Ashley S.
Book a Strategy Call01
The right candidates are not responding.
The profile may be too narrow, the compensation may be misaligned, or the outreach may not give passive candidates a reason to move.
Fix the pipelineFractional recruiting for Seed to Series B technical companies
Fix the role. Build the pipeline. Close the candidate.
I help early-stage companies solve the recruiting problems that keep difficult roles open. I diagnose what is broken, rebuild the candidate story and search strategy, and create the pipeline needed to make the right hire.
500+ GTM hires across Wiz, Splunk, Teleport, Collibra, Nutanix, and high-growth startups.
Independent Dover Recruiting PartnerDover is a Y Combinator S19 company connecting startups with experienced recruiting partners.
“One of the best recruiters I've worked with. Diligent, proactive, gets things done.”
“Within two weeks she nailed the skills that don't show on a CV.”
“She positioned the role with candidates and negotiated a mutually successful outcome.”
“Her work ethic and attention to detail separates her from others in her profession.”
“Would work with her again in a heartbeat.”
The real blocker
What is actually stopping the hire?
Most difficult searches do not have a talent problem. They have a positioning, pipeline, process, or closing problem.
02
Candidates are interested, but they are not closing.
Your team may be describing the company instead of selling the decision. We clarify the story and build a candidate-specific closing strategy.
Fix the candidate story03
The hiring process is creating chaos.
Slow feedback, unclear ownership, inconsistent interviews, and scheduling friction quietly kill strong pipelines.
Fix the process04
You need recruiting help, but not another agency.
Get an embedded recruiting partner who learns the business, owns the work, and leaves behind systems your team can keep using.
Explore embedded recruitingHow I help
Three ways to fix the search.
I don't get paid per hire. I get paid to get the hire right.
Fix My Hiring
$500
One focused session
For a role, pipeline, process, or closing problem that needs an honest diagnosis. We identify what is not working and what to change next.
- Role and profile diagnosis
- Compensation and market reality check
- Candidate-story review
- Process and drop-off analysis
- Prioritized action plan
Role Launch Sprint
Starting at $4,500
Focused 30-day engagement
Build the recruiting foundation for one critical role before wasting another month on the wrong search.
- Hiring-manager calibration
- Candidate ICP
- Compensation calibration
- Competitor and talent map
- Candidate-facing opportunity page
- Outreach sequences
- Interview scorecard
- Candidate closing plan
- Initial targeted pipeline
Embedded Recruiting Partner
Starting at $6,000 per month
Ongoing support
An experienced recruiting partner embedded in your company, with a sourcing engine and repeatable systems behind the work.
- Search strategy
- Sourcing and outreach
- Candidate screening
- Hiring-manager alignment
- Pipeline management
- Candidate experience
- Interview-process design
- Offer and closing support
- Weekly market intelligence
No placement fee. No percentage of anyone's salary. Not sure which fits? Start with a free 30-minute intro call.
Free tool
Would a top candidate leave their current job for your story?
Answer 15 questions and get four customized ways to pitch your company to different candidate motivations.
Built from hundreds of hires and more than a decade of hearing why passive candidates say yes, say no, and walk away.
Build My Candidate PitchThe method
Recruiting is a sales process.
Your sales team qualifies opportunities, maps decisions, communicates value, handles objections, and closes with intention.
Hiring top talent requires the same discipline.
I learn why a specific candidate would leave something good, build an honest story worth considering, and guide both sides through a decision that should actually work.
The line I hold: everything I know about what makes someone want to leave gets used for good. I will never use it to move someone into something worse.
Top talent is not hard to find. It is hard to compel, close, and keep.Read Ashley's Story
The system
This is what gets built behind every serious search.
The work should keep creating value after the search ends. Every sprint and embedded engagement produces reusable hiring infrastructure, not just another list of candidates.
- 01Candidate ICP
- 02Compensation reality check
- 03Competitor and talent map
- 04Candidate-facing opportunity page
- 05Personalized outreach
- 06Interview scorecard
- 07Candidate journey
- 08Pipeline and market insights
Playbooks & tools
Use the recruiting playbooks I use.
Practical tools for founders and hiring teams who want stronger candidate positioning, better outreach, and a process people actually want to stay in.
Live
Candidate Pitch Generator
15 questions. Four customized candidate pitches.
Explore the ToolsComing soon
Passive Candidate Outreach Playbook
Coming soon
Hiring Manager Intake Guide
Coming soon
Candidate Experience Scorecard
Coming soon
Role Positioning Workbook
Coming soon
Candidate Closing Plan
Coming soon
Role Launch Checklist
Want to know when a playbook launches? Follow the newsletter on LinkedIn.
Results
Experience inside the teams you are trying to build.
500+
GTM hires over 13 years
115+
GTM hires in 18 months at Wiz
“One of the best recruiters I've worked with. Diligent, proactive, gets things done.”
“Within two weeks she nailed the skills that don't show on a CV.”
“She positioned the role with candidates and negotiated a mutually successful outcome.”
“Her work ethic and attention to detail separates her from others in her profession.”
Partnership
Independent expertise. Startup-ready infrastructure.
I am an independent Recruiting Partner in Dover's expert marketplace. Clients get my hands-on recruiting expertise alongside Dover's recruiting infrastructure, including applicant tracking, sourcing workflows, scheduling integrations, and startup hiring tools.
Dover is a Y Combinator S19 company built to connect startups with experienced recruiting partners.
This allows me to remain deeply involved in the search while giving growing companies access to systems that would otherwise require a larger internal recruiting team.
Ashley S. is an independent Recruiting Partner in Dover's marketplace. Recruiting Is Sales is not owned by or backed by Y Combinator.
For investors
Recruiting support your founders can actually use.
I support investors and portfolio companies with role diagnostics, first-hire strategy, search launches, embedded recruiting, and current market intelligence.
01
Fast help for urgent portfolio searches
02
Reusable hiring playbooks for founders
03
One trusted partner across multiple companies
Newsletter
The market, from inside active searches.
Current compensation expectations. Why passive candidates are declining. Which titles attract the right people. What is closing offers and what is quietly killing them.
Read the Latest InsightsGet practical hiring insights from live searches.
The role is still open for a reason
Let's identify the real problem.
Tell me what you are trying to hire, where the search is breaking down, and what has already been tried. I will tell you honestly whether I can help.
No percentage-based placement fee. No pressure to force the wrong hire through.