Built for founders hiring without HR

Hire your next great employee in hours, not weeks

Northstar writes your job description, scores every resume, generates interview question packs, and drafts the offer letter. You make the judgment calls. Northstar eliminates the busywork that costs you 40 hours per hire.

No credit card required · First 3 hires free · Setup in under 5 minutes
Professional conducting a structured interview in a modern office

Trusted by founders at fast-growing teams

Northbound Clearpath Fieldstack Ironbark Meridian Labs

Hiring eats your week and still goes wrong

Most founders make the same costly mistakes: they write weak job posts, drown in unqualified applications, and hire on gut feel instead of evidence.

Founder overwhelmed reviewing a tall stack of printed resumes at their desk
📋

Generic job descriptions attract the wrong people

Copy-pasted JDs from LinkedIn produce 200 applications where only 3 are qualified. You spend your Sunday sorting a spreadsheet instead of building your product.

🔍

Resume screening takes 12-plus hours per role

Without an ATS or an HR team, founders manually skim every application. By the time you finish, your best candidates have accepted offers elsewhere.

💰

A bad hire costs 30% of annual salary to replace

A $70k hire gone wrong costs $21,000 in recruiting, onboarding, and lost output. Most bad hires happen because the interview had no consistent scoring framework.

✍️

Offer letters and legal language slow you down at the close

By the time you draft a compliant offer, your top candidate has gone cold. Speed at the offer stage converts good finalists into signed employees.

From open role to signed offer in three steps

Northstar handles the time-intensive parts of recruiting so you stay focused on your highest-judgment decisions: who to advance and who to hire.

1

Describe the role in plain language

Tell Northstar what this person will own, what success looks like in 90 days, and what skills matter. No templates, no dropdowns. Northstar turns your brief into a role definition and a scoring rubric.

2

Publish, screen, and score applicants automatically

Northstar writes a job post optimized for Indeed, LinkedIn, and your careers page. When applications arrive, each one gets a structured fit score (0-100), a summary of strengths and gaps, and a hiring recommendation.

3

Interview with confidence and close faster

For each candidate you advance, Northstar generates custom behavioral interview questions and a scoring rubric. When you are ready to hire, the offer letter drafts in under 60 seconds.

Everything a solo founder needs to hire right

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AI Job Description Writer

Turn a 2-sentence brief into a full, compelling job post with responsibilities, requirements, and a culture section that attracts the right candidates and filters out bad fits before they even apply.

Automated Resume Scoring

Every application gets a structured fit score with an AI summary of strengths, experience gaps, and red flags. Cut your screening time from 12 hours down to 20 minutes per role.

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Custom Interview Question Packs

For each candidate you advance, Northstar generates role-specific behavioral questions and follow-up probes based on their actual resume. Stop winging first calls and start getting real signal.

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Candidate Comparison Matrix

When you are down to your final three candidates, the comparison table shows side-by-side ratings across every dimension that matters for the role. Make the decision in 10 minutes, not 3 days.

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Offer Letter Generator

Draft a professional, legally clean offer letter in 60 seconds. Compensation, start date, at-will language, and role description are pre-filled from your hiring brief. Includes contractor agreement templates.

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Pipeline Tracking Dashboard

See every open role and every candidate at a glance. Move people through stages, leave notes, and never lose track of where a hire stands across multiple concurrent searches.

73%
reduction in time-to-first-interview for teams using Northstar
4.2x
more qualified candidates advance past the resume stage
11 days
median time from job post to signed offer for Northstar users
92%
of users say their last Northstar hire outperformed previous hires

What happens when founders hire with a system

Real results from founders who stopped hiring on gut feel and started hiring with signal.

★★★★★
"We went from 180 applications to 6 qualified first-round interviews in under three hours. I used to spend two full weekends on a single engineering hire. This time I was done before lunch on Friday."
Marcus Chen
Marcus Chen CEO, Fieldstack (Series A)
★★★★★
"I hired three people in 90 days using Northstar. The interview question packs alone were worth every penny. I stopped rambling through first calls and started getting real signal. Zero regret hires, all three."
Priya Nair
Priya Nair Founder, Ironbark Ops
★★★★★
"The offer letter generator saved us a full week with legal. I described the role, plugged in the comp, and it produced a clean offer our attorney said was solid. That alone paid for years of the subscription."
David Reeves
David Reeves CTO, Clearpath Health

Simple pricing that scales with your team

No per-seat fees. No recruiter markups. Pay for hires, not headcount.

Starter
Free

Perfect for your first hire. No credit card required to get started and run a complete search.

  • 3 active job posts
  • Up to 50 resume scores per role
  • Interview question packs
  • 1 offer letter per month
  • Email support
Get Started Free
Studio
$249/mo

For teams making 5-plus hires per quarter who need white-glove speed and team collaboration.

  • Everything in Growth
  • Custom scoring rubrics
  • Slack integration
  • Team collaboration (5 seats)
  • API access
  • Dedicated onboarding call
Contact Sales

Questions founders actually ask

Do I need to integrate with an ATS?

No. Northstar is a standalone hiring system that works out of the box. It also integrates with Greenhouse and Lever if you already have one, but it performs equally well on its own for teams under 100 employees.

How does resume scoring actually work?

When you define the role, Northstar builds a scoring rubric from your brief. Every resume is evaluated against that rubric: skills match, career trajectory, role-specific signals, and flag criteria you define. You set the weights; Northstar runs the math.

Are the offer letters legally compliant?

Northstar generates offer letters using standard at-will employment language commonly accepted across all 50 US states. We recommend attorney review for critical senior hires, but the majority of early-stage founders use them as-is.

What happens if a top candidate rejects the offer?

Northstar keeps your pipeline live. If an offer is declined, your second-ranked candidate is still scored and staged. You can resurface their interview pack and generate a revised offer in minutes, not days.

Can I use Northstar for contract or part-time roles?

Yes. Northstar handles full-time, part-time, contract, and fractional roles. The offer letter module includes a contractor agreement template alongside the standard employment letter.

Is there a free trial for the Growth plan?

Yes. Growth includes a 14-day free trial, no credit card required at signup. You can run a complete hire from job post through offer letter and decide if it is worth paying for before you commit.

Your next great hire is 11 days away

Join hundreds of founders who stopped guessing and started hiring with signal. The first three hires are completely free, no credit card needed.

Start Hiring Free Today

No credit card required. Setup takes under 5 minutes.

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