor portfolios. Early-stage studies focus on founders building technical teams; larger software portfolios provide a separate comparison. Each study explains its company coverage and observation limits.
What Seed-Stage AI Companies Posted For: Twelve Months to October 2026
Among 124 tracked seed-stage AI companies, 37 had postings this year: software engineering at 26 companies, demand generation at 21, account executives at 20 and product management at 16. AI or machine-learning engineering postings came from 14 companies. Eight companies had a recorded funding round in the last six months.
Portfolio · 26 companies · computed 2026-10-14 · 90 postings over 12 monthsWhat Valor Ventures Portfolio Companies Posted For: Twelve Months to October 2026
Of 26 tracked Valor Ventures portfolio companies, 11 had postings this year. Account executive roles appeared at 6 companies and accounted for 20 of 90 postings. FirmPilot and Modicus Prime advertised senior revenue roles. These observations offer starting points for discussing portfolio talent needs.
Portfolio · 88 companies · computed 2026-10-14 · 854 postings over 12 monthsWhat Vista Equity Partners Portfolio Companies Posted For: Twelve Months to October 2026
Across 88 tracked Vista Equity Partners portfolio companies, 87 had 854 observed postings. Software engineering appeared at 66 companies and account executive roles at 58. Nine companies advertised revenue or marketing leadership roles; 17 advertised AI or machine-learning engineering roles.
Methodology
Original research computed from the signal layer of the recruiting CRM behind Human in the Loop Talent: public job boards, company news, funding announcements and headcount readings, collected continuously for every tracked company and recomputed every Sunday. A figure is published only when the sample supports it; the data behind every page is published as JSON next to it. Every page states its own method under a Methodology heading, and the schema on each page declares the measurement technique, so the research can be cited with its method attached.
How to read it
- Three kinds of statement, labelled. Historical postings (a twelve-month archive), current postings (dated daily job-board reads, where they exist for a panel) and company events are observations. Each study's company table adds inferred organisational states, which carry a qualitative confidence and their alternative explanations, and are marked as inferred.
- Zero is not a finding. Where a stream has not been collected for a panel (live board reads, mapped leadership seats, company events), the page says so instead of printing a zero.
- A number is published only when the sample supports it. A role family needs 30 measured companies before it carries a claim; a category needs ten companies before a study appears.
- Every page links its data. The JSON behind each page is published next to it, so any sentence can be checked against the figure it came from.
- Recomputed weekly. The panel is refreshed every Sunday; studies are rewritten when their category's census is at least a week old and the last study is older than four weeks.
- Correlation, stated as such. The panel shows what fast-growing companies had just hired. It does not claim the hire caused the growth.
Hiring for growth?
Start with the free Revenue per Employee Planner: ten minutes to work out whether the constraint needs a hire at all, and which one. Or compare notes with us on how similar-stage companies scoped the role.