About Us

    Built by Operators, for Operators

    We built what we wished existed when we were scaling startups ourselves.

    The Founder Story

    From Startup Operator to Recruiting Innovator

    I spent a decade in startup operations, hiring hundreds of people across sales, engineering, and AI teams. I saw what worked and what didn't.

    Traditional agencies? Slow, expensive, and often misaligned. RPOs? Too rigid for startup pace. Internal recruiters? Great, but hard to scale during hiring sprints.

    So I built Recruits Lab—elite startup recruiters who specialize in Sales + AI/ML for Life Sciences & Technology. We offer two models: subscription for flexibility and control, or contingency for pay-on-results simplicity. You choose what fits your situation.

    The mission: give founders access to elite recruiting firepower—without the overhead, without the lock-in, on their terms.

    DN
    Darren Nelson
    Founder & CEO, Recruits Lab
    10+
    Years in Startup Operations
    500+
    Placements Made
    $2M+
    Saved in Agency Commissions

    Our Mission

    Reduce burn, accelerate hiring, and give every startup founder access to elite recruiting firepower without the overhead of agencies or internal teams.

    Our Values

    How We Operate

    Startup Speed

    We move at founder pace. Same-week starts, 14-day average time-to-hire, real-time communication.

    Precision Over Volume

    Quality candidates, not resume floods. Every submission is pre-vetted and culture-fit assessed.

    Radical Transparency

    Clear pricing. Weekly progress reports. No hidden fees. You know exactly what you're paying for, whether weekly or contingent.

    Operator Mindset

    We think like founders because we've been founders. We know what it's like to have three open reqs and zero pipeline.

    Our Focus

    Why Sales + AI/ML for Life Sciences & Tech?

    Sales Recruiting

    Sales hiring is where startups live or die. The wrong VP Sales can burn 6 months and $500K. The right SDR team can 10x your pipeline.

    We've placed 200+ sales hires across Life Sciences and Tech.

    AI/ML Recruiting

    ML talent is scarce and technical vetting is hard. Generalist recruiters can't distinguish between a Kaggle hobbyist and a production ML engineer.

    Our ML recruiters have technical backgrounds and deep networks.

    Life Sciences

    Biotech and medtech need people who understand FDA, KOL selling, and the long sales cycles. Cookie-cutter tech recruiters don't cut it.

    We specialize in commercial roles for therapeutic companies.

    Technology Startups

    Speed matters. Culture fit matters. Equity story matters. We recruit for startups who need people ready to build, not coast.

    From seed to Series C, we've helped 100+ tech startups scale.

    FAQ

    Common Questions

    Everything you need to know about working with us.

    Let's Talk About Your Hiring

    15 minutes with our founder. No pitch decks. Just a real conversation about your roles. See our Media & Press coverage.

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