Hone builds AI that owns outcomes, not tasks: agentic systems that work towards goals over weeks and months, deploy themselves, and improve over time.
Models keep getting smarter, but outside of coding most organizations can't absorb that intelligence, and the gap between model capability and the value derived from it keeps widening. The reasons are many, from human incentives to org design, but at the core we think it's a technology problem. Hone builds engines: AI systems that you hand a goal, like "keep the recruiting pipeline healthy." An engine builds itself, maintains its own agents and code, pulls in people when it needs judgment, and learns from every correction.
In October 2026, we announced a $60M seed round from Benchmark and Index Ventures.
Half our team are former founders: They’ve built companies, shipped products, and chosen Hone as the place to build next. The rest of us come from Cognition, Mercor, Ramp, Jane Street, Decagon, Brex and Harvey
Our customers are building with AI themselves: Cognition, Modal and Lucanet already use Hone, with customer perspectives featured on our website
Our founders have built from research to scale: They researched agents at Stanford, built the core of Devin at Cognition, led enterprise engineering at Mercor, built internal AI platforms, and founded companies that reached over one million users
We measure our work by economic impact: Engines are deployed across revenue, procurement, risk, product and operations, and we judge them by the results they create, not benchmark scores
Our values shape how we work: Own the Outcome, Set the Standard, Win with Class, and Commit to the Racing Line. Read more on our careers page
Read more: Bloomberg, Index Ventures’ investment thesis, and our launch announcement
Hone runs its own operations on engines. You'll work directly with the co-founders and own the work that keeps them and the company moving, including deciding what a person should handle and what an engine should: founder support, recruiting coordination, company logistics, events and community, and the systems behind them.
Co-founder calendars, inbox triage and travel.
Recruiting coordination: interview scheduling, onsites and candidate logistics.
Company logistics, the office, and operational admin like NDAs and records.
Dinners, events and community, from guest list to follow-up.
Relationship outreach, applications and company presence.
Lightweight systems and AI automations that make recurring work run itself.
Experience supporting founders or executives at a fast-growing startup
You've built systems and processes from scratch
You're extremely meticulous and catch the missed detail before anyone else
You see what needs doing and close the loop without being chased
Strong judgment on what to handle yourself, what to escalate, and when
You use AI tools every day to automate recurring work
You're warm and socially confident with candidates, guests and partners
You genuinely enjoy making things run well
Experience in recruiting coordination
You've run events or built a community
Intro call.
Conversation with a co-founder.
Conversation with a second co-founder.
Half-day onsite in San Francisco.
References.
Offer.
Location: San Francisco, in person, Monday to Friday.
Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity.
Visa: We sponsor visas and support you through the immigration process.
Benefits: Health and dental insurance, maternity and parental support, and relocation support.