How Vellum hires diverse engineering talent to support their growth: "We called Paraform and never looked back."
Vellum is on a simple yet hugely ambitious mission: to help anyone successfully apply AI in real-world settings. The team raised $9.5M in 2023 from investors including Y Combinator and Rebel Fund, and are scaling rapidly, with revenue increasing by 30% each month.
To continue supporting their growth and core product, Vellum wants to hire diverse, top-tier engineers and go-to-market talent. So they worked with us to fill urgent roles, hiring 33% of their current team on Paraform.
Akash and his co-founders Sidd and Noa previously worked at Dover, a recruiting company. So they’re extremely familiar with the industry — and its challenges.
“Hiring is expensive. Hiring is time consuming. Hiring is painful. But it’s one thing you must invest in if you’re looking for exceptional people with diverse perspectives to take your company from 10 to 100. Especially at the stage we’re at. Fortunately, Paraform solved this problem for us.”
Vellum: The new standard of AI production
The main challenge with AI, especially with large language models (LLMs), is that their outputs are unpredictable. You can't just input any prompt and expect great results — selecting the right model for each task requires rigorous testing, tweaking, and evaluating.
The real need isn’t just AI — it’s learning how to talk to AI to get high-quality outputs. Vellum helps businesses compare different AI models, optimize prompts, and integrate their own data, making AI deployment more seamless and effective.
Growing the team that scales the company
Just like you can’t spell Vellum without LLM, you can’t build a transformative product without top-tier talent.
So Vellum’s CEO and co-founder Akash turned to Paraform.
The team has filled 5 roles on Paraform so far. After hiring two senior engineers in around a month, Akash said:
“If you know your role isn’t going to be filled, you should probably call the Paraform people.”
Well, they’ve called us several times since; Vellum has now hired 33% of their current team with Paraform, filling highly specialized roles quickly.
“There’s zero downside to trying Paraform. Once you understand how it works, you can see the value in how it’s differentiated.”
After working with Paraform, Akash says he’ll never go back to the standard agency model again.
Though they’re an AI company, Vellum’s founders strongly value the human contribution to talent acquisition, versus working with a machine. They’ve found that recruiting on Paraform consistently provided a more diverse pool of candidates matching their criteria, with less friction.
“Paraform scales outbound hiring while keeping it personal. You can share your story at a larger scale, in a more human way. The network of startup recruiters we worked with through Paraform are way better at submitting talent with the traits we care about most: a deep curiosity, the ability to think from first principles, and specific experience aligned with our goals.”
Vellum’s founders believe that any time not spent on the core business is a major loss of momentum for a company. That’s why they’ve built their product—to help teams take their AI systems from concept to production faster. It’s also why they care so much about hiring.
Going months without filling key roles isn't just a setback for a startup. It’s dangerous, and can directly shorten the company's lifespan. By partnering with Paraform’s recruiter network, Vellum ensures they’re finding the right talent while keeping their focus on growth.
“We’d love to scale our team as quickly as we’re scaling our product,” Akash shares. “And Paraform is the only way we’ve been able to do this while meeting our high standards for diversity and excellence.”
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