Jake Huber

Scaled 3 unicorns🦄 & teams from 0→250+ | 125+ founders read my newsletter to scale their teams smarter 📈🧠

At Uber, I scaled my team from 0→50 people <1yr.

Now I help Seed & Series A+ startup founders scale their teams. Here's how ↓

I learned how to scale teams the hard way.

At Uber, I grew our team from 0→50 in under a year. 

At Industrious, we launched 10 locations and I built a 30-person team. 

At Veho, we 4×’d headcount (70→285) and increased weekly inbound applicants +495% in 6 months. 

Those wins all had one thing in common: a great recruiter embedded with the team—and simple, repeatable systems.

Before that, my first startup failed. I didn’t know how to hire, train, or manage yet. If I could go back, I’d tell “Past Jake” to stop duct-taping recruiting and bring in real help—without signing up for agency commissions or a full-time hire too early.

That’s why I built Venture Scaler.

🚀 Venture Scaler = A Startup-Friendly Way to Hire

We place an expert, senior recruiter (ex-Uber/Dropbox/Spotify, etc.) directly on your team—fractionally. Hourly. Month-to-month. No commissions. No long-term contracts. We run the full search like your in-house recruiter so you can stay focused on building product and talking to customers.

How It Works (It’s simple on purpose):

1. Perfect-Fit Profile Guarantee: We align on 5–10 candidate profiles before outreach so we don’t waste cycles.

2. End-to-End Execution: Sourcing, screening, coordination, and candidate experience handled.

3. Tight Comms: Weekly check-ins + async updates so you always know pipeline, blockers, and next steps.

4. Flex Up/Down: Add hours when you’re sprinting; pause when you’re not hiring.

Why founders pick us:

4× Faster to Hire: UpSmith’s first sales hire closed in 5 weeks after a 5-month stall.

~90% Cost Savings vs Agencies: Honey Homes saved ~$230k in two months of hiring.

Scale at Speed: At Veho we 4×’d the team and built an engine for inbound talent.

If you’re Seed or Series A, need to make a few critical hires, and don’t want to overbuild headcount or pay 25% fees, this model was built for you.

💬 Hiring right now? DM me here or visit venturescaler.com. I’m happy to share my hiring playbooks (the same ones we used at Uber/Veho) or dig into your roles and recommend a plan.

Learn more: https://venturescaler.com

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P.S. Outside of work and scaling startups:
👯‍♀️ I’m a girl dad x2
🏕 A backpacker/camper
🎭 Trained at UCB in improv comedy
💍 Secretly proposed to my wife using Uber: https://youtu.be/uRi_B5CxWZ8

Startup Mentor

“Jake is an incredible sounding board that provides tactical tips, resources and introductions to help navigate crisis’ and challenges. He has an innate ability to level with you on any subject. During my three months with Jake I looked forward to every call as we hashed through 5-10 topics at a time spanning from affiliate & growth strategies to recruiting and mindset.”

~April Dominguez, CEO & Founder of Handsome

First Round Fast Track by First Round Capital matches seasoned startup leaders with early-stage founders and team members within a unique mentorship community. First Round Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on building a community of technology entrepreneurs and companies.

“Oh no... We don’t even have 23 good candidates in our pipeline!”

~founder friend of mine

They said this to me after I shared data showing you need to talk to 23 candidates to hire 1 great one.

They also said they didn’t have the time to screen that many candidates.

“Many early-stage teams underestimate how many candidates they need to speak to to make one hire. In our data we also saw that only 13% of inbound applicants even make it to the first screen. You will either need a lot of inbound, or more likely, you will have to fill the funnel with sourced candidates and referrals.” 

—Benji Encz, CEO of Ashby

Hard Truth: Recruiting at your startup is a numbers game. 

You need volume to find the right candidate.

For most startups, this means you’ll need to do your own outbound sourcing. 

At Venture Scaler we’ve helped startups like Pepper, Veho, Honey Homes and UpSmith with sourcing and making great hires. 

👉Need help with hiring at your startup? Send me a DM! Or check out 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥 in my bio to learn more.

Scaled teams from 0→250+ at 3 unicorns🦄 | Early Uber | Startup Founder & Operator

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Hot take: if you’re leading recruiting as a founder, you’re paying for every hire with your best hours.

Most Seed and Series A founders don’t fail at hiring because they can’t spot talent.

They fail because founder led recruiting turns into a daily game of whack a mole:

Inbound comes in.

You skim resumes between meetings.

A great candidate waits 6 days for a reply.

Someone “owns scheduling” until they don’t.

Pipeline notes live in 4 places.

Then the search “mysteriously” drags for 10 to 14 weeks.

Here’s the real issue: nobody owns the hiring engine end to end.

So it runs... whenever the founder has free time.

If you want hiring to stop stealing your best hours, you need one clear owner for:

1. Sourcing
2. Screening
3. Scheduling and follow ups
4. Pipeline hygiene and weekly reporting
5. Offer process and close plan

That’s exactly where a fractional recruiter shines.

Not a full time headcount.

Not a big fee agency.

Just an experienced operator who drops in, runs the machine, and keeps momentum week to week.

Pro Tip: Before you post the job or message a single candidate, calibrate with 5 to 10 real profiles.

If you can’t agree on what “great” looks like in a stack of actual people, the rest of the process is just expensive guessing.

That’s also why at Venture Scaler we start with a quick alignment sprint, then move fast with a tight weekly cadence.
_____

What’s the part of hiring that’s draining you the most right now: sourcing, scheduling, or decision making?

If you want a fractional recruiter to take the wheel, DM me and I’ll send a simple overview of how we plug in.

In 2 months my rent-a-recruiter service saved our client over $230k 🤯 Here’s how ↓

We sourced, screened, interviewed & hired 13 new employees:

→ 2 senior ops managers @ $110k
→ 9 operations managers @ $75k
→ 2 CS coordinators @ $50k

If our client (Series A startup) was working with a traditional recruiting agency, they would have paid 25% commissions on first-year salaries, totaling $250,000 😱

But by working with Venture Scaler on our flexible hourly plans, they saved over 90% (not a typo).

And by saving them $230k, they effectively hired 3 ops managers for “free.”

That also means we helped them avoid $100k+ of monthly burn.

Imagine what you could do at your startup with an extra $230,000. 

That’s a pre-seed round for a lot of startups!

👉 If you're thinking about (or already started) working with a traditional firm, let's chat. DM me or check out 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥 in my bio to learn more.

“I haven’t talked to this many high-quality candidates before. It’s a little overwhelming!” - Ryan, Founder at Nurseio

I remember Ryan telling me that on one of our weekly calls.

He was now had the “good problem” of having too many high-fit candidates to choose from.

But that wasn’t the case when he initially reached out to me...

Ryan needed help finding his startup's next sale leader.

They didn't have a recruiter on their team and couldn't justify bringing someone on full time.

So the heavy lift of sourcing and interviewing landed on Ryan and his team.

And that's where Venture Scaler came in...

We built a pipeline of sales executive talent and closed a key sales hire in 6 weeks.

___

👉 Need help with hiring? Let's chat! DM me or check out 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥 in my bio to learn more.

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Your network is great. It’s just not built to hire niche roles.

Founders tell me this all the time:

“We posted the role.”

“We asked for referrals.”

“We’re getting people.”

But the shortlist is... weird.

Lots of smart resumes.

Lots of “maybe.”

Very few “hell yeahs.”

That’s the niche role trap.

Specialized roles don’t get filled by hoping the right person wanders into your inbound.

They get filled by proactively hunting a specific profile, then running a tight calibration loop so you stop wasting time on almost right candidates.

Here’s the playbook I use for roles like first AE, product leader, platform engineer, data, security, growth, you name it:

1. Write a role scorecard, not a job description: The scorecard is outcomes. The JD is chores.

2. Build a target list of 30 to 50 companies where your ideal hire is already doing the job: Competitors. Adjacent industries. Same stage companies.

3. Calibrate with 5 to 10 real profiles before you run full outbound: This is the move most teams skip.

Pro Tip: If you can’t look at 10 real people and agree on what “great” is, you’re not ready to interview.

You’re ready to waste 3 weeks.

Only then: Scale sourcing, tighten screens, and run the pipeline with weekly cadence.

Fast follow ups. Clear feedback. No ghosting.

This is where a fractional recruiter from Venture Scaler pays for themselves.

We come in, run the hunt, and keep the process tight so you’re not stuck in endless “interesting” conversations.

What’s the hardest role to hire at your company right now?

If you want help calibrating and building a real target list, DM me.

Recruiting commission fees are a stealth tax on your runway.

Most founders don’t feel it until it’s too late.

You finally find the right candidate.

You’re celebrating.

Then you do the math and realize you just paid the equivalent of a senior engineer’s monthly burn for one hire.

And if you need 3 hires this quarter?

Congrats, you just funded someone else’s growth.

Traditional recruiting is built for big companies.

Big budgets.
Big margins.
Big hiring volume.

Early stage startups are the opposite.

Every dollar has a job.

So here’s the question founders should be asking:

"Do I want to pay for outcomes theater?"

"Or pay for execution?"

Because most of what gets a role filled is boring, repeatable work:

Sourcing
Outbound messaging
Screening
Scheduling
Follow ups
Pipeline triage
Weekly reporting
Offer coordination

That’s why I’m bullish on fractional recruiting.

You rent an experienced recruiter who runs the engine without the long term commitment, the giant contingency fee, or the “we’ll get back to you” agency black box.

Pro Tip: The cheapest hire is not the lowest salary.

It’s the hire you make fast, with a tight process, before the role creates more drag across your team.

At Venture Scaler, founders use us to keep recruiting costs predictable and their momentum high while they stay focused on product, revenue, and fundraising.

What’s your take: would you rather pay a huge fee per hire with a "guarantee", or pay for a recruiting engine you can scale up and down?

DM me if you want a simple breakdown of the fractional model.

You don’t need a full time recruiter. You need a recruiting burst that matches your hiring wave.

Most Seed and Series A teams hire like this:

- 2 to 4 roles hit at once.
- Everything becomes “urgent.”
- Then two months later... you’re back to zero hiring.

So founders do one of two things:

Option A: DIY recruiting and slowly bleed calendar time.

Option B: panic hire a full-time recruiter too early, then scramble to keep them busy later (or worse, lay them off).

There’s a third option that fits how startups actually operate.

A fractional recruiter.

Think: recruiting capacity you can turn up during a sprint, and turn down (or pause) when the sprint is over.

Here’s the playbook I use with founders:

Week 1 alignment sprint: role scorecard, must haves, target list, outreach angles

Week 2 pipeline build: outbound sourcing, screens, scheduling, funnel tracking

Weeks 3 to 6 close mode: weekly shortlist, tight feedback loops, offer plan, reference checks

Pro Tip: The fastest way to speed up hiring is not more interviews.

It’s fewer steps, clearer “yes/no” criteria, and one person owning the entire process end to end.

That’s what a fractional recruiter does at Venture Scaler.

We plug in, run the machine, and keep momentum while you stay focused on product, revenue, and fundraising.

If you could snap your fingers and get 10 hours back each week, where would you put it?

DM me if you want to discuss a “burst recruiting” plan.

If your hiring “takes forever,” it’s probably because nobody owns the calendar.

Here’s what I see at Seed and Series A companies:

- You finally get a few great candidates into process.
- Then the interview loop becomes a group project.
- One person is traveling.
- Another person is “swamped this week.”
- Debriefs happen... eventually.
- And scheduling turns into 37 Slack messages and a prayer.

Meanwhile the candidate is watching the clock.

Because they have other processes moving.

And they assume your slowness means one of two things:

1. You’re not that excited about them.
2. Your company is chaotic.

Both are deal killers.

The fix is not “everyone try harder.”

The fix is one clear owner driving cadence.

Here’s the simple operating system:

1. Every candidate gets a close plan with dates before the first interview.

2. Every interviewer has a 24 hour feedback deadline.

3. Debriefs get scheduled at the same time as the interviews.

4. One person chases calendars, follows up, and removes blockers daily.

Pro Tip: Cycle time is a recruiting superpower.

A fast, decisive process will beat a better brand with a slower process more often than founders want to admit.

This is one of the highest leverage uses of a fractional recruiter.

At Venture Scaler, we plug in and run the interview machine end to end so founders stop playing scheduler and start building the business.

Where does your process break most often: scheduling, feedback, or decision making?

DM me if you want to develop your own “tight loop” interview cadence.

8 new hires in 6 months! I love getting these reactions from our clients.

Maybe you're in a similar situation as Geoff?

Geoff was launching his first markets and needed to build out his team, and fast.

He needed help hiring his sales and operations team from the ground up.

They didn't have a recruiter on their team and couldn't justify bringing someone on full time.

So the heavy lift of sourcing and interviewing landed on Geoff, but he had a business to run.

And that's where Venture Scaler came in...

We built their sales and operations teams from scratch and added 8 new hires in 6 months.

___

👉 Need help with hiring? Let's chat! DM me or check out 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥 in my bio to learn more.

If you have to “figure out comp later,” you’re not ready to hire.

Here’s the pattern I see at Seed and Series A:

You run a solid process.

You find a finalist you love.

Then the offer turns into a late night group chat with your cofounder and an open tab of random salary sites.

You guess.
You send something.
The candidate asks for more.

Now you’re negotiating with zero confidence and no clear boundaries.

Worst case: you lose them.

Second worst: you overpay, create internal comp chaos, and lock in a precedent you hate.

This is what the comp problem really is:

Uncertainty.

And candidates can smell it.

Here’s a simple fix founders can implement fast:

1. Pick a level and define the scope: What job are they actually doing in the first 6 months?

2. Set a range with a walk away number: Write it down before you meet the finalist.

3. Build a close plan: What do they care about: cash, equity, title, team, flexibility, mission?

4. Run the offer like a process, not a moment: Timeline, touchpoints, decision deadline, reference checks, signing plan.

This is where a fractional recruiter is clutch.

At Venture Scaler, we plug in, help you set ranges, coach the close plan, and run the offer process so you stop winging it and start closing.

What’s harder for you right now: setting the range, negotiating, or defending comp internally?

DM me if you're hiring and want to talk through your negotiation/closing plan.

If a role has been open for 90+ days, you’re not “still searching.” You're stuck.

You’re stuck in a broken hiring loop.

Here’s what usually happens at Seed and Series A:

- You post the job.
- You wait for inbound.
- You ask your network.
- You run a few interviews.
- You get busy.
- The candidates wait.
- The momentum dies.

Then you tell yourself: “The market is tough right now.”

Maybe.

But most “stalled searches” stall because nobody owns the engine.

So the process runs... whenever the founder has oxygen.

A quick reset that works shockingly well:

1. Recut the profile

Stop debating hypotheticals. Define the must haves, the dealbreakers, and what success in 90 days looks like.

2. Rebuild the target list

List 25 companies and 50 titles you actually want. Stop hoping the right person randomly applies.

3. Relaunch outbound

Send tight, specific outreach. Not “excited to connect,” but “here’s the problem you’d own.”

4. Tighten the cycle time

Screen to first interview in 72 hours.

No exceptions.

Run weekly pipeline reviews

15 minutes. Same day. Same time. Decisions get made or the search dies.

Pro Tip: If you can’t produce 10 qualified conversations in 10 business days, the problem isn’t volume. It’s targeting, messaging, or speed.

This is exactly where a fractional recruiter from Venture Scaler is a cheat code.

We step in, rebuild the machine, and run cadence so founders can get back to product, sales, and fundraising.

Be honest: what’s causing your longest open role right now: weak pipeline, slow response time, or unclear profile?

DM me and I’ll send a simple “stalled search reset” checklist we use with founders.

Your best candidates keep disappearing after round one. Why?

One pattern I've seen: Your hiring manager is bad at "selling."

Early stage hiring has a weird rule:

Every interviewer is a closer.

Most founders miss this, then blame the market when candidates go cold.

Here’s what candidates are actually hearing on your first call:

A vague role.
A list of tasks.
A meandering company story.
No clear reason this job is career defining.

So the candidate thinks: “Cool people. Unclear opportunity.”

And they move on.

Fix it with a simple pitch system:

1. Start with the mission in one sentence: Not the product, the problem you exist to solve.

2. Paint the 6 month win: What does “crushing it” look like, with specifics?

3. Define what you are not: Who will hate this job, and why?

4. Connect the dots to their story: Why them, why now, why this role is a step up.

Pro Tip: Flip the script: Spend the first 5 minutes selling the opportunity with confidence, get them excited, then run your interview.

This is one of the sneakiest places a fractional recruiter helps.

At Venture Scaler, we help build the pitch, coach hiring managers, and keep the process tight so every interviewer tells the same compelling story.

Be honest: do your interviewers sound like recruiters, or like they’re reading a job description out loud?

DM me if you want my hiring manager playbook.

Juicer Energy, Inc.

Heading up operations at the most innovative EV charging infrastructure company out there.

Don't blink.

Head of Operations

Wolfe-Jones, Co.

I coach and advise a select few founders, COOs, and Ops leaders.

Ops Coach & Consultant

Climate Mayhem

We got to talk to and learn from some of the most innovative founders and operators in the climate tech space! Check it out as we dove into the passion and challenges involved in building things to save the world. While also talking about then intersection of climate conscious and capitalism.

Co-Founder, Co-Host

ASSURANCE IQ

Built our first org wide development programs that included manager development, executive development, and internal coaching program.

I lead the teams and programs that ensured our people systems and data supported all our amazing talent.

I implemented our first People Analytics discipline.

Director, People Systems & Analytics

First cross-business unit operations lead. 

Scaled the company from 120 employees to over 2,000

I built and ran the teams that onboarded, trained, supported, and engaged all agents across all 4 of the business lines. 

In 2020 alone, we onboarded approximately 4X more agents than ever before. My L&D team built our first fully online e-learning program that included a unique micro-learning platform. We built out the first full lifecycle engagement team for our newest busines (all during the pandemic). As well as launched several new and updated products. 

In 2022 I built out our first workforce management product and team. Worforce managment managed all schedules for over 4,000 W2 and 1099 agents annually.

Director of Agent Operations

Wrench, Inc.

I set up and ran all operations for the premier platform to take the hassle out of car ownership. From the mechanics to operations to support to business analytics my teams were the backbone of the service you get when you trust Wrench.

I started when there were 9 people including our first mechanic. Myself and eventually my team, hired all of the mechanics, launched over 20 markets across the US, built out a revolutionary service management and RevOps team, and grew this company from those first 9 to over 140 people and went nationwide.

Helped facilitate the acquisition of 3 regional mobile mechanic companies. I managed the full integrations of those jobs, mechanics, and systems into the core Wrench business while maintaining month over month growth.

DoorDash

I was the GM of the 16th region for Doordash and launched Doordash in the Pacific Northwest.

Saw the growth of the company from ~110 people to well over 300 in just 2 years.

Hired the local team and led the launch of both the Eastside (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Bothell, and Woodinville) as well as the foray into Seattle, including Shoreline to Burien.

While we weren't close to being the first 3rd-party delivery company in Seattle, we were the first to launch in the greater area. Myself and our small team of 4 onboarded every driver, restaurant, and system in the region. We had more selection than the other delivery systems and quickly became the preferred partner for most of the local and regional restaurants. We pioneered relationships with many regional and national chains as well as experiemented with delivery of more than food for some partners.

General Manager - Greater Seattle Area

Uber

I was on the 4-person expansion team that launched Uber into the broader Northwest states #uberfrontier

As part of the "UberEverywhere" initiative, we launched three cities in Idaho, 4 cities in Montana, and worked on legislation and grass roots work in Alaska and Wyoming. 

I was responsible for creating the systems to launch and run multiple cities remotely. I also developed the Northwest employee training program, was the first West Coast regional lead for employee training and on-boarding. I initiated several regional and city-wide experiments for on-boarding drivers more efficiently, increase driver happiness, and increase customer satisfaction. I created the first on-demand inspections service at Uber, creating efficiency and reducing cost and constraints onboarding drivers at scale.

Operations Manager - Uber Everywhere

Tango Card, Inc.

I was the first ops hire and part of the company’s original four-person startup team. 

I built out the support teams, inventory managment, finance, customer success, and insided sales.

Helping the company grow the company from 4 people to ~90 in just over 4 years.

I directly managed support staff, systems, and inventory control during this period of staggering growth while maintaing a 92% customer satisfaction score in both our B2B and B2C channels. 

I also helped design and refine our the products that eventually became Tango's SaaS platform but at that time created the partnerships with Bing, Twitter, Extole, and others.

Operations Director

KingofCaffeine.com

Founded and launched a niche ecommerce site that sourced and sold the coolest and craziest caffeinated products on the planet! Carried the largest selection of unique energy products in the world. Provided a platform for many food startups to build revenue. Pioneered a distribution channel into lifestyle retailers including game shops, cafes, skate & surf shops, and other alternative retail.

Founder and CEO

Conceptuers, LLC

Provided expert operational consulting to a dozen startups and early-stage companies.  Designed, implemented, and managed customer experience, hiring, training, and business development strategies.

Some of the projects were:
- Design and implement a warehouse pick and pack system and evaluate ERP systems for a online healthcare ecommerce site
- Go to market strategies for a card game including building relationships with new distributors, trade shows, and events for an import and retro game retailer
- Go to market strategies for a new product line including finding packaging and co-packing facilities for a 25 year old nutraceutical company
- Business development to introduce distribution in a new region for an established food company
- Evaluate and set up a back end 3PL solution for a set of media products for a celebrity media company
- Worked with the manufacturing houses to redesign the taste, formulation, packaging, and distribution for a food product based multi-level marketing company

Others listed individually below.

Operations Consultant

Startup Ops & Strategy Coach | scaled 3 Unicorns 🦄 | 5x Founding Ops 💪 | built 15 more companies worth <$500M 🚀 | Helping ops leaders outmaneuver the chaos of scale 💫

I'm a long-time startup ops exec with experience building businesses, systems, teams, and people. Today I'm enabling startup leaders to gain the growth needed to navigate scale and ambiguity. I focus on helping leaders to be more effective, scale themselves, and grow with the business while dealing with the uncertainty, insecurity, and challenges this brings.

I've been in the 0 to 1 stages and the hyper-growth stages of startup growth - and everything in between - therefore, I can help leaders build from scratch, see around corners, but also push through the failures and challenges we know happen.

As an operator, I have significant expertise in driving and managing growth. I have built new departments and developed massive process improvements. I've worn most of the hats and lived as a cross-functional team leader. In all of this I had to learn - often by trial and error - how to help myself, my teams, and even other executive leaders survive and thrive in these fast-paced, high-stress environments.

Coming from a 50+ year-old, family-owned business, I have always been extremely passionate about entrepreneurship. From that family business to multi-billion dollar tech startups that one thing has held true - I love helping entrepreneurs succeed! 

Check out more at wolfejones.co

And sign up for my newsletter to get interesting views on how to make these shifts in life.

My Enneagram type: Social 5

My top 10 strengths:
Ideation | Strategic | Input | Futuristic | Connectedness | Intellection | Adaptability | Maximizer | Individualization | Learner

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Jake Huber

Ty Wolfe-Jones

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