Fall 2026
Founder Associate Intern
Posted on 8/16/2026
Clera
11-50 employees
AI-powered candidate matching for startup roles
No salary listed
H1B Sponsorship Available
San Francisco, CA, USA
In Person
Relocation to San Francisco is required. The team lives and works together in a shared hacker-house.
 People & HR (1) |
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- At least 3 months of prior internship experience in a fast-paced environment such as consulting, sales, startups, or venture capital.
- Demonstrated ability to deliver results with end-to-end ownership in startup or consulting settings.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for cross-functional collaboration.
- Experience working in entrepreneurial, fast-moving, informal team environments.
- Evidence of exceptional academic performance through a top GPA, attendance at a selective university, substantial projects, or active GitHub contributions.
- Willingness to relocate to San Francisco and live and work in a shared hacker-house environment.
- Willingness to commit to six-day work weeks for the duration of the internship.
- Work directly with founders on day-to-day operations across talent sourcing, candidate experience, and client relationships.
- Own end-to-end workflows connecting candidates with startups, from initial outreach to successful placement.
- Ensure hundreds of inbound candidates receive an outstanding, high-touch experience.
- Identify and drive process improvements and workflow optimizations across recruiting pipelines.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with founders, candidates, and startup clients.
- Take on high-ownership initiatives with real, measurable outcomes.
- Prior experience in recruiting, talent acquisition, or candidate relationship management.
- Familiarity with the venture-capital-backed startup ecosystem and hiring practices.
- Experience with workflow automation or process optimization.
Clera is a candidate-first AI recruitment platform that helps professionals connect with roles at venture-backed startups. It analyzes a candidate’s CV or LinkedIn profile with AI to match skills, experience, and career goals, delivering curated job opportunities across engineering, product, design, operations, and sales, plus interview prep and application support. Employers receive pre-vetted candidates and a curated list within 24 hours of sharing a job description, using a flat-fee, no upfront cost model. The goal is to speed up hiring for startups by quickly pairing strong, culture-fit candidates with suitable roles while supporting candidates through a tailored job-search experience.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Seed
Total Funding
$3M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2025
Get referred to Clera
See people who can refer or advise you
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- May 2026 funding from 1984 Ventures and Deel Ventures validates the category early.
- Clera crossed $1 million annualized revenue within months, signaling real transaction volume.
- Founder-led momentum and 85,000 candidates create referral loops that lower acquisition costs quickly.
What critics are saying
- LinkedIn and AI recruiting startups can copy candidate matching, crushing Clera's distribution moat by 2027.
- Placement-fee recruiting faces commodity pricing pressure; Clera's 15% fee invites employer switching.
- If candidate engagement drops, Clera becomes a thin brokerage layer with no defensible employer lock-in.
What makes Clera unique
- Clera launched in April 2026 as a candidate-first AI talent agent, not employer software.
- It routes introductions through email, iMessage, and WhatsApp, bypassing application queues.
- Clera targets venture-backed startups and claims access to 600-plus startups and 80,000 professionals.
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Benefits
Company Equity
Flexible Work Hours
Hybrid Work Options
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 20%1 year growth
↑ 28%2 year growth
↑ 28%Clera, a San Francisco-based startup, has launched an AI talent agent that represents job candidates and has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding led by 1984 Ventures. The platform introduces professionals directly to hiring managers at venture-backed startups via email, iMessage and WhatsApp, bypassing traditional application processes. Within months of launching, Clera has surpassed $1 million in annualised revenue and represents over 80,000 professionals across the US and Europe. The AI agent scouts opportunities across more than 600 venture-backed startups, matching candidates with roles based on their career goals and preferences. Unlike most recruitment AI tools that serve employers, Clera focuses on candidate representation, targeting the 70% of professionals who are passively open to opportunities but unwilling to enter conventional application funnels.