You asked about Recruiting and Talent
121 people built something like it. 16 are gone.
That is 16% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 20 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2015-06-01 | A flexible work app that connects businesses with hourly workers. · instawork.com | still up |
| 2011-06-01 | Change the world to value skills over pedigree · hackerrank.com | still up |
| 2012-06-01 | YCLever Talent Acquisition Suite that combines ATS + Talent CRM · lever.co | acquired |
| 2015-06-01 | YCFountain High volume hiring made simple · fountain.com | still up |
| 2017-06-01 | YCGem Talent engagement platform · gem.com | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | YCPave Plan, communicate, and benchmark your compensation in real-time. · pave.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCAwesomic Get matched with top 1% of talents in 24h · awesomic.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | We help US tech companies hire and manage software engineers in LATAM · howdy.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCTorch torch.io | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | Indonesia's #1 ATS & Job Portal to match top talents & companies · dealls.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCAshby All-in-one recruiting platform that empowers hiring excellence in… · ashbyhq.com | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | YCHENRY We train AI engineers and connect them with companies. · soyhenry.com | still up |
| 2015-06-01 | YCBluecrew Bluecrew is a web based staffing agency. · bluecrewjobs.com | acquired |
| 2012-01-01 | YCHireArt Gives businesses everything needed to hire & manage W2 contractors. · hireart.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCVahan AI recruiter for India's massive blue-collar workforce · vahan.ai | still up |
| 2015-06-01 | Intelligent technical hiring. · triplebyte.com | acquired |
| 2022-06-01 | YCJuicebox AI-powered talent sourcing for recruiters · juicebox.ai | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCForage Online job simulations for companies to train, and then hire, students · theforage.com | acquired |
| 2013-01-01 | YCKalibrr Kalibrr connects SEAsian talent to your local & global jobs. · kalibrr.com | acquired |
| 2025-01-01 | YCSpott AI-native ATS/CRM for recruiting firms · spott.io | still up |
| 2015-06-01 | YCJopwell Career advancement for Black, Latinx & Native American professionals. · jopwell.com | acquired |
| 2019-01-01 | YCEmi Labs Helping great teams hire better frontline workers, faster. · emilabs.ai | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCFlo The talent platform for legal · joinflo.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCLanded Generative AI for frontline worker hiring · gotlanded.com | still up |
| 2015-01-01 | YCHigherMe Helping restaurant employers find & hire better employees faster · higherme.com | acquired |
| 2017-06-01 | Headstart uses Machine Learning to help companies decide on who to… · headstart.io | acquired |
| 2021-01-01 | YCWeekday AI recruiter that runs outbound sourcing campaigns to find top talent · weekday.works | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | AI talent platform to hire, manage, and grow your people · peoplebox.ai | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCYouTeam We make it easy for startups to hire engineers. · youteam.io | acquired |
| 2020-01-01 | YCHumanly We empower the world’s hiring teams to grow engaged, high-performing… · humanly.io | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | YCAlex Alex is the AI recruiter for hiring great people. · alex.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCAscen EOR for the staffing industry · ascen.com | acquired |
| 2020-01-01 | A talent acquisition software built for data-driven recruiting teams. · hiresweet.com | still up |
| 2025-01-01 | AI hiring platform powered by expert recruiters · contrario.ai | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | Talent AI improving quality of hire · searchlight.ai | acquired |
| 2021-01-01 | Education, Employment, Loyalty verification. Global & Compliant. · reclaimprotocol.org | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | ModernLoop helps teams automate and streamline recruiting operations · modernloop.io | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCAlana Staff management software for retail, manufacturing and hospitality · alana.jobs | gone |
| 2019-06-01 | YCDover Your startup's all-in-one recruiting solution · dover.com | still up |
| 2013-06-01 | Replacing resume screening with code challenges. · hackermeter.com | acquired |
| 2021-01-01 | YCManara Connecting top Middle East talent to global tech jobs · manara.tech | still up |
| 2017-06-01 | The digital storefront for staffing and recruiting teams. · candidately.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | We make engineering interviewing look more like real work. · hatchways.io | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | YCSerra Your 24/7 AI Recruiter · serra.io | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | We help top engineers from emerging markets get jobs abroad at… · outtalent.com | still up |
| 2015-01-01 | YCPomello Analytics software that helps companies measure organizational… · pomello.com | acquired |
| 2017-01-01 | Predict job applicant performance for entry-level support roles · loopsupport.com | acquired |
| 2022-06-01 | YCTaro Help high-growth tech companies hire strong engineers · jointaro.com | acquired |
| 2021-06-01 | YCCrew Next Gen ATS/CRM for Modern Recruitment Agencies · crew.work | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | YCCSPA The Computer Science Proficiency Assessment (CSPA™) is a… · cspa.io | acquired |
| 2016-01-01 | Information Security (Cyber Security), Compliance and Privacy (GDPR &… · stealthworker.com | still up |
| 2017-06-01 | YC10 By 10 10by10 is a unique marketplace in the recruiting agency industry for… · 10by10.io | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCPyxai An assessment tool that evaluates people to predict future success · pyxai.com | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | YCPluto LinkedIn for agents · talentpluto.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | Peer-to-peer mentorships through income-share agreements. · sharpestminds.com | acquired |
| 2026-09-01 | Turn Your Taste Into Hires · lantern.md | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | The AI-native Recruiting OS · perfectly.so | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCAirwork On-demand labour that's actually good · airworkhq.com | still up |
| 2025-01-01 | YCOutship Hire amazing engineers by seeing how they use AI · outship.ai | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Hire Fractional Marketing + Design Talent · pangea.app | still up |
How this compares
Y Combinator reports its own outcomes, including acquisitions. The other two are judged by asking the domain, so they are not measured the same way and are never averaged together.
Matched on whole words in the title and description, so a launch can fall into two categories and plenty fall into none.
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.