About TryMe

The backstory

We've all been there. You spend weeks interviewing a candidate. They nail the whiteboard problems, their references check out, and they seem like a culture fit. Three months later, they can't ship a feature without hand-holding.

Or the opposite: you pass on someone because they froze during a system design interview, even though they've been building production systems for years.

Traditional hiring is fundamentally broken. It optimizes for interview performance, not job performance.

The idea

Instead of interviews, companies post paid trial engagements—real work for 2-4 weeks. Candidates apply, work on actual projects, and get paid for their time.

Both sides get to evaluate the fit. Companies see real code, real communication, real collaboration. Candidates see the actual work, the team dynamics, and the company culture.

When it works out—and it does 85% of the time—the candidate converts to a full-time role. When it doesn't, both sides learned something valuable without the pain of a bad hire.

Who TryMe is for

We're built for growing companies (Seed to Series B) hiring across engineering, marketing, design, and product. Companies that move fast, ship often, and can't afford bad hires.

And for pros who are tired of the interview grind. People who know they do their best work when they're actually working, not when they're answering trivia questions.