where recently funded startups hire their founding team.
No applications. No resumes. Direct outreach to builders ranked by real GitHub output, matched to your stack.
We read your commits, repos, and activity. That's it. Your pass generates automatically — no CV, no form, no portfolio.
Takes about 60 seconds
$0
placement fee, ever
Days
to first intro, not weeks
2-sided
opt-in before any reveal
How it works
Signal
Commit velocity, stack depth, and shipping patterns replace the CV. A Builder Pass generates automatically — and stays current as you ship. No portfolios. No updates.
Privacy
Neither side is exposed until mutual opt-in. Identity stays hidden until both say yes. No cold outreach possible.
Matching
Founders browse builders ranked by real stack overlap. The radar graph gives both sides a fast read on fit. When a founder requests an intro, the builder sees their mission and stack — no back-and-forth until both say yes.
Pricing
No placement fees. No commissions. No “we take 20% of year one.”
Guardrails
The double-blind system means neither side can contact the other without mutual opt-in. No unsolicited messages. No pile to compete against.
The signal
Every metric on a Builder Pass is derived from real GitHub activity — not self-reported. Here's exactly how each one is calculated.
Signal Score 0–10
Overall GitHub activity health.
Weighted from commit consistency over 16 weeks (60%) and total commit volume (40%). A 7.0+ means the builder ships steadily and often. This is the primary number founders use for a fast read.
Velocity Percentile
Commits per week vs. all builders on the platform.
Top 1% = 20+ commits/week · Top 5% = 8+ · Top 10% = 5+ · Top 20% = 3+. Measured over the same 16-week window as signal score.
Streak Days
Consecutive days with at least one commit.
Gaps of up to 3 days are forgiven — weekends and short breaks don't break the streak. Measures sustained activity, not perfect daily commits.
PR Quality 0–10
How well-structured your merged pull requests are.
Scored from merged PRs across your top repos. Baseline 4. +2 for test files, +1.5 for a written description, +1.5 for right-sized changes (20–500 lines), +0.5 for a descriptive title. Averaged across recent PRs. A 7.0+ means your PRs are consistently well-structured.
Radar 6 axes
Where your work actually lands.
Six axes derived from file paths in your merged PRs: Velocity, Frontend, Backend, Infra, AI/LLM, and Product. A .tsx file counts as Frontend. A /api/ route counts as Backend. A Dockerfile counts as Infra. The Product axis is scored by AI based on PR titles — whether the work is user-facing or internal. No self-reporting.
For founders
Builder interest comes to you. Glance at the stack graph — know in seconds if it's worth 15 minutes.
We'll match you with builders who fit.
For builders
Connect GitHub once. Your pass generates automatically and stays current as you ship. No applications. No cover letters. No competing against the pile.
Upswell · Builder Profile
8.4
Signal score
Founding Engineer · Senior
I like hard problems and small teams. Shipped three products 0→1, most recently a data pipeline handling 40M events/day at a Series B fintech.
Stack radar
Commit activity · 16 weeks
Background
Led backend at Propel (YC W21), 4 years founding-team experience. Before that, platform infra at Stripe.
Skills
Identity protected
Name, employer, and GitHub hidden until both sides agree to connect.
Identity stays hidden until they accept.
The math
The average recruiter charges 20% of first-year salary. For a senior engineer at $175k, that's $35k per hire — months of runway gone before anyone ships.
$35k
avg. recruiter fee per hire
20%
of year-one salary, off the top
$0
Upswell fee. Always.
| Recruiter | Job Board | Upswell | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per hire | $30–40k | Time + ATS | $0 |
| Signal quality | Low | Very low | High |
| Time to first intro | 6–12 weeks | Varies | Days |
| Currently employed talent | Rarely | Never | Yes |
| Cold outreach blocked | No | No | Yes |
Browse real builders or list your pass. No applications. No recruiters. No fees.