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Contrario

AI recruiting platform powered by expert recruiters

Contrario is on a mission to help companies build generational teams. In the age of AI, the best teams are still built by the best people. Recruiting has become a zero-sum game where speed and quality decide who wins. Contrario is a network of expert recruiters supercharged by vertical AI agents purpose-built for hiring. Teams at Wispr Flow, Listen Labs, Slash, and 200+ of the fastest-growing companies use Contrario to power their hiring. In under six months, Contrario has crossed $6M in annualized revenue, paid out $1M+ to recruiters, and placed 150+ candidates — making it one of the fastest-growing AI recruiting platforms on the market. Backed by Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, and Inventum Ventures, alongside angels including David Chen (ex-HRT), Abhijeet Dwivedi (OpenAI), Hank Couture (DoorDash), and Jerry Cain (Stanford CS). Built by Stanford dropouts. Headquartered in San Francisco.
Active Founders
Arya Marwaha
Arya Marwaha
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO at Contrario. Stanford BS (left MS early). Previously built an edtech startup to six-figure ARR, worked in product dev at BCG, and conducted research at Stanford HCI.
Aditya Sood
Aditya Sood
Founder
Founder & CTO at Contrario. Stanford AI student turned dropout. Led NLP at NASA, published AI research in defense tech, researcher at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) x Anthropic lab.
Company Launches
Contrario: The 1st AI-powered Recruiting Network
See original launch post

Hey everyone 👋

We’re Arya and Aditya – co-founders of Contrario.

TL;DR: Contrario is the AI-powered recruiter network trusted by startups for hiring. Over 2,500+ engineers and 15+ companies are using Contrario to get jobs and fill roles.

Ask: Can you refer talented startup recruiters in your network to join Contrario’s platform? Also, if you’re looking for exceptional talent to hire across GTM or engineering, you can reach out to me at arya@contrario.ai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGu7fBLud48

❌ The Problem

Recruiting is one of the largest and most influential industries in the world, worth over $2T and employing 60M+ workers per year.

Yet, today’s recruiting market still follows outdated, manual processes from 20+ years ago – leaving candidates stuck with a poor job search experience. There are three major pain points:

  1. Endless job applications with zero transparency
  2. Low recruiter response rates leaving applicants in the dark
  3. Failing behavioral screens with recruiters

These challenges compound over time, widening a critical gap in the recruiting market.

Until now, people relied on referrals and network connections to have a better chance at getting more interviews. But with advancements in AI, this is finally changing …

✅ Our Solution

At Contrario, we’re a team of former candidates, recruiters, and AI experts using the latest technology to build the best candidate experience possible.

Companies can import their job from an ATS or upload their info, and our system immediately:

  • Defines top recruiters to work on your role based on past expertise and placement history
  • Uses proprietary AI models to dynamically generate talent scorecards that capture their top skills.
  • Leverages inbuilt integrations with ATS systems like Ashby/Lever and Slack/Calendly for seamless management.

With Contrario, companies conduct an intake call + upload their most important info for a job, and we handle the rest.

🙏 Our Ask

If you answer “yes” to any of these, we’d love your help:

✅ Hiring GTM talent or engineering talent for your startup?

✅ Know top startup recruiters or agencies looking for additional revenue extension opportunities?

👉 Contact us at arya@contrario.ai

👬 The Team

Contrario was founded by Stanford dropouts Arya Marwaha (CEO, ex-BCG, led product at 5+ startups) and Aditya Sood (CTO, ex-NASA NLP, published at Stanford AI Lab x Anthropic).


They met in their first-year dorm at Stanford and have been building together ever since. Their firsthand experience on both sides of the hiring industry—Aditya as a candidate, and Arya as a recruiter—drove them to build an automated solution that bridges the gap.

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Jobs at Contrario
San Francisco, CA, US
$140K - $220K
0.30% - 0.75%
Any (new grads ok)
San Francisco, CA, US
$80K - $110K
0.05% - 0.15%
Any (new grads ok)
Contrario
Founded:2025
Batch:Winter 2025
Team Size:15
Status:
Active
Location:San Francisco
Primary Partner:Harj Taggar