TLNT.fund

Innovate Without
Talent Limitation

TalentFund is where startups can hire Top 1% of Product & Engineering talent working at leading tech companies for cash and equity.

Build Your Product & Traction

Talent Matchmaking

Our foundation lies in years
of experience in evaluating,
recognizing, and recruiting
exceptional tech talent.

  Contract Negotiations

We specialize in talent
matching, along with
providing expert assistance
for contract negotiations.

Easy Workflows

We take care of all the
paperwork, so startups can
focus on what they do best
- build winning products.

Get funded with talent,
not cash

At TalentFund, startups are getting funded with talent instead of cash building better products and improving their outcomes, ultimately increasing their likelihood of securing more qualified later-stage funding.

Fractional hiring is more sustainable

Amidst the economic downturn, fractional hiring offers startups a solution for achieving viable, layoff-proof growth at a much lower cost than full-time hiring. The prevalence of remote work has led us all into the creator's economy.

USE CASES

Two ways to build with TalentFund

Team Boost

Fill your talent gaps with one or more resources including a Fractional CxO (CTO, CPO, CMO, COO) Engineer(s), or a Designer, or Product Manager.

Team Squad

Build your team from scratch based on your project needs including a CxO/Team Lead, Engineers, Designer, Product Manager, and QA.

Begin with part-time hires and scale up gradually

Idea
Fractional Team
Hire top fractional
talent at discounted
cash & equity rates.
Flexible Contracts
Stay lean and scale
your product team
as needed.
Full-time Team
Convert the talent into
a full-time member or
a co-founder.
Scale
Start Hiring Now
CASE STUDY

How TalentFund helped StageKeep to find a Fractional Engineer

Read the case study on how TalentFund was able to help StageKeep hire fractional engineering talent to finish their product and launch V 2.0.
Read Case Study

Maximize your Non-Dilutive Funding

A comprehensive guide, tips, and tricks to help you navigate the process of obtaining government grants and tax credits.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is TalentFund?

TalentFund is a fractional advisory and talent marketplace for founding teams.

We partner up with Accelerators, Startup to assist their portfolio companies with their talent acquisition needs by matching them to the top fractional product and engineering talent with the option for the talent to be compensated in combination of cash/equity or equity only.

What startups can join TalentFund?

We currently work exclusively with startups incorporated in Canada and the US that are affiliated with leading startup hubs and accelerators.

What talent can join TalentFund?

While we welcome all top engineering and product talent, we generally prefer candidates with at least 3-4 years of experience and a track record of working at top tech companies that utilize the best agile and product development processes.

How does talent vetting work?

Our foundation is built on years of experience in technical recruiting and talent matching. We can match your startup with top talent that we already know and have worked with over the years, helping them advance their careers. For new candidates, we thoroughly vet them for their technical skills, experience, communication abilities, and work attitude.

Our vetting process includes a video interview, an assessment of their skills and expertise, a review of their past projects and portfolio, and an identity check.

How is the compensation model structured?

Early-stage Startups:
-
5% transaction-based fee
- Flat $3,000 contract to full-time talent buy-out

Scale-Ups:
-
10% transaction-based fee
- Flat $6,000 contract to full-time talent buy-out

Mature Startups:
-
15% transaction-based fee
- 15% contract to full-time talent buy-out based on the candidate's first-year salary

The fees are lower for portfolio companies from partnered startup hubs and accelerators.

What methods of payment do you accept?

To minimize fees for startups, we utilize Plooto for payment processing, which debits your bank account and securely stores all banking information.

Alternatively, we can enable Stripe, but we would need to charge an additional 2.9% per transaction.

What's the difference between TalentFund and IT Agencies?

The main difference is the quality of talent and cost.

IT agencies and product studios use the same fractional talent model as TalentFund does, but they utilize their internal staff whom they spread fractionally/as needed across their clients. With TalentFund, we don't hire any internal staff to assist startups. Instead, we enable top talent to find side-hustles with startups that match their qualifications and preferences to help them build their products.

IT agencies and product studios charge a commission on billable hours, usually ranging from 30% to 50%. For example, hiring a Fractional CTO from an IT agency could cost you $250/hour. In contrast, with TalentFund, the cost for a CTO, depending on their hourly rate, could be around $100-150/hour, potentially offering even better experience. Additionally, as you raise capital and gain traction, the talent has the option to join full-time or become a co-founder.

Some IT agencies and studios may opt to take equity from companies in exchange for their development services. At TalentFund, we do not take any equity from startups. We let the talent decide if they would be open to this type of compensation. If they're like what you're building, you have the opportunity to hire them partially or fully for equity.