Saurabh Kumar Sinha
Co-Founder at Employ Labs
Leading an AI-native hiring system at Employ Labs focused on capability mapping and competency assessment.
Intro
I'm Saurabh Kumar Sinha, Co-Founder at Employ Labs. My career has been a journey of solving complex problems—from engineering and investment banking to scaling a YC-backed startup and now building AI-native hiring systems. I’m deeply passionate about fixing the broken recruitment landscape by moving away from resumes and pedigree toward true capability mapping and trial-based evaluations. At Employ, we’re using AI to achieve significantly higher profiling accuracy to help companies find the right talent faster. I’m here to connect with fellow founders, GCC leaders, and senior professionals who are interested in talent strategy, AI evaluation, or scaling high-growth teams. I’m always happy to offer decision support for critical leadership roles or discuss how we can make hiring a more scientific, merit-based process.
Networking
What I can offer
- ›Decision support for high-risk leadership and engineering roles
- ›Expertise in AI-driven talent evaluation
- ›Insights into scaling startups and fundraising
What I'm looking for
- ›Founders of AI-first startups
- ›Leaders of Global Capability Centers (GCCs)
- ›DataOps and ML professionals for specific mandates
Best fit for
Focus
Current interests
Core competencies
Background
Career
Began as an Assistant Engineer, transitioned into Investment Banking at SBI Capital Markets, then pivoted to entrepreneurship as a YC-backed founder of ZiffyHomes. Served as Chief of Staff at Blue Tokai before co-founding Sparklehood and currently Employ Labs.
Education
Y Combinator (S18 Cohort); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
Achievements
- ›Y Combinator Alum (S18)
- ›Co-founded and scaled ZiffyHomes over 5 years
- ›Built a talent pool of 5,000+ community members
- ›Developed an AI system achieving ~70% higher profiling accuracy than human recruiters
Opinions
- Hiring is a capability mapping problem, not a talent availability problem.
- Resumes, pedigree, and shallow interviews are the primary causes of hiring failures.
- Working trials (1–7 days) are superior to traditional interviews.
- People leave companies primarily due to lack of career progression roadmaps, not just money.
Personality
Communication style
Professional, authoritative, and instructional; uses structured frameworks and hook-driven writing.
Formality — 7/10
Vocabulary