Apr 2026
Movie stars have agents who manage their careers. People who find them their next role, negotiate their salaries and look out for their interests. Think Ari Gold from Entourage. Until recently, agents like this were the exclusive domain of the elite. But AI has turned something that used to be scarce into something abundant. Now, every employee can have an AI Ari Gold in their pocket.
Enter Clera. Clera is an AI-first talent agent for job seekers. Candidates text Clera, who quickly learns their preferences. Clera then scouts opportunities across hundreds of startups and makes warm introductions directly to hiring managers - with many candidates getting their first interview within hours of signing up to the platform. In just a few months, Clera has already placed dozens of candidates in roles at fast growing startups like Traba, Mandolin and Opal Security.
Having Clera in your pocket matters because the job market is more competitive than ever. Applying directly on job boards no longer works. Warm introductions matter more than ever. Taking your time to find your next role, while still in your current role, maximizes your chances of finding your dream job. And tools like Clera are the unlock. That’s why we at 1984 Ventures are thrilled to announce our lead investment in Clera’s $3M pre-seed round.
What impressed us from the early days was the founding team - three Germans who landed in San Francisco just a few months ago, hungry to make it big. CEO Seb Scott is a 3x marketplace founder who was a child chess prodigy. CTO Dan Wintermeyer has been coding since he was 12 and was previously the head of engineering at a scale-up. And COO Alex Farr was previously a Chief of Staff at a startup that grew to 8 figures ARR. But credentials aside, the team impressed us with their energy, ideas and passion. The more time we spent with them, the more compelled we were by their answers.
Clera has the potential to be hugely disruptive to the staffing industry. The painfully high placement fees of the staffing industry (often 25-30% of first year salary) are an artifact of their labor heavy cost structures. Clera has completely rethought this cost structure with AI: they can now substantially automate the sourcing, screening and matchmaking of candidates (leaving the human to focus on the more nuanced and bespoke needs of candidates). The end result for employers is getting higher quality matches, with faster turnarounds and at lower costs than any other agency.
Clera’s 10 person team can already carry out 10x more conversations with candidates (and employers) than any staffing agency. When we first met them in Oct 2025, they had 6K candidates and 100+ active startups on their platform, across their core markets of SF and NYC. Since then, those numbers have scaled to 75K and 600 respectively. If you are looking for your next startup role, you should text Clera to kickstart your search.
By Samit Kalra on behalf of 1984 Ventures