Synergy: We Run and Record Your First-Stage Interviews
Digitalent, the AI/ML executive search firm, runs Synergy for hiring teams at VC-backed startups who cannot spend days in first-stage interviews. We agree the questions with you, interview every candidate against them, record the full session, and hand you the recordings so you shortlist on your own schedule.
Synergy at a glance
Synergy at a glance
3,000+
Synergy interviews completed
500+
AI/ML placements since January 2021
90%+
still in post after 12 months
- By market
- 300+ US, 100+ UK, 100+ Australia
- By seniority
- 200+ executive and leadership hires, 300+ senior individual contributors
- Brief to shortlist
- approx. one week
- Brief to offer
- approx. three weeks for a permanent (full-time) hire, approx. one week for a contract hire
- Time saved
- Typically 20+ hours per hire
- You attend
- Second-stage interviews onwards
- Commercials
- A small non-refundable deposit, offset against the final fee.
- Role types
- permanent (full-time) roles, retained or contingent
Figures updated August 2026.
What you get
A recorded first-stage interview with every candidate, run against questions you signed off, that you can watch whenever suits you.
The problem Synergy solves is not finding candidates. It is that the people best placed to judge a shortlist are usually the people with the least room in their calendar to sit in early interviews.
- Full first-stage interviews, recorded and unedited
- Password protected, and shareable with anyone internally who needs a view
- Timestamped, so you can jump to the answers that matter to you
- The CV alongside the recording, plus a technical assessment where the role needs one
- Technical or non-technical, or both, depending on what the role turns on
Some roles are decided on technical depth and some are decided on character, and most senior hires are decided on both. We run either. On the technical side that means going past whether somebody has used a tool and into how they work: how they evaluate what they have built, where they stopped trusting the output, what they would do differently. On the character side it means listening for substance rather than presentation, which matters because the quiet, thoughtful candidate and the polished one are very easy to rank the wrong way round in a thirty-minute call.
Because every candidate answers the same signed-off questions, you are comparing like with like rather than reading six differently-written summaries of six different conversations.
We were hiring our first AI team, but didn't have the bandwidth to commit to dozens of first stage interviews across 5 roles. Digitalent ran those interviews for us against questions we'd agreed and recorded them, which meant we could watch the ones worth watching and form our own view. For a first hire in a field you don't yet have expertise in, that made a real difference.
How Synergy works
Six steps, of which you are only actively involved in three.
- Discovery. We learn the business, the role and the skills it actually needs, and we agree with you the questions we will put to every candidate.
- Sourcing. We map the market and approach relevant people, including passive candidates who are not looking.
- Recorded first-stage interview. We run the first-stage interview using the questions you signed off, and record the full session.
- Talent showcase. You get the recordings to watch, rewatch and share internally. They are password protected, timestamped so you can jump to what matters, and never edited or cut.
- Your interview. When someone stands out, we pass on your feedback and set up the next stage with you directly.
- Offer. We handle salary negotiation, offer management and references.
Fit
Who Synergy suits
Hiring teams who trust their own judgement on people but cannot clear the diary to do the early rounds themselves.
It works best where the role is well defined enough to agree a question set up front, and where more than one person internally wants a say in the shortlist. The recordings mean a founder, an engineering lead and a talent partner can all form a view without three separate calls.
Synergy is for permanent (full-time) roles, retained or contingent. We do not normally run it for contract hires, where the timeline is short enough that the recorded stage does not earn its place.
If you would rather run first-stage interviews yourself, a retained or contingent search is the better fit, and timings are the same: brief to shortlist in approx. one week.
Commercials
Synergy sits between retained and contingent.
A small non-refundable deposit, offset against the final fee.
That means more commitment on both sides than a contingent search, without asking you for a full retainer before you have seen anybody. The balance of the fee works the same way as any other permanent search, and is agreed with you before we start.
FAQ
Synergy: frequently asked questions
- What is Synergy?
- Synergy is how we run a search when you do not have time to sit in first-stage interviews. We run and record the first-stage interviews, so you shortlist on your own schedule instead of sitting in calls. We agree the questions with you up front, interview every candidate against them, and send you the recordings alongside the CV and, where the role needs one, a technical assessment.
- What do the interview recordings actually give me?
- Full first-stage interviews, unedited, that you can watch and rewatch whenever suits you and share with anyone internally who needs a view. They are password protected and timestamped, so you can jump straight to the answer you care about rather than sitting through the whole session.
- How much time does Synergy save?
- Clients typically save 20+ hours per hire, because the first-stage interviews happen without you in the room and the shortlist arrives as something you can review asynchronously.
- How does Synergy work commercially?
- A small non-refundable deposit, offset against the final fee. It sits between retained and contingent: more committed than a contingent search, without a full retainer.
- How quickly can you deliver a shortlist?
- Brief to shortlist is approx. one week. Brief to offer is approx. three weeks for a permanent (full-time) hire and approx. one week for a contract hire.
Want to see what a Synergy shortlist looks like?
A short call is enough to work out whether the role suits it, and to agree the questions we would put to candidates.
Hiring in the US, the UK or Australia? You will reach the person who runs searches in that market.