Hire your next Founder's Associate within weeks

Pitch your role to 10-20 handpicked top talents. No upfront costs. Ready to start now.

How the Generalyst Program Works

We help startups find high potential candidates in just a few weeks.

1

Pitch your startup to candidates

Record a video or do a live call where you pitch your startup to candidates. You can sell the role much better than we can.

2

Interview candidates that you like

Applications are a two-way street: candidates can apply to you, and you can apply to candidates. Run your interview process as usual.

3

Hire within two weeks – with zero risk

Every candidate is ready to start now. Only pay if you make a hire. 90-day money back guarantee if they quit or you fire them.

Which profiles can you expect?

Our program is for early career generalists with 0-4 years of experience. Accelerate your growth with top talent ready to take on whatever challenge you give them.

Relevant backgrounds include:

High Potential Recent Graduates – They just finished university, already ran a side hustle during university, were president of a students’ organization, or did a bunch of cool internships.Corporate Experience – These already have some corporate experience, but are tired of working in a bureaucratic environment and want to see the other side.Start-/Scale-Up Experience – They’ve worked in a startup before and are looking for your next career step.

In Germany, we expect startups to pay average salaries of 40-55k € + potential equity.

Why hire with Generalyst?

Internally

  • Varies; depends on your network and hiring experience.

  • 6-8 weeks time-to-hire

  • Candidates may not match startup-specific needs or adapt well to fast-paced environments.

  • ~€200 for job ads, plus significant time investment.

  • Spend hours screening 100+ CVs, conducting 20 screening calls, and running multiple interview rounds.

  • If a candidate doesn’t accept your offer, you’re back to square one.

  • Any position you can fill with reasonable effort.

  • Slowly growing companies with an established HR department.

Generalyst

  • Pre-vetted, high-potential generalists ready to start within weeks.

  • ~2 weeks time-to-hire

  • High-caliber, adaptable candidates suited for startup challenges.

  • €6,000 per hire. Offers available at times.

  • Pitch your company for 15 minutes. Run your post-screening interview process as usual. Backups available if a candidate declines your offer.

  • Zero costs upfront—you only pay when you hire. Plus, a 90-day money-back guarantee ensures risk-free hiring.

  • Junior and mid-senior business positions ready to scale fast with startups.

  • High-growth, early-stage companies that need fast, efficient, and reliable hiring.

Recruiter

  • Good candidates, but often lack the startup mindset or cultural fit.

  • 4-12 weeks time-to-hire

  • Risk of misalignment with startup needs, as recruiters focus on roles over environments.

  • >€15,000 per hire, 1/3 of which is paid upfront.

  • Recruiters assemble candidates for you but may not capture the cultural fit you need, leaving gaps in alignment.

  • High financial risk: significant costs upfront with no guarantee of a hire or cultural alignment.

  • Specialist roles requiring niche expertise or C-suite executives.

  • Highly specialized companies looking for tailored executive roles.

Which roles can Generalyst help you hire for?

Founder's Associate

Founder’s Associates are generalists that work directly with a company’s founder (usually the CEO) on strategic initiatives, marketing, operations, sales, fundraising, and more.A Founder's Associate helps you handle all the things you don't get to do otherwise, and can develop into one of your most important assets.You might also promote them to Chief of Staff later, or hire them as Chief of Staff directly.

Growth Analyst

A Growth Analyst executes growth strategies to expand a company’s customer base. You can deploy them anywhere from optimizing marketing campaigns, working with the product team to increase growth, tinker with sales processes or even plan and execute your own growth initiatives.Perfect for startups struggling with growth because they don't have enough (wo-)manpower.

Business Developers

Business Developers ideate, test, and execute new strategic initiatives in a scale-up.This might be the perfect hire if you've established yourself in your initial market segment and now want to expand.NB: This isn't a "BDR" role that only does cold calling.

Something else?

Since we work with high-talent junior generalists, you can deploy them pretty much anywhere – as long as there is variety to the role.Simply reach out or book a call if you're not sure what you need. We've built and scaled startups ourselves and might be able to help you figure it out. :)

Not sure if Generalyst is right for you? Take our 60 sec employer quiz to see if we're a match!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I hire outside of Germany?

Yes. ~60% of applicants are geographically flexible, as long as (a) the role is based within the EU and (b) the work can be done in English.
Most of our business is in Germany, and 70% of candidates are native German speakers.

I received 1000+ applications for Founder’s Associates. Why should I work with you?

Because you want to focus on what makes your beer taste better. Screening 1000s of resumés likely isn't what makes your startup stronger.
When you work with Generalyst, we do the pre-selection for you. You just pick between 3-5 highly qualified candidates keen to work with you.

I’m looking for a highly specific profile for my Founder’s Associate. Can I work with you?

Hell yeah. In our experience, once startups get to see the quality of candidates, they will usually find a profile or two that fits their needs. If not - you have zero risk besides taking 10-15 minutes to pitch your business.

How much does recruiting with Generalyst cost?

We charge a one-time placement fee of 6.000 € excl. VAT. You only pay this fee if you hire someone via the Generalyst program. 90-day money back guarantee if they quit or you fire them. Zero risk for you.Discounts can be applicable for especially small companies and first-time clients. Price shouldn't be the issue.

About Generalyst Recruiting

Dominik Nitsch
Founder & CEO

After graduating from university, I had no idea what I wanted to do: all the jobs available were asking me to specialize, but I didn’t want to - I wanted to do a variety of things. Now, I’m building the program that I wish I would’ve had as a graduate.I believe that the future belongs to generalists. The world is changing at an ever faster pace, and specializations relevant today might not be relevant tomorrow. Generalist skills like problem solving, critical thinking, communications, and selling on the other hand, will become more relevant than ever.Hiring a generalist is one of the best ways to future-proof your company. The best asset to have are smart, interdisciplinary people.Besides building Generalyst Recruiting, I also write a newsletter about generalist careers, host an online course about productivity, play Lacrosse at an international level, and enjoy lifting weights and drinking beers.In the past, I’ve built a recruiting agency that brings medical professionals from Italy & Brazil to Germany (while teaching them German at lightspeed), participated in the Entrepreneur First program, and most recently built up the international business from the ground up for a German EdTech scale-up.

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