How to apply to startups

Where startups post jobs

Most startups do not pay for premium job board placements. They post where it is cheap or free, which means you need to look in different places than you would for a corporate role.

The boards below cover the majority of active startup postings in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Check them at least three times a week because early-stage roles fill quickly and are sometimes taken down without notice.

• Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent): the largest dedicated startup job board globally, free to use, filterable by stage, equity and remote policy
• Y Combinator Work at a Startup: lists roles at YC-backed companies, updated weekly, strong for US and remote roles
• LinkedIn: smaller startups post here because candidates come to them; filter by company size of 1-10 or 11-50
• Greenhouse and Lever job boards: many startups link directly from their site to a Greenhouse or Lever listing rather than posting on a board
• The company's own careers page: seed and Series A companies often post there first and forget to cross-post
• Slack communities and Discord servers: communities like Elpha, Out in Tech and local city tech groups surface roles before they go public
• Twitter/X and LinkedIn posts from founders: a founder posting 'we're hiring' is often the first public signal of a new role

What startups look for in candidates

Startups, especially those with fewer than 50 people, are not looking for someone who fits a rigid job description. They are looking for someone who can do the job with limited support, adapt when priorities shift, and care about the outcome rather than the process.

The traits that come up most often when founders describe a good hire are ownership, speed and specificity. Ownership means you take a problem to completion without being chased. Speed means you move without waiting for perfect information. Specificity means you can point to exactly what you did and what happened as a result.

Visa sponsorship and time zone fit matter more at startups than at large companies because there is no HR team to manage the paperwork and no tolerance for a four-hour overlap window on a five-person team. Read the posting carefully before applying.

• Demonstrated ability to work independently with little process or tooling in place
• Evidence of shipping something: a product, a campaign, a system, a client result
• Comfort with ambiguity and changing priorities
• Relevant domain knowledge, especially if the startup is in a technical or regulated space
• Culture fit with a small team, which founders often assess from tone and communication style in your application

How to write a resume for a startup

Keep the resume to one page if you have fewer than ten years of experience. Founders read fast and often on a phone. A dense two-page resume signals that you have not edited your thinking.

Lead every bullet point with a result, not a responsibility. The difference matters. 'Managed social media accounts' tells a founder nothing. 'Grew Instagram from 2,000 to 18,000 followers in six months by posting daily video content' tells them you can do the job.

Remove anything that signals you are used to large-company bureaucracy: references to 'cross-functional alignment', 'stakeholder management frameworks' or 'enterprise rollout processes' will make a founder assume you will be slow. Replace those phrases with plain descriptions of what you built or fixed.

1. Start each bullet with a past-tense action verb: built, launched, reduced, closed, wrote, designed
2. Add a number wherever you can: revenue, users, time saved, percentage change, team size
3. Name the tools you used if they are relevant: Stripe, Notion, dbt, Figma, HubSpot
4. Cut any bullet that does not show impact or skill; a shorter resume with strong bullets beats a long one with filler
5. Tailor the top third of the resume to the specific company: swap in their product name or industry where it fits naturally

How to write a cover letter founders will read

Many startup founders skip cover letters entirely. The ones who read them are looking for two things: that you understand what the company is actually trying to do, and that you have done something relevant.

Keep the cover letter to three short paragraphs. The first paragraph names the role and says one specific thing about the company that shows you have done more than read the homepage. The second paragraph connects one or two of your past results directly to a problem the company is facing. The third paragraph is a single sentence asking for a conversation.

Avoid the phrase 'I am passionate about'. Every applicant writes it. Instead, describe a concrete thing you did that shows the interest is real.

How to research a startup before applying

Applying without research is the most common mistake. A founder can tell in the first sentence whether you read the job posting or just sent a template.

Spend fifteen minutes before you apply. Look at the company's LinkedIn page for headcount growth over the past year. Read the founder's recent posts on LinkedIn or Twitter to understand what problems they are focused on. Check Crunchbase or Dealroom for funding stage and investors. If the company has a blog or podcast, read or listen to one recent piece.

Use what you find. If the founder posted last week about struggling to hire salespeople in a new market, and you have done exactly that, say so in the first paragraph of your cover letter.

• Crunchbase and Dealroom: funding history, investors, headcount estimates
• LinkedIn company page: team size, recent hires, employee tenure
• Founder's LinkedIn and Twitter/X: current priorities, recent announcements
• Product Hunt and App Store reviews: what users say about the product
• The company blog or newsletter: tone, values, what they are building toward

How Break-In Bad helps with startup applications

Startup job postings vary widely in how much detail they include. Some list a salary range, visa policy and time zone requirement. Others say almost nothing. Break-In Bad's assistant Omar reads the full posting and checks location, visa, time zone and level before scoring it, so you do not waste time applying to roles you are not eligible for.

When you are ready to apply, Omar writes a tailored resume and cover letter for each role using facts you have confirmed, not invented details. She applies directly on Greenhouse, Lever, Workday and other employer sites and sends you a screenshot as proof. Replies from employers come into one inbox with interview alerts and day-before reminders, which matters when a startup founder sends a message at 9 pm expecting a reply by morning.

You get 50 free credits when you sign up. Applications cost 1 credit each and are refunded if the submission fails on our side. Credits do not expire.