Where to find startup jobs in San Francisco: 7 boards and platforms checked Nov 6, 2026, with real counts, pay rules and one honest downside each.
Three good sources cover most startup jobs in San Francisco. Best overall: Wellfound, with 2,907 San Francisco results and pay on most cards. Best single application: Y Combinator's Work at a Startup. Best for seeing every Bay Area tech employer: Built In SF. Best if you'd rather startups come to you: Clera (we built it, more below). Best for engineers who want founders, not recruiters: the Hacker News hiring thread. Every count in this post was checked on the site itself on November 6, 2026.
Summary table
| Source | Best for | Key stat (Nov 6, 2026) | One limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wellfound | Browsing the most SF startup roles | 2,907 San Francisco results | Public companies and other cities mixed in |
| Work at a Startup | One profile, many YC companies | 50 recently added roles on the SF page | Under half of them list SF |
| Built In SF | Seeing the whole Bay Area tech market | Pagination runs to page 1,000 | Big companies dominate page one |
| Clera | Getting startups to come to you | 5,700+ Bay Area startups, 1,700+ roles | You can't scroll a list |
| startup.jobs | A startups-only board with role filters | 61,840 new jobs in 7 days, all cities | Newest jobs paywalled for 24 hours |
| Underdog.io | Quiet job searches | One application, hidden profile | No public company count |
| HN Who is hiring | Talking straight to founders | 285 comments four days into November | No filters, mostly engineering |
How we picked
We started from the pages ranking on Google for "startup jobs san francisco", added the sources from our guide to startup jobs in NYC, and checked each one directly on November 6, 2026. A source made the list if it showed San Francisco startup roles in real numbers and we could confirm its facts on its own site. We left out pages that only link to other boards.
We built Clera, so it gets the same fields and one blunt downside as everyone else. It isn't ranked first. The Clera numbers below come from our homepage, not a fresh query.
1. Wellfound
Best for: browsing the largest pool of SF startup roles in one place.
Wellfound is a startup-focused job board. On November 6, 2026, its San Francisco page listed 2,907 results across 37 pages. Most cards show a salary range and some show equity, for example "$155k to $205k, 0.0% to 1.0%" for a mobile engineer at a 1 to 10 person startup. Company cards carry a stage label and, for some, a reply badge like "Responds within a day".
Why it made the list: you see stage, pay and reply speed before you spend an hour on an application.
Downside: the SF page is loose. Page one included Public Stage companies like Braze and Klaviyo, plus roles listed only in New York City or remote in Argentina. Check the location on every card.
Pricing: free for job seekers.
2. Work at a Startup (Y Combinator)
Best for: applying once to many YC-funded companies.
Work at a Startup is Y Combinator's own job platform. On November 6, 2026, its San Francisco page showed 50 recently added roles, from LineLeap, Middesk, Accord and others, with pay ranges like $175K to $225K for a staff engineer. You build one free profile, and the page says founders come to you. More roles sit behind the sign-up.
Why it made the list: at YC companies the person reading your profile is often a founder, which cuts out a screening step.
Downside: fewer than half of those 50 roles listed San Francisco at all. Others were in London, Philadelphia, Noida and Medellín. And it's YC companies only.
Pricing: free.
3. Built In SF
Best for: seeing the whole Bay Area tech job market, startups and all.
Built In SF is a city-specific tech job board. It has filters for remote or hybrid work, industry and company size, saved job alerts, and an "Easy Apply" option on some roles. Its pagination runs to page 1,000.
Why it made the list: the company size filter turns a citywide board into a startup board in two clicks.
Downside: on November 6 the first page was Snap, CoreWeave, Gusto, JPMorganChase and MongoDB. Its own "top companies hiring" box listed JPMorganChase at 289,097 employees. Skip the size filter and you're not looking at startups.
Pricing: free to browse.
4. Clera
Best for: getting San Francisco startups to come to you instead of applying one by one.
We built Clera. You spend about two minutes telling Clera what you've done, what you want and your dealbreakers. When a role fits, Clera introduces you directly to the hiring manager with context on why you fit. Our homepage lists 5,700+ startups and 1,700+ roles in the SF Bay Area, 253,073 candidates on the platform and 8 days from signup to first interview.
Why it made the list: a warm intro to the person doing the hiring skips the pile of cold applications.
Downside: you don't get a list to scroll. If nothing fits, Clera waits, so it's the wrong tool if you want to send 40 applications this week. Its role count is also well under Wellfound's.
Pricing: free for candidates. Companies pay when they hire.
5. startup.jobs
Best for: a board that only lists startups, with filters by role.
startup.jobs has a San Francisco page that says it updates daily, with filters for workplace, job type, salary and experience, and role pages from AI engineer to chief of staff. Its Plus page says 61,840 new startup jobs went up across all locations in the last 7 days.
Why it made the list: no banks or consulting firms, and the role filters are the most detailed here.
Downside: the newest listings are locked for 24 hours behind Startup Jobs Plus, which costs $19 a month, or $45 every three months. Free users see them a day late.
Pricing: free to browse, Plus from $15 a month billed quarterly.
6. Underdog.io
Best for: people who are employed and want to look without their boss finding out.
Underdog.io works the other way round from a job board. You send one application, your profile stays invisible, your current employer is blocked, and companies apply to you. It runs a dedicated San Francisco startup jobs page, excludes staffing agencies and says it turns away more than half the companies that try to join.
Why it made the list: the privacy is built in.
Downside: it gives no exact company count, only "hundreds", so you can't size the SF pool before you sign up. You also can't browse while you wait.
Pricing: no candidate fee shown.
7. Hacker News: Who is hiring?
Best for: engineers who want to talk to founders, not recruiters.
At the start of each month, the whoishiring account posts an Ask HN: Who is hiring? thread. Each top-level comment is one company, often written by a founder or engineer, with location, remote policy and sometimes salary. The November 2026 thread had 285 comments after four days. Search the page for "SF" and "San Francisco".
Why it made the list: the posts come straight from the team.
Downside: no filters, no structure, and it leans hard toward engineering.
Pricing: free.
What's changing in SF startup hiring
The Hacker News numbers tell the story. The November 2025 "Who is hiring?" thread drew 579 comments. October 2026 drew 383. Meanwhile, the October 2026 "Who wants to be hired?" thread drew 684, so job seekers posted almost twice as often as companies (whoishiring). Fewer companies are hiring in public. Our read is that more of it now runs on referrals and intros.
California's pay law helps you here. Under California Labor Code 432.3, an employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in any job posting, a rule in force since January 1, 2023. The catch for startup seekers: a 10-person seed company doesn't have to post a range. The same law says any employer must share the pay scale when an applicant reasonably asks, so ask in your first message.
Our take: most pages ranking for this search are boards competing on volume. Volume isn't the problem in San Francisco. Filtering is. The two biggest boards both mix in other cities, and Built In leads with companies of thousands. Use one big board with strict filters, then add one source that sends you to a person.
If you'd rather pick the company first, our list of the best startups in San Francisco is a good start.
From Clera's data: the Bay Area is a startup-heavy market
Clera's homepage lists 5,700+ startups and 1,700+ roles in the SF Bay Area, against 2,400+ startups and 1,400+ roles in New York. The Bay Area has more than twice as many startups on Clera, but only about 20% more open roles. That's one open role for every 3.4 Bay Area startups, against one for every 1.7 in New York. Lots of Bay Area startups, each hiring for fewer seats, so being in front of the right founder matters more than seeing every listing.
How to choose
- If you want the most options fast, start with Wellfound, filter to Early and Growth stage, and check every location.
- If you'd rather write one profile and get messages, use Work at a Startup for YC companies and Clera for everyone else.
- If you're employed and searching quietly, use Underdog.io.
- If you're an engineer who likes talking to founders, read the monthly Hacker News thread and email the posters directly.
Open to remote too? Our guide to remote startup jobs covers the boards that do remote well, and our running list of startups hiring right now tracks companies that just raised.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wellfound has the biggest pool, with 2,907 San Francisco results on November 6, 2026, and pay on most listings. Filter by stage and check locations, then pair it with one source that puts you in front of a person, like Work at a Startup or Clera.
Only if they have 15 or more employees. California Labor Code 432.3 requires those employers to include a pay scale in any job posting. Smaller startups are exempt from the posting rule, but every employer must give an applicant the pay scale on reasonable request. So if a seed-stage listing has no range, ask for it.
No. Most SF startup roles are hybrid or in office. Across all open roles on Clera, only 14% were fully remote on October 22, 2026, as covered in our remote startup jobs guide. If you need remote, set the remote filter on Wellfound or Built In SF first.
Cold applications on big boards can go weeks without a reply. Clera's homepage lists 8 days from signup to first interview, because the intro goes straight to the hiring manager.
Sources
- Wellfound, San Francisco jobs, checked November 6, 2026
- Y Combinator, jobs at YC startups in San Francisco, checked November 6, 2026
- Built In SF jobs, checked November 6, 2026
- startup.jobs, San Francisco and Startup Jobs Plus
- Underdog.io
- Hacker News, whoishiring submissions
- California Labor Code 432.3
- Clera homepage
Let San Francisco startups come to you
Tell Clera what you want in two minutes, and Clera introduces you to the hiring manager when a Bay Area role fits. It's free for candidates. Join Clera.
